"Will you play again?"

"No; I lost seventy pounds to-night."

"I protest, grandmother, that such high stakes go not with amusement.

People come here, not for civility, but for the chance of money."

"Very well, sir. Money! It is the only excuse for card-playing. All the

rest is sinning without temptation. But, Dick, put on the black coat to

preach in,--why do they wear black to preach in?--and I am not in a

humour for a sermon. Come to-morrow at one o'clock; we shall reach

Julia's before dinner. And I dare say you want money to-night. Here are

the keys of my desk. In the right-hand drawer are some rouleaus of

fifty pounds each. Take two."

The weather, as Lady Capel said, was "so very Decemberish" that the

roads were passably good, being frozen dry and hard; and on the evening

of the third day Hyde came in sight of his home. His heart warmed to the

lonely place; and the few lights in its windows beckoned him far more

pleasantly than the brilliant illuminations of Vauxhall or Almacks, or

even the cold splendours of royal receptions. He had given Katherine no

warning of his visit--partly because he had a superstitious feeling

about talking of expected joys (he had noticed that when he did so they

vanished beyond his grasp); partly because love, like destiny, loves

surprises; and he wanted to see with his own eyes, and hear with his own

ears, the glad tokens of her happy wonder.

So he rode his horse upon the turf, and, seeing a light in the stable,

carried him there at once. It was just about the hour of the evening

meal, and the house was brighter than it would have been a little later.

The kitchen fire threw great lustres across the brick-paved yard; and

the blinds in Katherine's parlour were undrawn, and its fire and

candle-light shone on the freshly laid tea-table, and the dark walls

gleaming with bunches of holly and mistletoe. But she was not there. He

only glanced inside the room, and then, with a smile on his face, went

swiftly upstairs. He had noticed the light in the upper windows, and he

knew where he would find his wife. Before he reached the nursery, he

heard Katherine's voice. The door was a little open, and he could see

every part of the charming domestic scene within the room. A middle-aged

woman was quietly putting to rights the sweet disorder incident to the

undressing of the baby. Katherine had played with it until they were

both a little flushed and weary; and she was softly singing to the

drowsy child at her breast.




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