the erstwhile dismal room began to seem rather pleasant, and in great measure the happy transformation was due to Honey's readiness and ability in doing things which belonged to his proper sphere of effort.
"Are we going to bed?" asked Plowden, sadly.
"I should say not," ejaculated Wildfen. "Why, it isn't more than eight o'clock."
"I am in no humor for sleep to-night," said Rutherford, moodily.
"I'm hagreeable for hanythink," remarked Honey, amiably.
"What do you say to a quiet game of 'draw'?" suggested Wildfen.
The idea suited Rutherford; Honey knew a little about the game and liked it; and Plowden, though he had some doubt about his ability to play it, upon learning that it was not in the least like whist said he would try. So Sam, when he came in with another load of fire-wood, was despatched to capture a pack of cards from his master's room and a box of gun-wads from the closet where Rutherford's sporting paraphernalia were kept.
The game was not a lively one, and a gloomy despondency seemed to spread its shadow over the table.
"This is very far, my friends," remarked Rutherford, "from the pleasant evening I hoped to give you."
"No matter," sighed Plowden, resignedly; "even this is better than being hanged for bigamy."
"Oh, pshaw, man! that is not a hanging offence. And you're not even convicted yet. Don't give way so. You'll come out all right."
"Yes, I suppose we all will – if we don't starve meanwhile," grumbled Wildfen.
"Oh, no fear of that," laughed Rutherford. "Sam will see to it that we at least sit at the second table."
"That's what I've been used to," remarked Honey, unthinkingly; and then, recalling himself, seemed to listen for a sharp voice saying in reproof, "William!" After a moment he went on confusedly, "Well, gents. I don't pretend I'm equal to my position among you. Hit was 'er has dragged me hinto hit; I didn't want ter come. But that's hall hover an' done for. She's a good woman, honly I cawn't stand 'er hallways ha-naggink hat me hafore folks, hand ha pickink me hup habout my haitches. Why, hafore she married me, hif I'd ha' dropped ha bushel hof 'em she wouldn't ha' said nothink. Marriage, gents, 'as been a werry big disappintment to yours trewly."
"My wife," said Wildfen, sullenly, "is the spirit of contradiction personified."
"And mine of jealousy," added Rutherford.
"And mine of all that's angelic," moaned Plowden; "therefore I must be torn from her by the rude clutches of the law. Did you observe how sweetly she bore the horrible revelation? She looked like a drooping lily, didn't she, Wildfen?"
"No," answered that embodied negative; "you did the drooping-lily part of the play yourself. But are we going to stay here all Christmas, while they are having a good time by themselves?"
"I'm afraid so, unless we sneak back, humbly beg pardon, and persuade them to take pity on us," replied Rutherford.
"Never!" exclaimed the others as one man, except Plowden, who said that he was tired and would lie down, though he did not suppose he could sleep. So he dropped out of the game and stretched himself on the sofa, where Honey neatly tucked him up. The others played on until gray dawn.
A little after midnight, Rutherford, having chanced to glance at his watch, grimly wished his companions:
"Merry Christmas, gentlemen."
"It isn't," snarled Wildfen.
Plowden uttered a groan, so long and deep that the others laughed; and after that laugh they seemed to brighten up a little.
The sound of crunching footsteps in the new-fallen snow was heard outside a little after eight o'clock, and Honey, looking out of the window, exclaimed joyously:
"'Ere's Sam, with a basket han a coffee-pot!"
Rutherford apologized for the poor fare, but the coffee was excellent, the bread and cold meat were appetizing, and Honey, who was the Mark Tapley of the occasion, voiced the general sentiment when, having aided Sam in spreading the viands on a billiard-table, he said: "Cold wit les is werry heatable when you're 'ungry. Ah!" he added, reflectively, "me an' mother 'as hoften been werry 'ard pushed to get has good has this 'ere."
"You haven't got a mother, have you?" asked Wildfen. He couldn't quite contradict the affirmation of a maternal entity, but came near it, in his tone at least.
"Yessir, I 'ave. That's one reason I married habove me – for to get ha comfortable 'ome for mother. My wife said Hi might bring 'er from Hengland, an' we've brought 'er 'ere to Winchester, to keep 'ouse for us, while me and 'Arriet keeps school."
To cover the general smile at this remark, Rutherford asked Sam how the ladies were getting on.
"Dunno how dey is dis mawnin', mars'r."
"Did Mrs. 'Oney stay?" inquired her husband.
"Yes, sah. I heard missus say her husband done leave her dah; she got stay dah till he done come back an' git her."
"And my Gertrude," asked Mr. Plowden, anxiously, "how was she enjoying herself?"
"Dey wa'n't nobody 'joyin' desselves, so fur as I seed, sah. Dey was a-doin' a powah of talkin'. I hyah missus say, sarcastic-like, it were de 'mizziblest merry Christmas' she ebber see; an' de udders groan like de elders does in a 'sperience meetin' when dey means 'Yes, Lawd.'"
Sam's understanding of the prevailing sentiment among the ladies was quite correct. When each of them sought her solitary bed, that night before Christmas, it was with an aching heart that it should be so desolate and dreary. In the morning they dolefully wished each other "A Merry Christmas!" and, after a late and melancholy breakfast, sat in conclave in the library, to discuss the situation.
"Where they all can have gone to, puzzles me," observed Mrs. Rutherford. "There is not a house this side of Winchester where they could get accommodation for the night."
"It was bitter cold last night," sighed Mrs. Wildfen; "and poor Steve is such a shivery fellow anyway, he would have frozen if he had tried to walk to town."
"Perhaps they're all frozen," suggested Miss Fithian, with an air of hopelessness.
"If they are," said Mrs. Rutherford, sternly, "you, Helen, will have four murders on your soul."
"I don't see why you couldn't have kept quiet, at least till after Christmas. It wasn't any of your business anyway," remarked Mrs. Wildfen, aggressively, to the old maid.
"Umph!" sniffed Miss Fithian. "It's safest not to rub cats the wrong way" – which ambiguous expression her hearers vaguely construed as having merely a general application, they not knowing its personal significance.
"Well, it has just completely spoiled our Christmas," sighed Plowden's young wife.
"And theirs too – if there's any comfort in that," added Mrs. Honey. "I never knew my angel boy to show so much spirit before. His favorite corn must have been very bad."
No one inquired the relation between his spirit and his corns.
"Have any of you decided upon a course of action?" inquired the hostess. "You don't seem to, since you say nothing. Well, I have, then. As soon as the law courts open after Christmas, I shall apply for a divorce from Mr. Rutherford."
"I don't see upon what ground," observed Mrs. Honey, who was not only the oldest but the most practically informed woman present.
"He has deceived me."
"His putting a young girl in my charge proves nothing; not even that. It seems to me that there is a game of cross-purposes here – something underneath all this that we do not understand, and that only the interested parties can explain."
"Explain in their own way," retorted Mrs. Rutherford.
"Ladies," said the amiable Mrs. Plowden, "what has occurred is very unpleasant, but for all of you is only a little disagreement that really – as Mrs. Honey says – may be capable of explanation and eventual reconciliation with your husbands. But what is my position? I am the only one who has been terribly deceived, beyond the possibility of a doubt, and the consequences