The Christmas tree was a great success, the presents being pretty and appropriate. Winnie smiled her delight over a dainty long-wished-for work-box; d.i.c.k chuckled at the splendid pair of skates now in his possession; Ada looked gratified when a lovely fan was handed down to her; and Nellie was speechless over a pretty morocco purse.

"It has been all so splendid, Winnie dear," she whispered when good-nights were being exchanged; "just like fairyland. I have enjoyed myself wonderfully. And now be sure and come soon to Dingle Cottage; you will have plenty of time during the holidays, and Aunt Judith is wearying to see you."

"I'll be only too glad, Nell," replied her friend, kissing her warmly; "but I must get mamma's permission first.--d.i.c.k, see Nellie safely into the cab." Then the carriage rolled away, and the wonderful Christmas party was over.

"I think," said Winnie, coming into the large diningroom after the last guest had departed, and finding her brother (alas that I should have to confess it!) prowling round the table and surrept.i.tiously pocketing something from every tempting dish he saw thereon, "we have had a beautiful night, and I am sure the party has been a decided success."

"So far as the food is concerned it has," answered the boy, regarding the good things heaped before him with a loving eye. "I say, Win, do let us have a tuck in at this souffle here; we shall never see it after to-night, and it is such prime stuff."

Winnie laughed. "You'll require to hurry then, d.i.c.k," she replied; "the servants will be here in a few minutes." So the two young gourmands sat down and commenced a second supper ere the lights were put out and the mandate issued--"Go to bed."

For a few seconds nothing was said, both being too busily engaged with the contents of their plates to join in any conversation; but at last d.i.c.k poised his spoon in the air and commenced in a serio-comic tone,--

"I guess we shall have to pay for our evil deeds this evening. I saw the storm-warning hoisted on our step-mother's face all night, so look out for squalls."

"Whatever do you mean?" inquired Winnie, glancing up from her plate with an innocent look. "I do not understand you, my dear boy."

"Oh, do you not?" replied the dear boy, mimicking her tones, and twisting his amiable countenance into an altogether indescribable expression. "Do you imagine your conduct towards the lovely Ada was not observed and commented upon by our mother and stuck-up sisters? If so, pray rid yourself at once of such a delusion, for I tell you, Win, there's a storm looming in the distance for you and for me."

Winnie pouted.

"So be it!" she cried defiantly; "I don't care. I am no hypocrite, d.i.c.k, and must act as I feel. I did not wish Ada to come to our party.

I hate her with my whole heart, and I believe in just letting her see such is the case."

d.i.c.k ran his hand through his shock of hair, and opened his eyes as widely as he possibly could. "My word, we're waxing eloquent," he observed approvingly. "Go it, little sister; you're doing first-rate;"

and he helped himself liberally to another supply of souffle as he spoke.

"What a tease you are!" said Winnie, pushing aside her plate with a gesture of petulance; "you know I am in earnest, not in fun."

"True, my queen" (with a mock bow), "therefore I shall no longer descend to vulgar jesting. But seriously, Win, I tell you frankly the mother is awfully angry at us. You did not study her face, perhaps, but I watched closely, and saw a regular thunder-cloud on her brow all night. How could it be otherwise, when she noticed your steady avoidance of her favourite and my open rudeness?"

"I enjoyed your open rudeness vastly, d.i.c.k," interrupted the girl, with a twinkle sparkling in her eye and a mischievous smile on her lip. "I could have hugged you every time you danced with Nellie, and when I saw you trooping your boys up to her. Why, she was quite a belle amongst you all."

"Yes; I flatter myself we trotted her out very well, and the fellows all agree she is good fun. But oh, what a dodging I had to manage my point! Every few minutes I descried the mother bearing down upon me, and was obliged to skeedaddle." d.i.c.k's language never was remarkable for elegance.

"Well, I am not the least wee bit sorry for my behaviour," said Winnie, rising as she heard the sound of approaching footsteps; "and if I am to get a scolding I must just get it. You'll be able to console me when it is over, will you not? Meantime I intend to forget it all in sleep, so--good-night, d.i.c.k;" and the little fairy, in her soft, airy garments, waved him a tiny kiss as she vanished from the room and hurried to her own pretty apartment.

d.i.c.k, with his well-filled pockets, retired also; the servants entering, closed the shutters and put out the lights; the feeble fire flickered for a little, then died slowly, and deep, unbroken slumber settled over all.

Meanwhile, outside in the quiet night the snow was falling softly, silently--wrapping the sleeping earth in a pure, unsullied winding-sheet, and covering the church steeples with its feathery flakes. Hush! hush! how silently, yet how quickly, the snow showers fell. Slowly the hours pa.s.sed by. Morning stealing in swept back the clouds of night and darkness, and the sun, peeping through with his warm, genial ray, shone down with a light which grew brighter and brighter as the world wakened up and the merry Christmas bells sent their happy chimes pealing through the frosty air.

CHAPTER X.

GATHERING CLOUDS.

Rough, rumpled hair, two soft eyes drowned in tears, flushed, angry cheeks and pouting lips, was the picture which met d.i.c.k's view one morning when he entered the oak parlour two days after the eventful party. Christmas had pa.s.sed by pleasantly and tranquilly for both children. They had had the regular Christmas dinner--turkey, mince-pies, plum-pudding, etc.--and the afternoon and evening had been filled with youthful pleasure and amus.e.m.e.nt. Sabbath also was calm and peaceful, so calm, indeed, that Winnie began to think their fears were groundless, and Mrs. Blake's annoyance a mere myth; but d.i.c.k, more suspicious, decided it was only the lull before the storm, and on the Monday he found his suspicions verified. The hurricane burst, and resulted in a forlorn little maiden bathed in tears, and a boy whose heart burned within him at the remembrance of cruel words and unjust accusations.

"I say, Win," he cried, coming forward into the room and leaning his elbows on the table with careless disregard to elegance of att.i.tude, "what a miserable object you look! for all the world like a drowned rat. Can't you dry those weeping eyes and speak to a fellow for a few minutes? It is dreadful being treated to a regular shower-bath in this cold weather," and d.i.c.k tried to conjure up the faintest glimmer of a smile to the dolorous countenance.

Winnie wailed: "O d.i.c.k, I was so happy; and now everything is wrong.

Mamma says she is very much displeased with me, and--" but here sobs choked the little plaintive voice, and rendered the latter part of the sentence quite unintelligible.

Her brother's lips curled.

"Win," he said impressively, "you're a good little creature, and the mother is fond of you. In a few days she will forget all this annoyance, and things will go on with you as smoothly as before; but I am different. I shall never be able to blot out of my heart the words the governor" (d.i.c.k's usual name for his father) "said to me this morning,--never so long as I live. It was not only about this affair--that I could have stood--but he raked up all my sins and shortcomings from the days when I was a little boy, and heaped them, one after the other, on the top of my devoted head. I was bad, stupid, and awkward--the disgrace of the school, and the b.u.t.t of my companions.

He was perfectly ashamed of me, and so on." d.i.c.k's eyes were flaming.

"But I tell you, Win, what it is: the crisis has come, and I'll do something desperate."

His sister's tears overflowed again. "I hate crying, I do indeed," she said, scrubbing her cheeks viciously at every fresh outburst; "but the nasty little trickly drops will come. d.i.c.k, dear old boy, I'm sorry for you; will you not be sorry for me too? Just listen: I am never to have Nellie for my friend again. She must never come here, and I must never go and see Aunt Judith any more."

d.i.c.k looked up in amazement. "Why not, Win? What has all that to do with your conduct towards Ada?"

"I don't know," with another quiver of the lips. "Mamma spoke about Nellie first, asking where she lived, and if her aunts worked in any way. Of course I told her simply what I knew, and then she said all our friendship must end now; she would never have allowed Nellie to be invited to our party had she known so much about her before."

"But dear me, Win," interrupted the boy impatiently, "the mother consented when you asked to spend that afternoon at Dingle Cottage some time ago. Why should she turn round and condemn the friendship now?"

"Oh, I can explain that easily. Mamma was hurrying to go out with Clare and Edith when I begged permission, and said yes without making any inquiries; but she scarcely spoke to Nellie on Friday evening, and I cannot understand what has made her so angry all at once."

"Did she say anything against Nellie personally?"

"No; but she is not in my position in life, and I must not make a friend and confidante of her. We may speak at school of course, but that is all," and Winnie's grief burst out afresh at this point.

d.i.c.k meditated.

"I wonder," he said at length, a slow light dawning in his eyes, "if Ada Irvine can have been putting the mother up to this? It would be quite in keeping with some of her low dodges."

Winnie shook her head. "I thought so myself at first, but mamma led me to believe otherwise. She says Ada is such a sweet, amiable girl, and much more suitable in every way than Nellie for a friend. I fired up at that, however, and declared I hated Ada, adding she was a sneak, and did horrible things at school."

"Oh, you would give her true character to the mother, I have no doubt,"

put in d.i.c.k with twinkling eyes; "but the question is, 'What was the effect?'"

"'I was prejudiced--and no one is faultless in this world.'"

A short period of silence followed, during which Winnie wept copiously, and d.i.c.k sat beating a tattoo on the table.

"You'll soon have no eyes left," he observed practically, as the little drenched handkerchief was again brought into use to wipe away the flowing tears. "Cheer up, Win, old girl, and don't look as if your grandmother had died half an hour ago."

"But you do not know the worst of it yet, d.i.c.k," cried the girl, raising her tear-stained face and speaking in heart-breaking tones. "I promised Nellie I would come and spend one afternoon with her during the holidays, and now I can't get. Oh! I wish so much to go."

"Then do so," replied d.i.c.k doggedly. "There's no great harm in that; and after all, what reward does one receive for being conscientious and obedient?"

His sister looked aghast. "I dare not," she whispered; "mamma would be so angry. And yet--if I might go only this once."

d.i.c.k being in anything but a filial mood said decidedly, "There's no use in whining and moaning, Win. You can spend Wednesday afternoon at Dingle Cottage if you wish, without any one in the house finding that out. Edith and Clare are away from home; Algy and Tom never trouble about us; and both the mother and governor will be spending that entire day with the Harveys at Springfield. As for nurse and the servants, I'll manage them."