Wrayburn, Eugene. A briefless barrister, who hates his profession. He is a gloomy, indolent, unambitious, and reckless young

man.

"Idiots talk," said Eugene, leaning back, folding his arms, smoking with his eyes shut, and speaking slightly through his nose, "of energy. If there is a word in the dictionary, under any letter from A to Z, that I abominate, it is 'energy.' It is such a conventional superstition! such parrot gabble! What the deuse! Am I to rush out into the street, collar the first man of a wealthy appearance that I meet, shake him, and say, 'Go to law upon the spot, you dog, and retain me, or I'll be the death of you?' Yet that would be energy."

Becoming interested in Lizzie Hexam, he assists her to obtain an education; and though he seeks her society, he does so with no definite aim in view.

Lizzie saves Wrayburn's life with wonderful energy and address, nurses him tenderly through a long and dangerous sickness, is married to him, and finds that, transformed by the power of love, he has a mine of purpose and energy, which he turns to the best account. I: ii, iii, viii, x, xii-xiv; II: i, iii, vi, xi, xiv-xvi; III: x, xi, xvii; IV: i, vi, ix-xi, xvi, xvii.

Wrayburn, Mrs. Eugene. See HEXAM, Lizzie.
Wren, Jenny. See CLEAVER, FANNY.

CHRISTMAS BOOKS, TALES AND SKETCHES

Belle.

INDEX TO CHARACTERS

A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN PROSE

A comely matron, whom the Ghost of Christmas Past shows to Scrooge, and in whom he recognizes an old sweetheart. ii.

Caroline. Wife of one of Scrooge's debtors, shown to him in a dream by the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. iv.

Cratchit, Bob. Clerk to Scrooge. He works in a dismal little cell, -a sort of tank leading out of Scrooge's counting-room. i, iii, iv, v.

Cratchit, Belinda. Their second daughter. iii, iv.
Cratchit, Martha. Their eldest daughter. iii, iv.

Cratchit, Master Peter. One of their sons. iii, iv.

Cratchit, Tim, called TINY TIM. Their youngest son, a cripple. iii. Dilber, Mrs. A laundress whom the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows to Scrooge. iv.

Fan. A little girl, Scrooge's sister (afterwards the mother of Fred, his nephew), whom the Ghost of Christmas Past shows to Scrooge in a dream. ii.

Fezziwig, Mr.

A kind-hearted, jolly old merchant to whom Scrooge was a 'prentice when a young man, whom the Ghost of Christmas Past brings before him in a vision when he has become an old man and a miser. ii.

Fezziwig, Mrs. His wife, "worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term." At the ball which her husband gave to his work-people on Christmas Eve, and which the Ghost of Christmas Past shows to old Scrooge, “in came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast, substantial smile."

ii.

Fezziwigs, The three Miss. Their daughters, beaming and lovable, with six young followers, whose hearts they break. ii. Fred. Scrooge's nephew. iii, v.

Ghost of Christmas Past. A phantom that shows Scrooge "shadows of things that have been" in his past life. ii.