For Uncle James , who lived in the city and was really a great-uncle , had never taken the slightest notice of their family since his quarrel with their father twenty years ago ; but this looked as if Uncle James were disposed to hold out the olive branch . `` Oh , Stephen , if he likes you , and if he offers to educate you ! '' breathed Alexina . `` Perhaps he will if he is favourably impressed . But we 'll have to be so careful , he is so whimsical and odd , at least everybody has always said so . A little thing may turn the scale either way . Anyway , we must have a good dinner for him . I 'll have plum pudding and mince pie . '' For the next thirty-six hours Alexina lived in a whirl . There was so much to do . The little house was put in apple pie order from top to bottom , and Stephen was set to stoning raisins and chopping meat and beating eggs . Alexina was perfectly reckless ; no matter how big a hole it made in their finances Uncle James must have a proper Christmas dinner . A favourable impression must be made . Stephen 's whole future -- Alexina did not think about her own at all just then -- might depend on it . Christmas morning came , fine and bright and warm . It was more like a morning in early spring than in December , for there was no snow or frost , and the air was moist and balmy . Alexina was up at daybreak , cleaning and decorating at a furious rate . By eleven o'clock everything was finished or going forward briskly . The plum pudding was bubbling in the pot , the turkey -- Burton 's plumpest -- was sizzling in the oven . The shelf in the pantry bore two mince pies upon which Alexina was willing to stake her culinary reputation .
And Stephen had gone to the train XXXXX meet Uncle James .
For about if in like of on since to with