"Is Darling here?" she asked.
"No, mother," said Madam Liberality huskily.
"Then you may bring it in," said her mother to some one outside, and
the servant appeared, carrying a wooden box, which she put down before
Madam Liberality, and then withdrew. "Now don't speak," said her
mother, "it is bad for you, and your eyes have asked fifty questions
already, my child. Where did the box come from? The carrier brought
it. Who is it for? It's for you. Who sent it? That I don't know. What
is inside? I thought you would like to be the first to see. My idea is
that perhaps your godmother has sent you a Christmas-box, and I
thought that there might be things in it which would help you with
your Christmas-tree, so I have not told any one about it."
To the end of her life Madam Liberality never forgot that
Christmas-box. It did not come from her godmother, and the name of the
giver she never knew. The first thing in it was a card, on which was
written--"A Christmas-box from an unknown friend;" and the second
thing in it was the set of china tea-things with the green rim; and
the third thing was a box of doll's furniture.
"Oh, Mother!" cried Madam Liberality, "they're the very things I was
counting over in the bazaar, when the shopman heard me.
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