Many were the mouths which the hospitable widow felt called upon that day to fill. There was the great “house dinner” as it was called--to which were invited (a yearly custom so ancient at the Paddocks that the invitation had come to be regarded as a right) every man and boy employed by Mr. Beacham upon the farm and breeding-establishment. To these were added not only the wives and daughters of the middle-aged labourers, but the “followers”--if they were respectable, and their courtship was _pour le bon motif_--from adjacent farms, of the damsels connected with John’s especial retainers. It was a great object with the givers of the feast that everyone, on that day at least, should both be and look happy. On all other days (Sundays excepted) John was, though a just and liberal, very far from what is called an easy-going master. He required his good penny’s-worth for the penny given; and men taking service at Updown Paddocks did so with their eyes open--knowing that under the eye of their new master there would be little chance of shirking the duties they had undertaken. By retainers so kept _to_ their work, and _in_ their places, it will readily be believed that the Christmas dinner at the Paddocks (which took place at three o’clock on Christmas-day) was an event of importance; and after the roast-beef and turkeys, the plum-pudding and mince-pies--plum-pudding with plenty of raisins and citron, let me tell you, and mince-pies fit for a lord-mayor’s dinner--had been duly discussed, there followed a dance in the big barn, with punch and pipes to wind up the entertainment. Many months had not elapsed since the time when few would have enjoyed the simple pleasures of that holiday season more thoroughly in her quiet, lady-like way than Honor Beacham. Those months, swiftly passing, dull and uneventful as they had seemed, had transformed, as effectually as years of age and experience, a light-hearted and thoughtless girl into a dreaming, restless, and far from contented woman. Change, with noiseless foot and imperceptible approach--change, never resting, and for ever at its silent work, had done its appointed task on pretty Honor Beacham’s tastes and character.