Read "Coelebs" by Ethel Mills online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
With the New Year -- or, rather, in advance of it -- Peggy's youngest sister arrived at the Hall. Mrs Chadwick had invited the entire family; but the Midland doctor could not leave her practice, and the children of the married niece had inconveniently developed whooping-cough; so Sophy, the architect, had divided her holiday, spending Christmas with her married sister and coming on to the Hall for the finish of the festivities, which included a dance to be held on New Year's Eve and a round of somewhat dull dinners and similar entertainments wherewith the Chadwicks' guests sought to make a return of hospitality.
Sophy hated dinner-parties, but she looked forward with considerable enthusiasm to the coming dance. Mrs Chadwick had provided both nieces with dresses for the occasion, and, in order that these independent young women should not feel unduly indebted, she called these her Christmas gifts.