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 added a carton of cigarettes to Eddie's tie. It was their first Christmas together. Too bad it couldn't have been more festive.

It would be the first year that Dot had ever passed without a Christmas tree. Well, they'd have one next year, and then there'd be somebody to enjoy it. Let's see, the baby would be five months old next Christmas. Sure, plenty old enough to enjoy a tree. He'd probably be able to eat one of those candy canes, too, but she wouldn't give it to him without asking Dr. Stewart. She made up her mind that she'd never give the baby anything without asking Dr. Stewart if he could have it.

The return of her stomach's self-possession led Dot and Eddie to accept the invitation to Sue's party. Neither of them remembered that an agreement had been reached by which Sue was to lose the Collinses as guests. In talking it over, Dot had reminded Eddie that Pat and Sue were to be married on the twenty-seventh of December. This was really Sue's last good party. Yes, Dot must make an effort to be present. So they went.

Sue lived on the top floor of a five-flight walk-up. The house was on Brook Avenue. The Cudahys had six rooms. It was very nice to give a party there, because the hall was very long and the kitchen was almost a block's walk from the parlor. This permitted Sue's mother to damn all the trouble to which the guests were putting her without the possibility of the guests hearing her. Also, there was a sort of alcove which opened out from the parlor. When renting the apartment, the agent had called it a music room, but he knew and the prospective tenant knew that it would be used for a bedroom. Tonight the bed in the so-called music room was used for wraps, and the first to arrive would perforce be the last to depart.

Off the hall were two other bedrooms and the bath. Mrs. Cudahy was all for putting lights in the bedrooms.