ere's
never yet bin so many things for the Christmas Eve market! It's that
we must have worked well! What do you say, mesdames?"

A torrent of agreement, poured out in Norman-French, swallowed up
her small pipe; and Mesdames from all the countryside gathered
closer round the table to inspect the good work and pack it up for
transmission to market. Mesdames were comely and rosy, excellent and
thrifty housewives, delighted at the thought of the gold and silver
that the warm cosy garments represented.

The men of the company stood idly by, flirting and smoking and
provoking giggles and pretty foolish speeches from the girls, who
queened it openly on these occasions. Even the elderly men, seated
on wooden stools in the deep recess of the wide chimney, turned
their withered nut-cracker faces from the glow of the _vraicq_ fire,
to smile leniently on "les jeunes gens."

A few serious groups of born story-tellers and eager listeners sat
on the floor where the flickering light of the _crasset_ shadowed
and then brightened the healthy beauty of the girls and the warm tan
of fishermen's faces. Everybody was happy, and gaiety and laughter
held the night.

But to one girl, joy meant so much that she had crept away with it
to the dark staircase, spiral and stone, that rose from the wide
entry to the top of the house. She sat on the third step from the
floor, and from her position she commanded a full view of half the
kitchen. Her eyes, deep and dark with excitement, yet almost
blinding in their gaze of rapture, rested on the face of Dominic Le
Mierre who sat on the _jonquiere_ in the corner of the hearth. He
was alone and appeared to be absorbed in watching the group of
story-tellers under the _crasset_. His sombre handsome face wore an
expression of extreme boredom. He had said, a few moments ago to
Ellenor Cartier, the girl on the stairs, that he detested the
_veilles_, but that he was bound to be present, as master of
Orvilliere Farm. He had added, moreover, a remark that had flooded
Ellenor's heart with the joy that had caused her to creep away by
herself into the darkness.

It was her presence, he assured her, with a stare into her trusting
eyes, that drew him to Colomberie Farm to-night, otherwise he would
have been out fishing beyond Pleinmont Point. Dominic had chuckled
to himself many times during the past months when he reviewed his
position towards Ellenor. Since the meeting in the Haunted House, he
had seen her no