Chapter 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.