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Page 39
"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."
The suburban train was crowded when the girls reached it. Even the
aisles were full of bundle-laden passengers, until the first few
stations were past. Then Betty and Joyce found seats together, and a fat
old lady good-naturedly drew herself up as far as possible, in order
that Mary might squeeze past her to the vacant seat next the window.
"I can't set there myself, on account of the cold coming in the cracks
so," she wheezed apologetically. "But young people don't feel draughts,
and anyway, you can put your muff up between you and it if you do."
"Mary has a travelling companion after her own heart," laughed Joyce to
Betty, as they watched the old lady's bonnet bobbing an energetic
accompaniment to her remarks. "She's always picking up acquaintances on
the train. She can get more enjoyment out of a day's railroad journey
than some people get in a trip around the world."
"It is the same way at school," answered Betty. "You have no idea how
popular she is, just because she is interested in everybody in that
sweet friendly way."
They went on to talk of other things, so absorbed in their own
conversation that they thought no more about Mary's. So they did not see
that presently she turned away from her garrulous companion, and,
wrapped in her own thoughts, sat gazing at the flying landscape. It was
not at the snowy fields she was smiling with that happy light in her
eyes, nor at the gleaming river. She was only dimly conscious of them
and had forgotten entirely that it was the famous Hudson whose
shore-line they were following. For once she was finding her own
thoughts more interesting than the conversation of an unexplored
stranger, although the old lady had taken her generously into her
confidence during the first quarter of an hour. Indeed, it was one of
those very confidences which had sent Mary off into her revery.
"I tell Silas that no one ever does keep Christmas just right till they
get to be grand-parents like us, and have the children bringing _their_
children home to hang up their stockings in the old chimney corner.
'Peared like, that first Christmas that Silas and me spent together in
our own house couldn't be happier, but it didn't hold a candle to them
that came afterwards, when there was little Si and Emmy and Joe to buy
toys for. Silas says we get a triple extract out of the day now, because
we not only have _our_ enjoyment of it, but what we get watching our
children enjoy watching _their_ children's fun."
She reached forward and with some difficulty extracted a toy from the
covered basket on the floor at her feet, a wooden monkey on a stick.
"I'm just looking forward to seeing Pa's face when he drops that into
Joe's baby's little sock."
Her own kindly old face was a study, as she slid the grotesque monkey up
and down the rod, chuckling in pleased anticipation. And Mary, with her
readiness to put herself into another's place, smiled with her, sharing
sympathetically the anticipation of her return. Straightway in her
imagination, she herself was a grandmother, going home to some adoring
old Silas, who had shared her joys and troubles for over half a century.
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