The winter holiday arrives -- and during a holiday all should be perfectly right, bright, and delightful . . . and to some such as Eustace, poised like a prince and skating the ice with flawless technique, or Miss Rose, with her cascading golden hair, the holiday is all those things. For others the holiday is much less simple -- such as for Eustace"s brother Scott -- nicknamed Stumpy for his short stature and legs of uneven length -- or for their sister Isabel, beautiful but severely weak and ailing . . . and worried about losing her husband Basil. English novelist Ethyl M. Dell paints a picture of holiday romance with all its elevating hopes, fancies and diversions -- and its distressing realities.