called up the only hotel
which was open at that season. Presently she had Hare at the other end
of the line.

"You must come to my house to dinner," she said. "Jenkins has told me
about your train. Please don't dress--there'll be only Miss Danvers and
uncle; and you shall help me trim my little tree."

Although she told him not to dress, she changed her gown for one of dull
green velvet, built on the simple lines of the white wool she had worn
in the afternoon. The square neck was framed by a collar of Venetian
point, and there was a queer old pin of pearls.

The Admiral, arriving early, demanded: "My dear, what is this? I was
just sitting down to bread and milk and a handful of raisins, and now I
must dine in six courses, and drink coffee, which will keep me awake."

She laid her cheek against his arm. "Mr. Hare's train couldn't get out
of town on account of the snow."

"And he's coming?"

"Yes."

"But what of this afternoon, my dear?"

She slipped her hand into his, and they stood gazing into the fire. "It
was dreadful, uncle. I had a feeling that I had compelled him to
come--against his will."

"Yet you have asked him to come again to-night?"

She shivered a little, and her hand was cold. "Perhaps I shall regret
it--but oh, uncle, can't I have for this one evening the joy of his
presence? And if to-morrow my heart dies--"

"Nella, my dear child--"

The Admiral's own Petronella had never drawn in this way upon his
emotions. She had been gentle, perhaps a little cold. But then he had
always worshiped at her shrine. Perhaps a woman denied the lore she
yearns for learns the value of it. At any rate, here in his arms was the
dearest thing in his lonely life, sobbing as if her heart would break.

When Justin came, a half-hour later, he found them still in front of the
fire in the great hall, and as she rose to welcome him he saw that
Petronella had been sitting on a stool at her uncle's feet.

"When I was a little girl," she explained, when Hare had taken a chair
on the hearth and she had chosen another with, a high, carved back, in
which she sat with her silken ankles crossed and the tips of her slipper
toes resting on a leopard-skin which the Admiral had brought back from
India--"when I was a little girl we always spent Christmas Eve in this
house by the sea instead of in town. We were all here then--mother and
dad and dear Aunt Pet, and we hung our stockings at this very
fireplace--and now there is no