“Ah, you’re ready with your jokes,” said his father, not wishing to follow out the little fable, but with a daily sense of liking for the voice and smile with which it was uttered. “Come, I’ll have a pipe with you before dinner.”
Chapter Four.
Strangers Yet!
“My mother came from Spain...
And I am Spanish in myself
And in my likings.”
It was late on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. The hall at Oakby was full of branches of holly and ivy. Nettie, perched on the top of an oak cabinet, was sticking sprays into the frame of her grandfather’s picture, and Jack and Bob were arranging, according to time-honoured custom, a great bunch of bright-berried holly over the mantelpiece, to do which in safety was a work unattainable by feminine petticoats.
“It’s a great shame of Cherry not to come in time to help,” said Nettie.
“They’ll have got hold of him down at the church,” said Jack. “There, that’s first-rate.”
“I say, Jack, do you know Virginia Seyton came home yesterday? Isn’t it funny that they should have one too?”