She set her teeth and plunged her hand into the flames. "Oh—oh, I'm going to be burned!"
"You've only captured two," laughed Eden, on her other side, and laid a glossy cluster on her plate.
Renny saw Eden's hand slide under the table and cover hers in her lap. His eyes sought Eden's and held them a moment. They gazed with narrowed lids, each seeing something in the other that startled him. Scarcely was this unrecognized something seen when it was gone, as a film of vapor that changes for a moment the clarity of the well-known landscape and shows a scene obscure, even sinister— The shadow passed, and they smiled, and Eden withdrew his hand.
Under the mistletoe Mr. Fennel, Grandmother having been carefully steered that way by two grandsons, caught and kissed her, his beard rough, her cap askew.
Uncle Ernest, a merry gentleman that night, caught and kissed Miss Pink, who most violently became Miss Scarlet.
Tom Fennel caught and kissed Pheasant. "Here now, Tom, you fathead, cut that out!" from Piers.
Finch, seeing everything double after two glasses of wine, caught and kissed two white-shouldered Alaynes. It was the first time she had worn an evening-dress since her marriage.
Nicholas growled to Ernest: "Did you ever see a hungry wolf? Look at Renny glowering in that corner. Isn't Alayne lovely to-night?"
"Everything's lovely," said Ernest, rocking on his toes. "Such a nice Christmas!"
They played charades and dumb crambo.
To see Grandmother (inadvertently shouting out the name of the syllable she was acting) as Queen Victoria, and Mr. Fennel as Gladstone!
To see Meg as Mary Queen of Scots, with Renny as
