Sink or Swim? , Volume II by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun

Of all the many changes that had taken place amongst the characters in / my story, none was more thorough, even though its features might be less / boldly marked, than that which had gradually crept over the household of / excellent John Beacham. From the moment when he dealt the blow that / levelled his wife's worthless parent to the ground, John had never been / exactly the same man. A sense of failure, of a disastrous fall in his / own esteem, was in some measure the cause of this woeful alteration: but / there was more, and for worse than this, at the bottom of his apparent / moroseness, of his often sullen temper, and of what his mother called / his "silent ways. " There was far worse indeed than this -- far worse than / any morbid impression that he himself had sunk in the opinion of the / world at large; for there was the sight of Honor's altered face, and a / near prospect, nearer day by day, of some cruel domestic change for / this honest, single-hearted man, whose youth and manhood had hitherto / passed so uneventfully.

The summer had passed away, the autumn-time had come and gone; from the / hedge-rows of the Paddocks the last lingering leaves had fallen, and / another new year was about, with the accustomed rejoicings, to be / ushered in, but still things had not improved in John's altered home. No / sunshine of the heart brightened up the old walls, and yet, for all that / inside there was gloom, it was necessary, for old custom's sake, that / the show of merriment should be kept up; for Christmas-time was nigh at / hand, and hospitality, as well as jollity, had, time out of mind, been, / at that festive season, the order of the day at Peartree-house. To give / and distribute largely and ungrudgingly at the dying-out of the old year / had ever been an institution in Mrs. Beacham's family. "The Turtons," / she was wont to say (John's mother was -- as of course all the world / knew -- a Turton of Cradock, in the West Riding of York) "The Turtons / always kep a good table at Christmas-time both for rich and poor, in / their own county; and I'm not going to do different, though this _is_ / Sandyshire. Christmas comes but once a year, and it's only right that / when it does come, them as _can_ afford it should give them as can't / their bellies full."