‘I can afford to quarrel with anyone I like,’ replied Nathaniel, with perfect truth. ‘I don’t say that Stephen and Paula can’t come to stay if they want to, but I’m not going to have that young woman of Stephen’s poisoning the air with her filthy scent; and I won’t be badgered by Paula to back a play by a fellow I’ve never heard of, and don’t want to hear of. All your precious young people are out for is money, and well I know it! When I think of the amount I’ve squandered on them, one way and another—’

‘Well, and why shouldn’t you?’ said Joseph cheerfully. ‘Oh, you can’t deceive me! You like to make out that you’re a skinflint; but I know the joy of giving, and nothing will make me believe you don’t know it too!’

‘Sometimes, Joe,’ said Nathaniel, ‘you make me feel sick!’

Nevertheless, he consented, after a good deal of persuasion, to invite Stephen’s ‘young woman’ to Lexham. In the end, quite a number of persons forgathered at the Manor for Christmas, since Paula brought with her the unknown dramatist to whom Nathaniel had taken such violent exception; Mathilda Clare invited herself; and Joseph decided, at the last moment, that it would be unkind to break the custom of years by excluding Nathaniel’s business-partner, Edgar Mottisfont, from the party.

Joseph spent the days immediately preceding Christmas in decorating the house. He bought paper-chains, and festooned them across the ceilings; he pricked himself grievously in countless attempts to fix sprigs of holly over all the pictures; and he hung up bunches of mistletoe at all strategic points. He was engaged on this work when Mathilda Clare arrived. As she entered the house, he was erecting an infirm step-ladder in the middle of the hall, preparatory to securing a bunch of mistletoe to the chandelier.

‘Tilda, my dear!’ he exclaimed, letting the step-ladder fall with a crash, and hurrying to meet this first arrival. ‘Well, well, well, well!’

‘Hallo, Joe!’ returned Miss Clare. ‘Yule-tide-and-all-that?’

Joseph beamed, and said: ‘Ah, I catch you at a disadvantage! See!’ He held up the mistletoe over her head, and embraced her.

‘Cave-man,’ said Mathilda, submitting.

Joseph laughed delightedly, and, slipping a hand in her arm, led her into the library, where Nathaniel was reading the paper. ‘Look what the fairies have brought us, Nat!’ he said.

Nathaniel looked up over his spectacles, and said in somewhat discouraging accents: ‘Oh, it’s you, is it? How are you? Glad to see you.’

‘Well, that’s something, anyway,’ said Mathilda, shaking hands with him. ‘Thanks for letting me come, by the way.’

‘I suppose you want something,’ said Nathaniel, but with a twinkle.

‘Not a thing,’ replied Mathilda, lighting a cigarette. ‘Only Sarah’s sister has broken her leg, and Mrs Jones can’t oblige.’

As Sarah was the devoted retainer who constituted Miss Clare’s domestic staff, the reason for her visit to the Manor was felt to have been satisfactorily explained. Nathaniel grunted, and said that he might have known it. Joseph squeezed Mathilda’s arm, and told her not to pay any attention to Nat. ‘We’re going to have a real Christmas jollification!’ he said.