The Man in Possession — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Vrrenany Mw. YY. THE MAN IN POSSESSION. CHAPTER I. AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE. Tue Irish mail train was just due at Euston Station. It wanted a week of Christmas and the weather was as disagreeable and dispiriting as it well could be, and generally zs now, in our genial foggy delight- ful island. There are legends respecting Christmas weather handed down to us by our great grandparents —legends as to brilliant skies and sparkling frosts and healthy invigorating air that sent the blood tingling in the veins of youth, and brought roses to young cheeks and light to bright eyes—legends of sunlight sparkling on bough and twig, which the Frost King had decorated for his Carnival-legends of scarlet hollyberries, and glistening evergreens, and general hilarity and enjoyment. We have heard of these things and seen pictures of them, and done our best to give an artistic sense of the season in our Christmas cards and magazine covers, but we are inclined to doubt these legends, and to believe that Christmas weather could never have been anything but that mix- COMicloe (Sri C(O)