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Vera's First Christmas Adventure by Arnold Bennett. One. Five days before Christmas,

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Cheswardine came home to his wife from
a week's sojourn in London on business.

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Vera, in her quality of the
best dressed woman in Bersley, met him

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on the doorstep or thereabouts of their
charming but childless home, attired in a

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tea gown that would have ravished a
far less impressionable male than her husband,

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while he, in his quality of
a prosaic and flourishing earthenware manufacturer, pretended

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to take the tea gown as a
matter of course, and gave her the

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sober, solid kiss of a man
who has been married six years and is

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getting used to it. Still,
the tea gown had pleased him, and

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by certain secret symptoms, Vera knew
that it had pleased him. She hoped

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much from that tea gown. She
hoped that he had come home in a

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more pacific temper than he had shown
when he left her, and she would

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carry her point after all. Now, Naturally, when a husband in easy

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circumstances the possessor of a pretty and
pampered wife, spends a week in London

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and returns five days before Christmas,
certain things are rightly and properly to be

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expected from him. He would need
outstanding courage an amazing lack of a sense

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of the amenity of conjugal existence in
such a husband to enable him to disappoint

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such reasonable expectations. And Cheeswerdine,
though capable of pulling the curb very tight

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on the caprices of his wife,
was a highly decent fellow. He had

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no intention to disappoint. He knew
his duty, so that during afternoon tea,

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with the tea gown, in a
cozy corner of the great Chippendale drawing

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room, he began to unfasten a
small wooden case which he had brought into

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the house in his own hand,
opened it with considerable precaution, making a

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fine mess of packing stuff on the
carpet, and gradually drew to light a

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pair of vases of Venetian glass.
He put them on the mantel piece.

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There, he said, proudly and
with a virtuous air. They were obviously

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costly antique vases, exquisite in form, exquisite in the graduated tints of their

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pale blue and rose seventeenth century.
He said, they're very nice Vera agreed

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with a show of enthusiasm. What
are they for your Christmas present? Cheswardine

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explained, and added, my dear, oh Stephen, She murmured, A

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kiss on these occasions is only just, and Cheswardine had one. Juvenes told

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me they were quite unique, he
said, modestly, and I believe them.

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You might imagine that a pair of
Venetian vases of the seventeenth century,

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stated by Juvenes to be unique,
would have satisfied a woman who had a

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generous dress allowance and lacked absolutely nothing
that was essential. But Vera was not

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satisfied. She was, on the
contrary, profoundly disappointed, for the presence

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of those vases proved that she had
not carried her point. They deprived her

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of hope. The unpleasantness before Chezwudine
went to London had been more or less

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apropos of a Christmas present. Vera
had seen in Bostock's vast Emporium in the

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neighboring town of Hanbridge, a music
stool in the style known as Art nouveaux,

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which had enslaved her fancy. She
had taken her husband to see it,

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and it had not enslaved her husband
fancy in the slightest degree. It

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was made in light woods, and
the woods were curved and twisted, as

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though they had recently spent seven years
in a purgatory for sinful trees. Here

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and there in the design onyx stones
had been set in the wood. The

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seat itself was beauty soft. What
captured Vera was chiefly the fact that it

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did not open at the top,
as most elaborate music stools do, but

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at either side you pressed a button
onix and the panel fell down, displaying

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your music in little compartments ready to
hand. And the eastern moiety of the

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music stool was for piano pieces,
and the Western moiety for songs. In

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short, it was the last word
of music stools. Nothing could possibly beneure.

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But Cheswardine did not like it,
and did not conceal his opinion.

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He argued that it would not go
with the Chippendale furniture, and Vera said

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that all beautiful things went together,
and Cheswardine admitted that they did rather dryly.

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You see, they took the matter
seriously because the house was their hobby.

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They were always changing its interior,
which was more than they could have

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done for a child, even if
they had had one, and Cheeswardine's finer

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and soberer taste was always fire against
Vera's predilection for the novel and the bizarre.

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Apart from clothes, Vera had not
much more than the taste of a

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mouse. They did not quarrel in
Bostocks. Indeed, they did not quarrel

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anywhere. But after Vera had suggested
that he might at any rate humor her

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by giving her the music stool for
a Christmas present, she seemed to think

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that this would somehow help it to
go with the Chippendale, and Cheswardine had

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politely but firmly declined there had been
a certain cool nurse, and quite six

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tears. Vera had caused it to
be understood that even if Cheswardine was not

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interested in music, and even if
he did hate music and did call the

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broadwood ebony grand ugly, that was
no reason why she should be deprived of

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a pretty and original music stool that
would keep her music tidy, and that

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would be hers. As for it
not going with the Chippendale, that was

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simply an excuse, et cetera.
Hence, it is not surprising that the

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Venetian vases of the seven teenth century
left Vera cold, and that the domestic

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prospects for Christmas were a little cold. However, Vera, with wifely and

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submissive tact, made the best of
things, and that evening she began to

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decorate the hall, dining room,
and drawing room with holly and mizzletoe.

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Before the pair retired to rest.
The true Christmas feeling slightly tinged with a

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tender melancholy permeated the house, and
the servants were growing excited in advance.

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The servants weren't going to have a
dinner party with crackers and port and a

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table center unmatched in the five towns. The servants weren't going to invite their

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friends to an evening's jollity. The
servants were merely going to work somewhat harder

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and have somewhat less sleep. But
such is the magical effect of holly and

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mistletoe twined round picture cords and hung
under chandeliers, that the excitement of the

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servants was entirely pleasurable. And as
Vera shut the bedroom door, she said,

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with a delightful, forgiving smile,
I saw a lovely cigar cabinet at

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Bostox yesterday, oh said Cheswodine touched
he had no cigar cabinet, and he

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wanted one, and Vera knew that
he wanted one, and Vera slept in

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the sweet consciousness of her thoughtful wifeliness. The next morning, at breakfast,

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Cheswudine demanded, getting pretty hard up, aren't you Maria? He called her

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Maria when he wished to be arch
well. She said, as a matter

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of fact, I am what with
thee? And he gave her a five

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pound note. It happened so every
year he provided her with the money to

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buy him a Christmas present. But
it is, I hope unnecessary to say

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that the connection between her present to
him and the money he furnished was never

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crudely mentioned. She made an opportunity
before he left for the works to praise

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the Venetian vases, and she insisted
that he should wrap up well because he

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was showing some kines of one of
his bad colds. Two in the early

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afternoon, she went to Bosstock's emporium
at Hambridge to buy the cigar cabinets and

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a few domestic trifles. Bostocks is
a good shop. I do not say

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that it has the classic and serene
dignity of Brunts over the way where one

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orders one's dining room suites and one's
flocks for the January dances. But it

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is a good shop and one of
the chief glories of the Paris of the

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five towns. It has frontages in
three streets, and it might be called

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the shop of the hundred windows.
You can buy pretty nearly anything at Boss

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Stocks, from an art nouveau music
stool up to the highest cheese, for

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there is a provision department. You
can't get cheese at Brunt's. Vera made

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her uninteresting purchases first in the basement, and then she went upstairs to the

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special Christmas department, which certainly was
wonderful. A blaze and splendor of electric

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light, a glitter of gilded,
iridescent toys and knickknacks, A smiling,

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excited pushing multitude of faces, young
and old, and the cashiers in their

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cages gathering in money as fast as
they could lay their tired hands on it.

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A joyous, brilliant scene calculated to
bring soft tears of satisfaction to the

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board of directors that presided over Boss
Stocks. It was a record Christmas for

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Boss Stocks. The electric cars were
thundering over the frozen streets in all the

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five towns to bring customers to boss
Stocks. Children dreamt of boss Stocks.

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Fathers went to scoff and remained to
pay. Brunce was not exactly alarmed,

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for nothing could alarm Bruns. But
there was just a sort of suspicion of

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something in the air at Brunce that
did not make for odious self conceit.

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People seemed to become intoxicated when they
went into boss Stocks to close their heads

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in a frenzy of buying, and
there the art nouveaux music stools stood in

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the corner. Had originally seen it, she approached it, not thinking of

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the terrible danger. The compartments for
music lay inviting the open four pounds nine

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and six missus chest were dying,
said a shop walker who knew her.

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She stopped to finger it. Well, of course, everybody is acquainted with

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that peculiar ecstasy that undoubtedly does overtake
you in good shops, sometimes especially at

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Christmas. I prefer to call it
ecstasy rather than an intoxication, but I

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have heard it called even drunkenness.
It is a magnificent and overwhelming experience like

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good wine. A blind instinct seizes
your reason and throws her out of the

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window of your soul, and then
assumes entire control of the volition or machinery.

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You listen to, no arguments,
you care for, no consequences.

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You want a thing, you must
have it. You do have it.

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Vera was caught unawares by this magnificent
and overwhelming experience, just as she stooped

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to finger the music stool, a
fig for the cigar cabinet, a fig

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for her husband's objections. After all, she was a grown up woman in

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twenty nine or thirty and entitled to
a certain freedom. She was not and

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would not be, a slave.
It would look perfect in the drawing room.

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I'll take it, she said,
yes, missus Jeswuddine. The unique

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thing, quite unique. Pinkethmann and
Vera followed Penkethman to a cash desk and

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received half a guinea out of a
five pound note. I want it carefully

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packed, said Vera, Yes,
ma'am, it will be delivered in the

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morning. She was just beginning to
realize that she had been under the sinister

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influence of the ecstasy, and that
she had not bought the cigar cabinet,

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and that she had practically no more
money, and that Stephen's rule against credit

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was the strictest of all his rules. When she caught sight of mister Charles

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Woodruff buying toys doubtless for his nephew's
nieces. Mister Woodruff was the bachelor friend

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of the family. He had loved
Vera before Stephen loved her, and he

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was still attached to her. Stephen
and he were chums for the most advanced

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kind. Why Stephen and Vera thought
nothing of bickering in front of mister Woodruff,

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who rated them both and sided with
neither. Hello, said Woodruff,

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flushing and moving his long, clumsy
limbs when she touched him on the shoulder.

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I'm just buying a few toys.
She helped him to buy toys,

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and then he asked her to go
and have tea with him at the newly

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opened sub Rosa Tea Rooms in Machin
Street. She agreed, and in passing

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the music stool, gave a small
parcel which she was carrying to Penkuthman and

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told him he might as well put
it in the music stool. She was

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glad to have tea with Charlie Woodruff, it would distract her, prevent her

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from thinking. The ecstasy had almost
died out, and she had a violent

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desire not to think. Three A
terrible blow fell upon her. The next

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morning. Stephen had one of his
bad colds, one of his worst.

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The mere cold she could have supported
with fortitude, but he was forced to

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remain indoors, and his presence in
the house she could not support with fortitude.

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The music stool would be sure to
arrive before lunch, and he would

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be there to see it arrive.
The ecstasy had fully expired now, and

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she had more leisure to think than
she wanted. She could not imagine what

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mad instinct had compelled her to buy
the music stool once out of the shop.

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These instincts are always difficult to imagine. She knew that Stephen would be

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angry. He might perhaps go to
the length of returning the music stool whence

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it came for Though she was a
pretty and pampered woman, Stephen had a

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way in the last resort of being
master of his own house, and she

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could not even placate him with the
gift of a cigar cabinet. She could

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not buy a five guineas cigar cabinet
with ten and six. She had no

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other money in the world. She
never had money yet much and he was

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always running through her fingers. Stephen
treated her generously gave her an ample allowance,

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but he would under no circumstances permit
credit, nor would he pay her

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allowance in advance. She had nothing
to expect till the new year. She

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attended to his cold and telephoned to
the works for a clock to come up,

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and she refrained from telling Stephen that
he must have been very careless while

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in London to catch a cold like
that her self. Denial in this respect

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surprised Stephen, but he put it
down to the beneficent influence of Christmas and

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the Venetian vases. Boss Stock's pear
horse van arrived before the garden gate,

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earlier than her worst fears had anticipated, and boss Stock's men were evidently in

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a tremendous hurry that morning. In
quite an abnormally small number of seconds,

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the wooden case containing the fragile music
stool was lying in the inner hall waiting

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to be unpacked. Having signed a
delivery book. Vera stood staring at the

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accusatory p package. Stephen was lounging
over the dining room fire, perhaps dozing,

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she would have the thing swiftly transported
upstairs and hidden in an attic for

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a time. But just then Stephen
popped out of the dining room. Stephen's

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masculine curiosity had been aroused by the
advent of Bostoc's van. He had observed

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the incoming of the package from the
window, and he had ventured to the

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hall to inspect it. The event
had roused him wonderfully from the heavy torpor

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which a cold induces. He wore
a dressing gown, the pockets of which

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bulged with handkerchiefs. You oughtn't to
be out here, Stephen, said his

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wife. Nonsense, he said,
why upon my soul, this steam heat

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is warmer than the dining room fire. Vera, silenced by the voice of

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truth, could not reply. Stephen
bent his great height to inspect the package.

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It was an appetizing Christmas package.
Straw escaped from between its ribs,

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and it had an air of being
filled with something at once large and dead.

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Oh, observed Stephen humorously. Ah
so this is it? Is it?

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Ah? Oh? Very good?
And he walked round it. How

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on earth had he learnt that she
had bought it. She had not mentioned

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the purchase to mister Woodruff. Yes, Stephen, she said timidly, that's

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it, and I hope he ought
to hold a tidy few cigars. That

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ought, remarked Stephen complacently. He
took it for the cigar cabinet. She

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paused, struck. She had to
make up her mind in an instant.

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Oh yes, she murmured. A
thousand, Yes, a thousand, she

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said, I thought so, murmured
Stephen. I mustn't kiss you because I've

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got a cold, said he.
But all the same, I'm awfully obliged.

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VERA suppose we have it open now, eh, Then we could decide

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where it is to go, and
I could put my cigars in it.

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Oh no, she protested, don't
know, Stephen, that's not fair.

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It must be opened before Christmas morning. But I gave you my vases yesterday.

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That's different, she said, Christmas
is Christmas. Oh very well,

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he yielded, that's all right,
my dear. Then he began to sniff.

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There's a deuced, odd smell from
it. He said. Perhaps it's

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the wood. She faltered, I
hope it isn't, he said, I

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expect it's the straw. A deuced
odd's smell. We'll have the thing put

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in the side hall next to the
clock. It'll be out of the way

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00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:33,920
there and I can come and gaze
at it when I feel depressed, eh

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00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:38,279
Maria. He was undoubtedly charmed at
the prospect of owning so large and precious

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a cigar cabinet, considering that the
parcel which he had given to Penkethman to

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00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:49,119
put in the music stool comprised a
half pound of Bosstoc's very ripest gorgan Zola

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cheese, brought at the cook's special
request. The smell, which proceeded from

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the mysterious inwards of the packing gase, did not surprise Verra at all,

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but its inserted her none the less, and she wondered how she could get

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the cheese out. For thirty hours, the smell from the unopened packing case

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waxed in vigor and strength. Stephen's
cold grew worse and prevented him from appreciating

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00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:18,000
its full beauty, But he saved
enough of it to induce him to compare

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it facetiously with the effluvium of a
dead rat, and he said several times

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that Bostocks really ought to use better
straw. He was frequently to be seen

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in the hall gloating over his cigar
cabinet. Once he urged Vera to have

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it opened and so get rid of
the straw, but she refused and found

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the nerve to tell him that he
was exaggerating the odor. She was at

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a loss what to do. She
could not get up in the middle of

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the night and unpack the package and
hide its guilty secret. Indeed, to

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unpack the package would bring about her
ruin instantly, or the package unpacked,

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Stephen would naturally expect to see the
cigar cabinet, and so the hours crept

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on to Christmas and Vera's undoing.
She gave herself a headache. It was

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just thirty hours after the arrival of
the package when mister Woodruff dropped in for

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tea. Stephen was asleep in the
dining room, which apartment he particularly affected

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during his colds. Woodruff was shown
into the drawing room where Vera was having

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her head ache. Vera brightened,
In fact, she suddenly grew very bright,

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and she gave Woodruff tea and took
some herself, and Woodruff passed an

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enjoyable twenty minutes. The two Venetian
vases were on the mantelpiece. Vera rose

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into ecstasies about them and called upon
Charlie Woodruff to rise too. He got

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00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:44,920
up from his chair to examine the
vases, which Vera had placed close together,

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side by side, at the corner
of the mantelpiece nearest to him.

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Vera and Woodrooff also stood close together, side by side, and just as

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Woodruff was about to handle the vases, Vera knocked his arm. His arm

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collided with bon vase. That vase
collided with the next, and both fell

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to earth to the hard, unfeeling, unyielding tiles of the hearth. Four

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they were smashed to atoms. Vera
screamed, She screamed twice and ran out

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of the room. Stephen, Stephen, she cried hysterically, Charlie has broken

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my vases, both of them.
It is too bad of him, He's

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really too clumsy. There was a
terrific pother. Stephen wakened violently, and

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in a moment all three were staring
in effectually at the thousand crystal fragments on

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the hearth. But began Charlie Woodruff, and that was all he did say.

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He and Vera and Stephen had been
friends since infancy, so she had

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the right not to conceal her feelings
before him. Stephen had the same right,

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and they both exercised it, but
began Charlie again, Oh, never

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mind, Stephen stopped him curtly.
Accidents can't be helped. I shall get

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00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:03,960
another pair, said Woodruff. No
you won't, replied Stephen. You can't.

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There isn't another pair in the world. See. The two men simultaneously

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perceived that Vera was weeping. She
was very pretty in tears, but that

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did not prevent the masculine world from
feeling awkward and self conscious. Charley had

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notions about going out and burying himself. Come Vera, come, her husband

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enjoined, blowing his nose with unnecessary
energy, bad as his cold was.

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I I like those vases more than
anything you've you've ever given me. Vera

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blubbered charmingly, patting her eyes.
Stephen glanced at Woodruff as who should say,

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well, my boy, you uncork
those tears. I'll leave you to

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deal with them. You see,
I'm an invalid and addressing gown. I

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leave you and went no, no, but look here, look here,

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I say, Charlie. Woodruff expostulated
to Vera. When he was alone with

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her, he often started and expostulation
with that singular phrase, I'm awfully sorry.

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I don't know how it happened.
You must let me give you something

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else. Vera shook her head.
No, she said, I wanted Stephen

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awfully to give me that music stool
that I told you about a fortnight ago,

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but he gave me the vases instead, and I like them ever so

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00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:23,480
much better. I shall give you
the music stool if you wanted it a

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00:22:23,519 --> 00:22:26,680
fortnight ago, you want it now. It won't make up for the vases,

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of course. But no, no, said Vera positively. Why not?

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I do not wish you to give
me anything. It wouldn't be quite

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nice. Vera insisted. But I
give you something every Christmas, do you,

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00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:47,359
asked Vera innocently. Yes, and
you and Stephen give me something.

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Besides, Stephen doesn't quite like the
music stool. What's that got to do

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with it? You like it,
I'm giving it to you, not him.

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I shall go over to Bostocks tomorrow
morning and get it. I forbid

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00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:06,519
you to I shall. Woodruff departed
within five minutes. The Cheswudine coachman was

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00:23:06,599 --> 00:23:10,119
driving off in the dog cart,
a hanbridge, with the packing case in

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00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:14,240
the back of the cart and a
note. He brought back the cigar cabinet.

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Stephen had not stirred from the dining
room, afraid to encounter a tearful

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wife. Presently, his wife came
into the dining room bearing the vast load

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of the cigar cabinet in her delicate
arms. I thought it might amuse you

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to fill it with your cigars,
just to pass the time, she said.

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Stephen thought was well, women take
the cake. It was a thought

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that occurs frequently to the husband's of
Vera's. There was ripe gorgan zola at

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dinner. Stephen met it as one
meets a person whom one fancies one has

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00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:56,279
met somewhere but cannot remember where.
The next afternoon, the music stool came

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for the second time into the house. Charlie brought it in his dogcart.

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It was unpacked ostentatiously by the radiant
Vera. What could Stephen say in depreciation

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of this gift from their oldest and
best friend? As a fact, he

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could and did say a great deal. But he said it when he happened

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to be all alone in the drawing
room and had observed the appalling way in

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which the music stool did not go
with the Chippendale. Look at the deep

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thing, he exclaimed to himself.
Look at it. However, the Christmas

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00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,559
dinner party was a brilliant success,
and after it Vera sat on the Art

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nouveaux music stool and twittered songs.
And what with her being so attractive and

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00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:44,039
bird like, and what with the
Christmas feeling in the air well, Stephen

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00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:51,799
resigned himself to the music stool.
End of Vera's first Christmas adventure.