_Aggie_: "I'm glad we got our motor-car just in time. Any one that goes in the trolleys now will take their life in their hand." The girls rise and move toward the door. "Well, we must go on now. We're making a regular round; you can't trust the delivery wagons at a time like this. Good-by. Merry Christmas to the children. They're fast asleep by this time, I suppose." _Minnie_: "I only wish _I_ was!" _Mrs. Fountain_: "I believe you, Minnie. Good-by. Good night. Good night, Aggie. Clarence, go to the elevator with them! Or no, he can't in that ridiculous bath-gown!" Turning to Fountain as the door closes: "Now I've done it." V MRS. FOUNTAIN, FOUNTAIN _Fountain_: "It isn't a thing you could have wished to phrase that way, exactly." _Mrs. Fountain_: "And you made me do it. Never thanking them, or anything, and standing there like I don't know what, and leaving the talk all to me. And now, making me lose my temper again, when I wanted to be so nice to you. Well, it is no use trying, and 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.