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little kisses Brazilian women always exchanged, and when she headed for Helen, Helen tried to avoid her, but it was too late.
    Ernestine put her arm around Helen’s neck and kissed her cheek, and drew her slightly away from the others who were congregated at the doorway. “Watch out for your Bert,” Ernestine whispered intensely. She looked almost tearful. “Keep him on the straight and narrow!”
    “Good night,” Helen said. “Good night. Thank you. Good night, Mil dear. Thank you again. Good night.” And they had escaped.
    When she and Bert were safely inside their apartment, where the maids had left lamps lighted softly in the living room and the night breeze blew the curtains inward like children playing ghosts, Helen sighed happily. She dropped her shoes and purse on the floor and sank into an armchair. “Ah, how wonderful. Merry Christmas, darling.”
    Bert smiled. “Merry Christmas. Let’s have a brandy.”
    “All right.”
    He brought two glasses of brandy and gave her one, and then sat in the other armchair. “Do you know what that woman was doing to me?” he said in a tone of delighted amusement. “I was watching to see if you noticed. She had me against the wall and she kept punctuating her conversation by bumping me with her pelvis. I swear it! ‘Tell me all about mining,’ bump, bump . ‘It must be so interesting,’ bump, bump .” He laughed.
    “Oh, no!” Helen said. “And she kept telling me about these nice virtuous people and how no one was so corny as to have affairs any more!”
    “She had hands like an octopus,” Bert said. “I had to remove each finger separately when she was talking to me.”
    “I’m delighted you’re so irresistible, dear.”
    “Oh, so am I.” They both laughed.
    “After we put out the presents, let’s open ours now ,” Helen said. “I want you to see what I found for you.”
    They went to the closet and took out the gifts for the children, all wrapped, and piled them under the tree until they reached the lowest branches. Then they found the ones each had bought for the other. “You first,” Helen said.
    She watched his face as he unwrapped the small, heavy parcel. She wanted him to like it, to feel the way she had when she found it for him; and as always when she gave a present, she was a little afraid that it would not mean what she had meant it to, that it would be only another gift.
    “It’s beautiful,” he said. He held it on his palm—a round crystal paperweight, glittering with colors from the lamplight, smooth and solid and heavy, with an inscription engraved on it.
    “Read it,” Helen whispered.
    “‘ Chance cannot change my love nor time impair …’”
    “I mean it.”
    “I know. Thank you, darling.” He handed her a narrow, small box wrapped in white paper. “This is for you.”
    She could tell by the feel of the box that it was a piece of jewelry, and when she lifted the lid she saw that it was a gold bracelet. “Oh, it’s marvelous! Thank you.” She held out her wrist for him to attach the clasp.
    “It looks very nice on you,” he said. “I was afraid it might be too heavy.”
    “No, I love it.”
    He looked at the bracelet with his head cocked slightly, appraising the look of it. “Yes. I like it.”
    The living-room clock chimed softly. “I don’t want to look,” Bert said. “What time is it? No, don’t tell me.”
    “It’s only one-thirty.”
    “And the kids will come thundering in at six.”
    “It’s not so late,” Helen said softly.
    He put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “Let’s go to bed,” he murmured.
    He always went into the bathroom ahead of her because she took so much longer than he did, and Helen walked out onto the balcony that led off their bedroom overlooking the sea. The stars seemed very low and big in the cloudless black sky, and the beach was white with moonlight. Here and there on the sand she could see a tiny figure that sometimes briefly moved apart so she