But this acrid pronouncement only made Joseph laugh, clap Nathaniel on the back, and accuse him affectionately of growing into a regular curmudgeon.

It said much for Joseph's powers of persuasion that Nathaniel did, in the end, invite "the young people' to spend Christmas at the Manor. As he had quarrelled with his nephew Stephen only a month previously, and had been resolutely refusing, for rather longer, to give financial backing to a play which his niece Paula wished to appear in, it took some time to talk him into letting bygones be bygones.

"You know, Nat," Joseph said, rather ruefully, "old fogies like you and me can't afford to quarrel with the younger generation. Why, where should we be without them, with all their faults, bless their hearts!"

"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.