net declared with the assurance of an only
daughter. "And she'll say in addition, `What a blessing! She'll
whistle for us, and amuse Aunt Jane.' Did you realise that Aunt Jane
was coming? She's generally _very_ cross all day, and makes a point of
giving away her presents to other members of the party under the very
noses of the givers, to let them see what she thinks of their choice.
The great idea is to sit down by her quickly when you see her begin to
fumble with something you would like to have. I got quite a nice bag
that way last Christmas!"

Presents! That was another idea. Claire went home mentally reviewing
her own treasures with a view to selecting some trifle which Janet in
the midst of her plenty might still be glad to receive. She decided on
a silver clasp of quaint Breton manufacture, which had the merit that in
the whole of London it would be impossible to purchase another to match.

Claire returned to her room in a frame of mind vastly different from
that in which she had started forth. Her buoyant spirits soared upwards
at the prospect of a Christmas spent in the midst of a happy family
party, and all the difficulties of life seemed to dissolve into thin
air, since, after the providential meeting just vouchsafed, it seemed
faithless to doubt that future difficulties would be solved in the same
way.

She intended to devote the afternoon to writing a long letter to her
mother, which had been delayed owing to her recent depression of
spirits, for it seemed cruel to write in a pessimistic strain to the
happy bride, who now, more than ever, saw everything _couleur de rose_.
Mrs Judge's present had arrived the week before, in the shape of a
richly embroidered Indian table-cloth, for which her daughter had as
much use as she herself would have found for a fur rug. To use it in
the saffron parlour was a sheer impossibility, for every separate
article of furniture shrieked at it, and it shrieked at them in return;
so Claire folded it away at the bottom of her box, reflecting, between a
sigh and a smile, that the choice was "just like mother." It was not
agreeable to the bride to picture her daughter living in an ugly
lodging-house parlour, so she had mentally covered the ugliness beneath
the gorgeous embroidery of that cloth, and happily dismissed the subject
from her mind. At the time of the opening of the parcel, Claire had
felt a sense of sharp disappointment, amounting even to irritation, but
t