Bentley’s Miscellany, a monthly magazine, became known for serializing long, illustrated novels. By the 1840s its following had dropped off, but it continued to entertain middle-class readers until the title ceased in 1868. The following story, originally published in 1865, contains all of the ingredients of a decorous country-house Christmas: church-going, alms-bearing, mumming, as well as a Christmas dinner, a ghost-story circle, and a masquerade. The perfect Christmas setting serves as a frame tale for a tragic story and a family supposedly haunted by an avenging spirit. When the ghost narrative begins to invade the frame tale, the memories of past indiscretions disturb the jollity of the holiday proceedings.

[(Synopsis pulled from "The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories" edited by Tara Moore)]