Lu had consented to make a pleasant
Christmas kind of time of it, in which everybody was permitted to be
young again, and romp with the rompiest. We played Blindman's-buff till
we were tired of that,--Daniel, to Lu's great delight, coming out
splendidly as Blindman, and evincing such "cheek" in the style he hunted
down and caught the ladies, as satisfied me that nothing but his
eyesight stood in the way of his making an audacious figure in the
world. Then a pretty little girl, Tilly Turtelle, who seemed quite a
premature flirt, proposed "Door-keeper,"--a suggestion accepted with
great _eclat_ by all the children, several grown people assenting.

To Billy--quite as much on account of his shining prominence in the
executive faculties as of his character as host--was committed the duty
of counting out the first person to be sent into the hall. There were so
many of us that "Aina-maina-mona-mike" would not go quite round; but,
with that promptness of expedience which belongs to genius, Billy
instantly added on, "Intery-mintery-cutery-corn," and the last word of
the cabalistic formula fell upon me--Edward Balbus. I disappeared into
the entry amidst peals of happy laughter from both old and young,
calling, when the door opened again to ask me whom I wanted, for the
pretty lisping flirt who had proposed the game. After giving me a
coquettish little chirrup of a kiss, and telling me my beard scratched,
she bade me, on my return, send out to her "Mithter Billy Lovegrove." I
obeyed her; my youngest nephew retired; and after a couple of seconds,
during which Tilly undoubtedly got what she proposed the game for, Billy
being a great favorite with the little girls, she came back, pouting and
blushing, to announce that he wanted Miss Pilgrim. That young lady
showed no mock-modesty, but arose at once, and laughingly went out to
her youthful admirer, who, as I afterward learned, embraced her
ardently, and told her he loved her better than any girl in the world.
As he turned to go back, she told him that he might send to her one of
her juvenile cousins, Reginald Rumbullion. Now, whether because on this
youthful Rumbullion's account Billy had suffered the pangs of that most
terrible passion, jealousy, or from his natural enjoyment of playing
practical jokes destructive of all dignity in his elders, Billy marched
into the room, and, having shut the door behind him, paralyzed the
crowded parlor by an announcement that Mr. Daniel Lovegrove w