m. Certainly the comparison with her
present companions was 'odious' to her.

Freda scarcely knew which was worst--the riotous, untameable spirits of
Harold, who did and said what he liked, unchecked either by father or
mother, or the cowed and altered manner of the other children in the
presence of their father; they, too, had been noisy enough before he
arrived.

'It was very good of you to come to-day, Gwynne,' said Lady Mary; 'I
scarcely expected you, knowing how you dislike this frosty weather.'

'Freda is attraction enough to draw off the frost, though she has become
so much better than her neighbours. Wilhelmina, my dear, why do you let
Minnie stuff her mouth so full of orange? The child will choke.'

The dinner came to an end at last, and the children went to bed. Freda
played and sung some sacred music at Colonel Vaughan's request, and he
complimented her on her improvement, and said he wished his wife played
and sung as well, because music was such a resource in a dull country
place.

'I suppose you have practised a great deal since you have been in
London?' he said.

'Mrs Jones and I play and sing whenever we have time, and I have had
some lessons,' replied Freda. 'Besides, one hears all the first
musicians and singers, and they teach one.'

'Did you see much of that young parson, Prothero? I remember he was
somewhere in your neighbourhood,' asked the colonel.

Freda was sure this question was a feeler, and she answered
carelessly,--

'Yes, naturally. He is Mr Jones' brother curate.'

'Now confess, you didn't like those people, and that sort of life? You
must have been _ennuyee_ from morning to night.'

'On the contrary, the days were not half long enough.'

'Freda!' exclaimed Mrs Vaughan, 'I get tho tired, and tho doth the
colonel, before half the evening ith over.'

'Some one else seems in the same condition,' said Freda. 'Papa is fast
asleep.'

'And mamma nearly,' said Mrs Vaughan. 'And I am tho tired. I think
Chrithmath dayth are very dull. One dothn't know what to do.'

'That isn't peculiar to Christmas days in your year,' said the colonel,
sarcastically; 'but I suppose we had better go to bed. I hope we shall
be more amusing to-morrow, Freda. All your old friends, the constant Sir
Hugh amongst them, are invited to meet you. Let me light your candle.
Remember, I always used to do that, when we had our snug evenings
together such an age ago.'

'Yeth, he often talkth of you, Freda, and