ment of your holidays. I am
afraid, dear Jane, that your holidays will be somewhat busy ones; but
you have Isabella to help you to make `a clearance of business,' as
you say. I do not know what you will say to me for providing more
work for you. I will explain presently what I mean by this. I hope
the beautiful bright sun of this happy day brings as much cheerfulness
to your hearts as it does to mine. There is no day of the year which
so forcibly reminds us of the great number and magnitude of our
blessings as this; and consequently there is no day on which we can
feel so happy. I am more impressed than ever with this feeling
to-day. It is the first Christmas-Day that I have ever passed away
from home; but so far from this making me melancholy, I am most happy
in the full tide of affection which is flowing towards you all, and
not less so, in the overflowing gratitude which I feel toward that
Parent who has blessed us in each other, in the love which is our
happiness here, and which, we hope, will make our joy hereafter. God
bless you all, and make you as happy as I wish you to be; as happy as
I am at this moment.

"I can quite imagine how you will spend this day. You will take a
long walk, and enjoy a long talk, in which I hope to come in for a
share; though, alas! too far off to have the benefit of what you are
saying. You will go to church, and I think I know what your feelings
will be there. The rest of the day will be spent at Mr Barker's, I
conjecture: but will good Hannah be at home alone? I am going to dine
at Mr Rathbone's, but as they dine late, I shall have time for a long
walk after church. You cannot imagine, no one who has not lived in
London can imagine, the delight of a country walk to me. I rejoice
that the day is so fine. Mr Gardiner was so kind as to ask me to
dine with him to-day: so you see there was no danger of my being
solitary, much less, melancholy.

"But now to my business, for even to-day I have business to write
about. You know when I arrived here, at Midsummer, Mr Gardiner paid
me my first quarter's salary in advance: he bid me not mention the
circumstance, for fear of others expecting the same favour. He said
at the same time, that he hoped I would make a friend of him in case
of any difficulty which might occur in money matters, as I was, he
thought, very young to manage for myself on a small salary.