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CHAPTER XI - CHRISTMAS EVE.
It was Christmas Eve. Elizabeth Compton and Harriet Holden were completing
the rounds of their friends' homes with Christmas remembrances--a custom that
they had continued since childhood. The last parcel had been delivered upon the
South Side, and they were now being driven north on Michigan Boulevard toward
home. Elizabeth directed the chauffeur to turn over Van Buren to State, which at
this season of the year was almost alive with belated Christmas shoppers and
those other thousands who always seize upon the slightest pretext for a
celebration.
It was a noisy, joyous crowd whose spirit, harmonizing with the bright lights and
the gay shop windows, infected all who came within its influence. As the car
moved slowly northward along the world's greatest retail street the girls leaned
forward to watch the passing throng through the windows.
"Isn't it wonderful," exclaimed Harriet, "what a transformation a few lights make?
Who would ever think of State Street as a fairy-land? And yet, if you half close
your eyes the hallucination is complete. Even the people who by daylight are
shoddy and care-worn take on an appearance of romance and gaiety, and the
tawdry colored lights are the scintillant gems of the garden of a fairy prince."
"Don't!" Elizabeth pleaded. "The city night always affects me. It makes me want
to do something adventurous, and on Christmas Eve it is even worse. If you keep
on like that I shall soon be telling David to drive us up and down State Street all
night."
"I wish we didn't have to go home right away," said Harriet. "I feel like doing
something devilish."
"
Well, let's!" exclaimed Elizabeth.
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