“Because, like Lot’s wife, we are all prone to stare backward.  Who lives in the present?  Do you?  When we are young we pant for the future, that pitches painted tents before us.  When we are older, we live in the past, that wraps itself in a sacred gilding glamour, and is vocal with the happy echoes which alone survive.  Far-off fields before and behind us are so dewy, so vividly green; and the present is gray and stony, and barren of charm, and we turn fretfully.  It is part of the grim tyranny of Time that it is tideless; that the stream bears remorselessly on, and on, never back to the dear old spots; always on, to lose itself in the eternal and unknown.  So, to-day’s Christmas lacks the zest of its predecessors.”

Leo loosened the gilded chain that looped the curtains, and as the purple folds fell behind her, hiding the arch, Doctor Douglass said gently: 

“There is a solemn truth and wise admonition in one of Rabbi Tyra’s dicta:  ’Thy yesterday is thy past; thy to-day is thy future; thy to-morrow is a secret.’”

“Leo, here is a package and a note which arrived during service, and as Mr. Dunbar’s servant said there was no answer expected, he did not wait.”

As Miss Patty delivered the parcel to her niece, the minister walked away to lay aside his vestments, but he noted the sudden hardening of his cousin’s face, the flush of displeasure, the haughty curl of her lips; and on his ears fell his aunt’s voice: 

“You expected and waited for him at morning prayer?”

“I invited him to join us, if he felt disposed to do so.”

“What possible excuse can he offer for such negligence, when he knew that Leighton would read the service?”

An uwonted sparkle leaped into Leo’s mild hazel eyes, and without examination she handed the package and note to Justine.

“Lay them in the drawer of my writing-desk, and then call all the servants into the dining-room.  Auntie, tardy excuses must wait longer for an audience than we waited for the writer.  Come to breakfast; uncle will be impatient, and I want to enjoy his surprise when he sees his Santa Klaus.”

She was sorely disappointed, deeply affronted by Mr. Dunbar’s failure to present himself on an occasion at which she had especially desired his presence; and as she recalled the affectionate phraseology of her note of invitation, her fair cheek burned with an intolerable sense of humiliation.  Was it partition, or total loss, of her precious kingdom?  In after years, she designated this Christmas as the era when the “sceptre departed from Judah;” but putting away the chagrin, and sealing the well of bitterness in her heart, she exchanged holiday greetings, and proudly wore her royal robes throughout the day, holding sternly off the spectre, which grimly bided its time—­the hour of her abdication.

Through the benevolent and compassionate efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Singleton, some faint reflection of the outside world festivities penetrated the dismal monotony of prison routine; and the hearts of the inmates were softened and gladdened by kind tokens of remembrance, that carried the thoughts of bearded convicts back to Christmas carols in innocent youth, and to the mother’s knees where prayers were lisped.