t wasn't likely they thought that! No, the whole thing
was just a mistake, and as long as it was Christopher shrank from
correcting the error. You couldn't very well shout, "This is my
birthday, good people. Any contributions you would like to give me will
be gratefully received." Once he would not have hesitated to do this.
But now he was older and had more pride.

Therefore he ate his orange and his cereal as serenely as he could,
hoping the disappointment he experienced would not be evident in his
face. Apparently it was not. With customary impatience Mr. Burton
swallowed his coffee and, rising from the table, cautioned his son to
hurry up and not keep him waiting; and on hearing this familiar
admonition, Christopher's last weak hope that the day was to be
different from other days vanished, and he dashed for his hat and coat.

"Good-by, Mother," he called up the stairway.

"Your mother is going into town with us to-day," Mr. Burton explained.
"She has some errands to do."

"She didn't say so at breakfast."

"She forgot to, most likely. She was in a good deal of a hurry. Here she
comes now. Don't stop to put on your gloves, my dear. You can do it in
the car."

Off they went to the station and then into New York they whizzed by
train. There was not much opportunity to talk. Christopher's father read
the paper, and his mother consumed the time by holding various scraps
of gauzy blue stuff up to the light and asking which of them he liked
best. Then they bundled into a taxi and riding to the store entered it,
where the counterpart of every other day in the year began. And yet,
after all, did the day start as other days were wont to do? To begin
with, there was his mother who, instead of rolling off downtown to her
shopping, as would have been her customary program, alighted from the
taxicab with his father and himself. Moreover the interior of the shop
did not seem quite the same. Nonsensical as it was to suppose it, there
seemed to be in the atmosphere a subtle air of suspense quite new and
unusual. Besides that, there were flowers on his father's desk; and what
was more surprising, apparently he was the only one to notice these
innovations.

Nevertheless he did not speak of them but pulled off his coat and stood
for a moment hesitating before going to hunt up McPhearson. It was in
his mind to accompany his mother down in the elevator and see her to the
door after she should have finished her business. Perhaps