In this season of joy . . . of sleigh rides and waltzes, roaring fires and kissing boughs . . . a man and a woman find the true spirit of love.

THE WIDOW . . .
Patricia Hayden's enjoyable solitude at Merwin Hall has been destroyed by the most incorrigible guest. Injured war veteran Jack Princeton is far too full of self-pity for the widow's taste -- and she wastes no time in letting the irascible man know her opinion. Still, when Jack refuses to join a Christmas house party at the home of a mutual friend unless she accompany him, Partricia agrees sensing that underneath Jack's temper is the loving, vital man he once was -- the man he could be once again. But what would such a man want with a plain-speaking woman of no particular youth . . .

. . . AND THE SOLDIER
Since a devastating leg injury sustained in the war on the Peninsula, once fun-loving Jack Princeton has become as depressed as the devil. Then he meets spirited Patricia Hayden, a woman whose admiration and concern are without pity -- and who challenges him to reclaim his life. Still, as Jack's courage grows, and he realizes the sharp-witted, warm-hearted widow is the woman he wants as his wife, he despairs of her accepting a man so diminished. Until circumstances lead both to the kissing bough . . . and a true Christmas miracle.