"After all these years of orange-blossoms and summer sun at Christmas, how good it seems to have real old Santa Claus weather! I can almost see the reindeer and smell the striped peppermint and pop-corn.

And oh, _oh_! look at that shop-window.

It is positively dazzling! And the racket--" she put her hands over her ears an instant.

"I feel that I've never really heard a loud noise till now." Joyce laughed indulgently, and stopped with her whenever she wanted to gaze in at some particularly attractive show window.

When they reached the flat, Mary still kept near her, "tagging after her," as she would have expressed it in her earlier days, so much like the little sister of that time, that Joyce still failed to see how much she had changed during their separation.
"You see it's just like a doll-house," Joyce said as she led them through the tiny rooms on a tour of inspection.