“How lovely!” cried Patty, as she opened the box and saw a little pin shaped like a spray of holly. “It’s perfectly sweet. Thank you ever so much, Roger, but why didn’t you put it on the tree for me?”
“Oh, they are only having foolish presents on the tree, jokes, you know, and all that.”
“Oh, is this a real present then? I don’t know as I ought to accept it. I’ve never had a present from a young man before.”
Roger looked a little embarrassed, but Patty’s gay delight was entirely free from any trace of self-consciousness.
“Anyway, I am going to keep it,” she said, “because it’s so pretty, and I like to think that you gave it to me.”
Roger looked greatly gratified and seemed to take the matter with more seriousness than Patty did. She pinned the pretty little trinket on her collar and thought no more about it.
Dinner was early that night, for there was much to be done in the way of final preparations before the guests came to the Christmas party.
The Christmas pretence was intended as a surprise to those not staying in the house, and after all had arrived, the doors of the library were thrown open with shouts of “Merry Christmas!”
And indeed it did seem like a sudden transition back into the winter. The Christmas tree with its gay decorations and lighted candles was a beautiful sight, and the green-trimmed room with its spicy odours of spruce and pine intensified the illusion.
Shouts of delight went up on all sides, and falling quickly into the spirit of it all, the guests at once began to pretend it was really Christmas, and greeted each other with appropriate good wishes.