So by the window the Lady Ariel and Aunt Cheerful gaily made crimson chains for a Christmas tree until the purple of the twilight gathered among the pines and the swaggerer in the fire awoke to fight the gathering shadows with his busy sword of flame. By the window Jean stared absently out at the fading pines.
"Aunt Cheerful?"
"Yes, Lady Ariel."
So by the window the Lady Ariel and Aunt Cheerful gaily made crimson chains for a Christmas tree.
"How wonderfully tranquil it all is here. See, it is beginning to snow. White and drifting feathers of peace, I'm sure! Oh, Aunt Cheerful," she said with a little sigh, "how much I envy you!"
"Envy me, Lady Ariel?"
"Yes. Your cottage and your pines and the quiet of this dear old lane. Somehow I have grown to love it all! And then all your friends here in Westowe."
"But surely, child, you too have friends!"
"Not so sincere and loyal as yours, Aunt Cheerful. And then you have Lord Chesterfield and your—your son in the West and I have no one."