LOUISE. [_Coming back._] I bore the children to death, so I left them.
What are all these bundles, Bella?

BELLA. Christmas presents. This is just the time of the year to buy, you
know, you can get such bargains! and if there's one thing I think
nicer'n anything else to get cheap, it's Christmas presents.

GEORGIANA. You should do like Mrs. Carley, Bella, save half of the
things you get one year to give away the next.

[_She sits by the table and goes on with her work._

LOUISE. I always do that. I get so many things I can't bear.

GEORGIANA. But you must be careful not to send them back to the same
place they came from! That _has_ happened.

LOUISE. Georgiana!

[BELLA _laughs out loud and sits on the sofa._ LOUISE _sits opposite_
GEORGIANA.

GEORGIANA. What have you got? Sit down and tell us.

BELLA. Thank you, ma'am. [_Delighted with the opportunity. Taking up the
different parcels._] Well, I've got an elegant pair of scissors for
mother, marked down because of a flaw in the steel, but she's
near-sighted, and she don't want to use 'em anyway--it's just to feel
she has another pair. Scissors is mother's fad--sort of born in her, I