Kitty uncovered one eye; Mr. Paul must be dreaming.
"Who said so? Sally and I have been planning all the morning how we shall order out all my waggons, and go round and fetch your guests--only you must not have the tree too late, or else we might lose our way in taking them home again."
Kitty's joy could only find expressions in incoherent exclamations of delight.
"It's wonderfully kind of you," said the rector, who appeared at that moment, and gradually gathered from Kitty what Paul proposed to do.
"It seems a pity the thing should be put off," Paul answered a little awkwardly.
Perhaps no act of the squire's won such universal approbation as the spirited manner in which he carried through Miss Kitty's tree.
"You would not have thought as he was one to care about the little ones," said Mrs. Macdonald to Sally.
"And I don't think, honestly, that he is," Sally answered--"with the exception of Kitty Curzon; his devotion to her is something quite astonishing."
The tree had been, happily, trimmed the day before, and nothing therefore remained but for the guests to appear. One or two had to be fetched in a boat, and the cottage in the field had a special voyage to itself. There was a little child there that was a particular friend of Kitty's.
"It's very good of you to come, sir, but I'm not sure as I can let Jenny go; she's been ailing all day," said the smiling mother, looking out at Paul from an upstairs window. "She's felt the damp a bit. The water's begun to go down already. We'll be able to get downstairs again to-morrow; but, as I was saying to my mate, it will be the queerest Christmas Day we've ever spent."
"Yes, indeed," said Paul, hurriedly, anxious to cut short the disconnected speech; "but I think you must let me have Jenny, Mrs. Weldon. She's such a great friend of Kitty's, and we shall not have any more rain for the present. Put on an extra shawl. It will be fine fun for Jenny to have a ride in a boat."
So Jenny, wrapped up so that only her eyes were visible, was handed out; and Paul rowed her across the field that separated her from dry land, popping her into a cart that waited on the far side.
Sally, meanwhile, was at the school arranging the children as they arrived, whilst Kitty's carriage was drawn up close to the tree, which was veiled under a sheet. Jenny Weldon was the last to arrive, and, when duly uncloaked, was given a place close to Kitty.