Mr. Raby kissed her, and shook hands with Mr. Coventry.  He then said a kind word to Jael Dence, who got up and courtesied to him.  He cast a careless glance on Henry and the bust, but said nothing.  He was in a hurry, and soon came to the object of his visit.

“My dear,” said he, “the last time I saw you, you said you were sorry that Christmas was no longer kept in Hillsborough as it used to be.”

“And so I am.”

“Well, it is kept in Cairnhope, thank Heaven, pretty much as it was three centuries ago.  Your father will be in London, I hear; will you honor my place and me with a visit during the Christmas holidays?”

Grace opened her eyes with astonishment.  “Oh, that I will,” said she, warmly.

“You will take your chance of being snowed up?”

“I am afraid I shall not be so fortunate,” was the charming reply.

The Squire turned to Coventry, and said slyly, “I would ask you to join us, sir; but it is rather a dull place for a gentleman who keeps such good company.”

“I never heard it spoken of as a dull place before,” said the young man; “and, if it was, you have taken a sure means to make it attractive.”

“That is true.  Well, then, I have no scruple in asking you to join us;” and he gave Grace a look, as much as to say, “Am I not a considerate person?”

“I am infinitely obliged to you, Mr. Raby,” said Coventry, seriously; “I will come.”

“You will stay to luncheon, godpapa?”

“Never touch it.  Good-by.  Well, then, Christmas-eve I shall expect you both.  Dinner at six.  But come an hour or two before it, if you can:  and Jael, my girl, you know you must dine at the hall on Christmas-eve, and old Christmas-eve as usual, you and your sister and the old man.”

Jael courtesied, and said with homely cordiality, “We shall be there, sir, please God we are alive.”

“Bring your gun, Coventry.  There’s a good sprinkling of pheasants left.  By-the-bye, what about that pedigree of yours; does it prove the point?”

“Completely.  Dorothy Raby, Sir Richard’s youngest sister, married Thomas Coventry, who was out in the forty-five.  I’m having the pedigree copied for you, at a stationer’s near.”

“I should like to see it.”

“I’ll go with you, and show it to you, if you like.”

Mr. Raby was evidently pleased at this attention, and they went off together.

Grace accompanied them to the door.  On her return she was startled by the condition of young Little.

This sudden appearance of his uncle, whom he hated, had agitated him not a little, and that uncle’s interference had blasted his last hope.  He recognized this lover, and had sided with him:  was going to shut the pair up, in a country house, together.  It was too much.  He groaned, and sank back in his chair, almost fainting, and his hands began to shake in the air, as if he was in an ague.