Grace divided the little packet scrupulously, and they stood and ate it with their backs to the hedge, the bag and the lamp on the ground in front of them. "Christmas Eve!" said Grace. "Isn't it extraordinary?" "Where were you last Christmas?" he asked. "In the hospital, near my home. We were decorating the wards for Christmas, and all stayed there very late. There was a convoy in, too, I remember; the nurses stayed on long after we'd all gone home. I was only a clerk, you know." "I remember. You told me that when you--on the night of the air-raid," said the tactful Trevellyan, with a very evident recollection of the unfortunate disability which debarred Miss Jones from the nursing profession. Grace laughed. "Exactly. It is so idiotic and provoking, and, as a matter of absolute fact, it was because I always got ill at anything of that sort that they couldn't let me go on at the hospital any more--my father and stepmother, I mean." "I didn't know you had a stepmother." "I've had her about four years," Grace informed him. "Do you like her?" Trevellyan asked bluntly. "Very much indeed. She's only a few years older than I am, and she lets me call her Marjory. She's so nice and pretty and merry." It was evident that Miss Jones was not a person to make capital out of circumstances. When they started again, Trevellyan said gently: "You'd better take my arm, if you will. It's heavy going along this field." It was, and an incessant sound of splashing told Grace that she was almost in the ditch. "I think I can manage," she said breathlessly. "I'm afraid of the light going out, and it's easier to hold in both hands." Trevellyan said nothing, but presently Grace felt him take hold of the lamp. "You _must_ let me," he said quietly. "You'll want all your strength, for we're going uphill now, and the ground's very rough." They trudged up a steep incline, Grace with both cold hands deep in her pockets and her head bent against the wet driving mist that seemed to encompass them. Her feet were like ice, and she had long since given up trying to avoid the puddles and small snowy patches that lay so plentifully on the way. Twice she stumbled heavily. "We're just at the top," said Trevellyan encouragingly. "You're perfectly splendid, Miss Jones, and I feel such a brute for not taking better care of you. Cousin Joanna will be very much distressed; but, you see, I know she wants you." "I'm very glad," said Grace simply. "I never admired any one so much as I do her."