A Mapp and Lucia Christmas

" In spite of her readiness to be interrupted at any moment, Miss Mapp spent a solitary evening. She had pulled a cracker with Withers, and severely jarred a tooth over a threepenny-piece in the plum pudding, but there had been no other events. Once or twice, in order to see what the night was like, she had gone to the window of the garden-room, and had been aware that there was a light in Major Benjy's house, but when half-past ten struck, she had despaired of company and gone to bed. A little carol singing in the streets gave her a Christmas feeling, and she hoped that the singers got a nice supper somewhere. "