ng.

It was, I daresay, as modest a party in as modest a house as could have
been found that Christmas-time in all London.

The house had hardly yet lost the smell of paint and varnish which had
greeted its occupants when they first moved into it a week ago. To-day,
however, that savour is seriously interfered with by another which
proceeds from the little kitchen behind, and which dispenses a
wonderfully homelike influence through the small establishment. In
fact, the dinner now in course of preparation will be the first regular
meal which that household has celebrated, and the occasion being more or
less of a state one, the two ladies of the house are in a considerable
state of flutter over the preparations.

While they are absorbed in the mysterious orgies of the kitchen, the
four gentlemen are sitting round the cheery little parlour fire with
their feet on the fender, talking about a great many things.

One of the gentlemen is middle-aged, with hair turning white, and a face
which looks as if it had seen stormy weather in its journey through
life. He is the quietest of the party, the talk being chiefly sustained
by two younger men of about twenty-one years, considerably assisted by a
boy who appears to be very much at home on every subject, especially
boots and mothers. Indeed, this boy (who might be ten, or might be
fifteen, there is nothing in his figure or face or voice to say which),
is the liveliest member of the party, and keeps the others, even
occasionally the older gentleman, amused.

In due time the ladies appear, as trim and unconcerned as if they had
never put their foot in a kitchen all their lives, and the circle round
the fire widens to admit them. The elder of these ladies is a careworn
but pleasant, motherly-looking body, who calls the elder gentleman "sir"
when she speaks to him, and invariably addresses one of the two young
men--the one with the black eyes--as Mister Johnny. As for the younger
lady, whose likeness to Mister Johnny is very apparent, she is all
sunshine and smiles, and one wonders how the little parlour was lighted
at all before she entered it.

At least the other young man--he without the black eyes--wonders thus as
he looks towards where she sits with the elder gentleman's hand in her
own, and her smiles putting even the hearth to shame.

"So, Billy," says she, addressing the boy, "you've been made office-boy
at Hawk Street, I hear?"

"I are so--leastways I ham so,"