CHAPTER X.
THE NEW SQUIRE.
"A word was brought, Unto him,--the King himself desired his presence." "The mystery of life He probes; and in the battling din of things That frets the feeble ear, he seeks and finds A harmony that tunes the dissonant strife To sweetest music." This year the effort to keep Christmas in Seat-Sandal was a failure.
Julius did not return in time for the festival, and the squire was unable to take any part in it.

There had been one of those sudden, mysterious changes in his condition, marking a point in life from which every step is on the down-hill road to the grave.

One day he had seemed even better than usual; the next morning he looked many years older.
Lassitude of body and mind had seized the once eager, sympathetic man; he was weary of the struggle for life, and had _given up_.

This change occurred just before Christmas; and Charlotte could not help feeling that the evergreens for the feast might, after all, be the evergreens for the funeral.
One snowy day between Christmas and New Year, Julius came home.

Before he said a word to Sophia, she divined that he had succeeded in his object.