The girl seemed to be stunned so that she did not understand. 'See it, hey? 'Say you love me!' You do it beautifully, Jane--do some more. Did you ever think I loved you?--Oh, yes! and that I wanted to marry you--of course! If your face hadn't looked prettier'n it does now, damn me if I'd ever looked twice at it!' He turned his chair a little. 'What's that!' he screamed, catching sight of the painting on the wall. 'Take it away! You put it there, you wretch!' staring at it with his eyes fixed. The noise brought the owner to the door--a burly Dutchman. 'Landlord, put that thing away--cover it up! Damnation! Do I want to come here to be preached at?' 'Who pulled that paper off, I say?' said the man. 'I pinned _The Clipper_ over it. You did it, I swar! Be off with yer!' 'Oh, let her stay, Lumpsey,' said a woman that came in from the bar; 'she'll be one on 'em when she gits round.' 'I won't; I won't have nobody here that's better'n we be no longer. Here's yer pay; an' now, missis, start yerself, an' don't yer come nigh here agen 'thout yer'll behave decent an' be one on us.' He tossed some bank notes toward her, took her by the shoulders, and shoved her out, shutting the door upon her. IV. Everybody had gone out on Christmas eve--darting about in sleighs; at service in the churches; at a party given in their set; shopping, as if their lives depended on it. Buying, selling, visiting, looking, the city was all astir. In the churches, soberly gay with evergreen trimming, like a young widow very stylish in black, but very proper withal, people were listening to the anthems, and everything about the place was wide awake, unless it was the chimes taking a nap until twelve o'clock; drygoods men ran to and fro, dropping smiles, and winding themselves up in a great medley reel of silks, laces, and things of _virtu_ in general; next door, the booksellers were resplendent in dazzling bindings, pictures and photographs of everything and everybody, all of which were at everybody's disposal--take 'em all home, if you pleased; livery stables were as bare as if there had been an invasion of the country that day, and smiling keepers touched their pockets, and shook their heads pityingly at late comers; and even in the markets jolly butchers laughed, and sawed, and cut, and counted their money--and those leathery fellows that were never jolly, suddenly found out a new commercial maxim, that jollity is the best policy, and they fell to laughing too. 'Christmas is coming!' thought everybody. 'Christmas is coming!' and some of the lively small bells in the towers, not grown yet to years of ripe discretion, whispered to each other, and had to bite their tongues to keep from shouting it right out.