ook great delight in delighting. And if good taste forbade her
now to indulge in the lavish hospitality and gay festivity that had
always been customary in Black Hall at this season, she determined to
indemnify herself by making unusually handsome presents to her servants
and dependants, as well as the most liberal donations to the poor--and
so to be happy in the happiness she should bestow.

With this intention she put a small fortune in her longest purse, and
went in her roomiest carriage to Blackville, intending to empty the
purse and fill the carriage before her return.

The day being Christmas eve, the village was full of people, come there
to shop for the holidays, and poor Sybil was brought to a sense of her
condition by the treatment she received--silence, rude stares, or
injurious whispers greeted her as she passed. But they were only pin
thrusts, which she soon forgot in the interesting errand upon which she
had come.

She loaded her carriage with bundles, boxes, and baskets, and returned
home in time to separate the treasures, and write upon each one of them
the name of the person for whom it was intended.

The next morning Captain Pendleton arrived early, to assist in the
distribution of the presents. No one was neglected; every body was made
happy with several valuable gifts.

Little Cro' went to paradise in the corner of the room, with his cap
full of toys.

That day also Sybil's dependents enjoyed as good a dinner as was set for
herself and her friends. So, after all, in spite of fate, they kept
their "Christmas, merry still."

When it was generally known that Sybil Berners had returned to Black
Hall, there was much discussion among the ladies as to whether they
should call on her.

Some declared that she was a murderess, whose face they never could bear
to look on, and therefore of course they never would go near her.
Others, who said that they believed her guiltless and wished her well,
added, that they felt the same delicacy in going or in staying away--as
in the first case Mrs. Berners might consider their call an intrusion
from motives of curiosity, and in the second case she might construe
their absence into intentional neglect. And between these two extremes
there was every shade of opinion as to Sybil's culpability, and every
sort of reason for not going to see her just yet.

And so it followed that Sybil passed a whole, good, peaceful fortnight
in the company of her husband, her three