brighter in contrast to the dreary streets outside. A mighty bunch of
fagots blazed and crackled on the hearth, and above the carved
chimney-place hung branches of holly, their scarlet, berries glowing
deeply in the firelight. In one corner, half-veiled by a tapestry
curtain, a waxen Bambino nestled in its little manger, while before it
burned a small copper lamp. Wreaths of holly and ivy bedecked the
doors, and, standing tip-toed on a tall wooden chair, a young girl was
even now striving to fasten these securely with the aid of a very old
and wrinkled woman, who seemed more competent to admire than to assist
the undertaking.

"Some bigger berries, pray, Catherine," she said, impatiently; "and,
Cicely, if you feel you have loitered enough, hand me those two long ivy
branches. They should droop gracefully--so! And now stand off a little
way and tell me how it looks."

The younger sister obeyed, and, stationing herself in the middle of the
room, surveyed the whole effect with much approval. Annis, her fair face
flushed with the exertion, balanced herself on her lofty perch and gazed
complacently upon her handiwork; while even Mistress Vane, who had been
seated quietly on a deep chair by the fireplace, roused herself as from
a reverie, and looked half-wistfully around the cheerful room. "What
bell was that I heard just now?" she asked.

"The herald's, proclaiming a still Christmas," answered Cicely,
promptly; "and he watched me as sourly as though he knew that we were
plotting treason."

"Cecil, Cecil!" remonstrated her mother, in alarm. "Surely you did
nothing imprudent."

"I?" returned Cicely, apparently oblivious as to what she had done. "I
cast up the whites of my eyes, as though repeating psalms for mine own
inward sustainment; and seeing me so piously disposed, he was fain to
pass on to the correction of greater sinners."

"That were well-nigh impossible," said her sister, laughing; but
Mistress Vane only looked anxious and disturbed. The sense of insecurity
to which Annis was indifferent, and which Cicely at fourteen found
absolutely amusing, weighed heavily on the older woman, who had a better
understanding of the danger, and who had suffered cruelly in the past.
Husband and son had fallen for a lost cause, confiscation had devoured
the larger portion of her once fair inheritance; and now, with her two
young daughters, she found herself beset by perils, harassed by
stringent laws, and at the mercy of any ill