The Colonel wrote Broussard a very handsome note of thanks and Mrs.Fortescue greeted him with grateful thanks.

Then, Christmas was coming, the claims of the After-Clap and the eight McGillicuddys became insistent.

Broussard did not forget the prisoner in the grim military prison, nor the woman so faithful to the prisoner.

Sergeant McGillicuddy spent a small fortune in such comforts as Lawrence was allowed to receive at Christmas time, and his knotty, weather-beaten face grew positively cheerful over the way Lawrence was really reforming.
Broussard knew that Anita would not come to the Christmas Eve ball, because in the evening her father liked her to read to him.

But Broussard went to the ball, and for the first time found a Christmas ball dull.