“Joyce got a check that she hadn’t expected before next month, and another one that she hadn’t expected at all.  It was for some initial letter sketches and tail-pieces that had been travelling around to different magazines for months.  Besides, there was an order for a frontispiece for a child’s magazine.  She was so happy she could hardly finish her breakfast, and said now she could give me the present she had planned to give me in the beginning.  She had been disappointed about some other work she had counted on, and thought she would have to cut my present down to some gloves and a book, but now she could play Santa Claus in fine style, and carry out her original intention.  Just as soon as things were in order, she would take me down town and let me choose it.

“It was so exciting, not knowing what it was going to be, and hurrying along with the crowds of shoppers; everybody so smiling and happy and good-natured, no matter how much they were bumped into.  I felt Christmasey down to my finger-tips, although they were nearly frozen.  Last night’s snow was almost a blizzard, and left it stinging cold.

“At last, after buying a lot of little things to put on the tree at Eugenia’s, and keeping me guessing for over an hour about my present, Joyce took us into a furrier’s, and bought me a beautiful set of furs; a lovely long boa and a muff like the one Lloyd had her picture taken in the first year she was at Warwick Hall.  I’ve always wanted furs like them.  They look so opulent and luxurious.  And maybe I wasn’t proud and happy when I saw myself in the mirror!  They just make my costume, and they made a world of difference in my comfort when we went out into the icy air again.  I certainly would have squealed if I hadn’t remembered that we were on Broadway, when Joyce told me that I looked so stunning that she could not keep her eyes off me.  I knew just how happy it made her to be able to give me such a present, for I remembered what pleasure I had in sending Jack the watch-fob that I had earned all myself.

“Then we went to Wanamaker’s and by that time it was so late she said we’d better go up stairs and take lunch there.  There wouldn’t be time to go home and prepare it ourselves.  There was music playing, and it was all so gay and lively that I kept getting more and more excited every moment.  Finally, while we were waiting for our orders to be filled, Betty said, ’It is so festive, I believe I’ll give Mary my present now, instead of waiting till we get to Eugenia’s.’  Then she took a jeweller’s box from her shopping bag, and, lo and behold, when I opened it, the little bloodstone ring that I’d been longing for all these weeks!  I was so happy I nearly cried.

“After lunch we came back to the flat to get our suit-cases.  Joyce is packing hers now.  In just a few minutes she will be ready, and then we will turn the key in the door and be off for Eugenia’s.  Mrs. Boyd and Miss Lucy have gone to Brooklyn to spend Christmas, and Miss Henrietta is away on a month’s vacation.”