She had
no time to do more, and the series were infinitely prized and laid up
as treasures. There were plenty of ornamental cards from without to be
admired: the Brighton and Beechcroft aunts; the Stokesley cousins, and
whole multitudes of friends pouring them in as usual; so that the
entire review seemed to occupy all those free moments of the Christmas
Day, when the young folks were neither at church, nor at meals, nor
singing carols themselves, nor hearing the choir sing in the hall, nor
looking over photograph books and hearing old family stories. This last
occupation was received in the family as the regular evening pleasure,
ending in all singing, 'When shepherds watch their flocks by night.'
Dolores had a card from her aunt and each of her cousins, besides one
of the parcel Uncle Reginald had brought. She did not think enough of
the very bad drawing and smeared painting of the ambitious attempts she
received, to feel at all disconcerted at having no reciprocity to
offer. The only cards she had sent were to Constance Hacket, to
Fraulein, and to Maude Sefton--the last with a sore sense of the long
interval since she had heard.
However, there was a card from Maude, but it was a very poor one,
looking very much like a last year's possession, and the letter was not
much better, being chiefly an apology for having been too busy to
write. Maude was going to lectures with Nona Styles--Nona was such a
darling girl--and breaking off because she was wanted to rehearse
Cinderella with this same darling Nona.
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