cared to see or know.

Brogten was one of those who perceived these contrasts, and the bitter
intense malice with which they filled him was one of the evil feelings
which helped to drag him down from following out his occasional
resolutions for better things.

Strange that a few weeks could produce such differences but so it was.
At the end of those few weeks Bruce went back to take part in his
mother's splendid theatricals and routs, with a consciousness of
neglected opportunities and wasted times even if his conscience laid no
worse sins to his charge. Brogten went back, cursing himself and all
around him, with the violent self-accusations of a reprobate obstinacy,
a man in vice, though hardly more than a boy in years. Kennedy went
back happy on the whole, happy above all in the certainty that he had
made in Julian one noble friend. Lillyston went back happy,
well-pleased with the sense of duty done, and the prime of life well and
innocently enjoyed. And Julian went back in the same train with De
Vayne, happy too, with a mind strengthened and expanded, with knowledge
deepened and widened, with an honourable ambition opening before him,
and friends and a fair position already won. All these results had
sprung from those few and swiftly-gliding weeks.

The Christmas time passed very pleasantly for the Homes. They had few
relations, and Lady Vinsear had dropped all intercourse with them, but
they were happy in themselves. Violet, too, had the pleasure of forming
an acquaintance with Kennedy's sister Eva, who, with her aunt, happened
to be paying a short visit to a family in the neighbourhood. Frank and
Cyril were at home for their holidays, and the house and garden at
Ildown rang all day long with their merry voices and incessant games.
Old Christmas observances were not yet obsolete in Ildown, and Yule logs
and royal feasts were the order of the day. The bright, clear, frosty
air--the sparkling sea and freshening wind--a lovely country, a united
and cheerful family, and the delights of moderate study, made the weeks
speed by in pure enjoyment. With his mother, his brothers, and Violet,
Julian felt the need of no other society, but he corresponded with
Kennedy and other college friends, and saw a great deal of Lord De
Vayne, who continually rode over to pass the Sunday with them at Ildown,
and sometimes persuaded all the Homes to come and spend the day with him
and his mother in the beautiful but lonely groun