from this on I
won't. _Clarence!_" She has opened the parcel addressed to herself and
now stands transfixed with joy and wonder. "_See_ what the girls have
given me! The very necklace I've been longing for at Planets', and
denying myself for the last fortnight! Well, never will I say your
sisters are mean again."

_Fountain_: "You ought to have said that to them."

_Mrs. Fountain_: "It quite reconciles one to Christmas. What? Oh, that
_was_ rather nasty. You know I didn't mean it. I was so excited I
didn't know what I was saying. I'm sure nobody ever got on better with
sisters-in-law, and that shows my tact; if I do make a slip, now and
then, I can always get out of it. They will understand. Do you think
it was very nice of them to flaunt their new motor in my face? But of
course anything _your_ family does is perfect, and always was, though
I must say this necklace is sweet of them. I wonder they had the
taste." A tap on the door is heard. "Come in, Maggie!" _Sotto voce._
"Take it off." She snatches his bath-robe and tosses it behind the
door.

VI

WILBUR HAZARD, THE FOUNTAINS

_Hazard_: "I suppose I can come in, even if I'm not Maggie. Catch,
Fountain." He tosses a large bundle to Fountain. "It's huge, but it
isn't hefty." He turns to go out again.

_Mrs. Fountain_: "Oh, oh, oh! Don't go! Come in and help us. What have
you brought Clarence! May I feel?"

_Hazard_: "You can look, if you like. I'm rather proud of it. There's
only one other thing you can give a man, and I said, 'No, not a
cigar-case. Fountain smokes enough already, but if a bath-robe can
induce him to wash--'" He goes out.

_Mrs. Fountain_, screaming after him through the open door: "Oh, how
good! Come back and see it on him." She throws the bath-robe over
Fountain's shoulders.

_Hazard_, looking in again: "Perfect fit, just as the Jew said, and
the very color for Fountain." He vanishes, shutting the door behind
him.

VII

MRS. FOUNTAIN, FOUNTAIN

_Mrs. Fountain_: "How coarse! Well, my dear, I don't know where you
picked up your bachelor friends. I hope this is the last of them."

_Fountain_: "Hazard's the only one who has survived your rigorous
treatment. But he always had a passion for cold shoulder, poor fellow.
As bath-robes go, this isn't bad." He gets his arms into it, and walks
up and down. "Heigh?"

_Mrs. Fountai