Gift of the Magi

It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do.

For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction.

Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.

Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts.

They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession.

It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do.

For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction.