the subject to Mr. Dockwrath, was not
matter of much moment. They would do extremely well for a curate's
wife.

And now on this Christmas-day the present was to be made over to the
happy lady. Mr. and Mrs. Green were to dine at Groby Park,--leaving
their more fortunate children to the fuller festivities of the
cottage; and the intention was that before dinner the whole
drawing-room set should be made over. It was with grievous pangs of
heart that Mrs. Mason looked forward to such an operation. Her own
house was plenteously furnished from the kitchens to the attics,
but still she would have loved to keep that metallic set of painted
trumpery. She knew that the table would not screw on; she knew that
the pivot of the music stool was bent; she knew that there was no
place in the house in which they could stand; she must have known
that in no possible way could they be of use to her or hers,--and
yet she could not part with them without an agony. Her husband was
infatuated in this matter of compensation for the use of Mrs. Green's
idle hours; no compensation could be necessary;--and then she paid
another visit to the metallic furniture. She knew in her heart of
hearts that they could never be of use to anybody, and yet she made
up her mind to keep back two out of the eight chairs. Six chairs
would be quite enough for Mrs. Green's small room.

As there was to be feasting at five, real roast beef, plum-pudding
and mince-pies;--"Mince-pies and plum-pudding together are vulgar,
my dear," Mrs. Mason had said to her husband; but in spite of the
vulgarity he had insisted;--the breakfast was of course scanty. Mr.
Mason liked a slice of cold meat in the morning, or the leg of a
fowl, or a couple of fresh eggs as well as any man; but the matter
was not worth a continual fight. "As we are to dine an hour earlier
to-day I did not think you would eat meat," his wife said to him.
"Then there would be less expense in putting it on the table," he
had answered; and after that there was nothing more said about it.
He always put off till some future day that great contest which he
intended to wage and to win, and by which he hoped to bring it about
that plenty should henceforward be the law of the land at Groby Park.
And then they all went to church. Mrs. Mason would not on any account
have missed church on Christmas-day or a Sunday. It was a cheap duty,
and therefore rigidly performed. As she walked from her carriage up
to the church-doo