"I--I am cutting out a pair of suspenders for you;" and she resumed her task. Her hair was coiled a little higher than usual; and where I stood, behind her, I could just see, as she leaned over her work, the nape of her neck, white and velvety. Innumerable soft little locks curled there gracefully, and this pretty down reminded me of those ripe peaches into which we drive our teeth greedily. I leaned nearer to see and--kissed my wife on the neck. "Monsieur!" exclaimed Louise, turning suddenly around. "Madame!" and we both burst into a laugh. "Come, come; on Christmas Eve!" "Monsieur apologizes?" "Madame complains?" "Yes; Madame complains. Madame complains of your not being more moved, more thrilled by the spirit of Christmas. The ding-ding-dong from the bells of Notre Dame awakens no emotion in you; and when the magic-lantern went by under your very window, you were perfectly unmoved, utterly indifferent. I watched you attentively, though I pretended to work." "Unmoved? Indifferent? I? When the magic lantern went by! Ah, my dear! you judge me very severely, and really--" "Yes, yes; laugh if you will. It is nevertheless true that the pretty memories of your childhood are lost." "Come, my pet, would you like me to stand my boots in the fireplace to-night before I go to bed? Would you like me to stop the magic-lantern man and go and get him a sheet and a candle-end, as my mother used to do? I can almost see her as she handed him the sheet. 'Be careful you don't tear it, now,' she would say; and we all clapped our hands in the mysterious obscurity. I remember all those joys, dear; but, you see, so many things have happened since. Other pleasures have obliterated those." "Yes, I understand,--the pleasures of your bachelorhood! Come, now, I am sure this is the first Christmas Eve that has ever found you by your own fireside, in your dressing-gown and without a supper, because you always had supper; that goes without saying--" "Why, I don't know--" "Yes, yes; I wager you always had a supper." "Well, perhaps I did, once or twice, although I scarcely remember; I may have had supper with a few old friends. And what did it all amount to? Two pennies' worth of chestnuts and--" "And a glass of sugar and water." "Well, just about. Oh, it was nothing much, I can assure you! It sounds great at a distance. We talked awhile, and then we went to bed." "And he says all that with the straightest face! You have never breathed a word of these simple pleasures to me." "But, my dear, what I tell you is the absolute truth. I remember once, however, at Ernest's, when I was in rather high spirits, we had a little music afterwards--Will you push me that log? Well, never mind; it is almost midnight, and time for all reasonable people to--"