As to measuring her waist in sport , as they did , bold young brood , I could n't have done it ; I should have expected my arm to have grown round it for a punishment , and never come straight again . And yet I should have dearly liked , I own , to have touched her lips ; to have questioned her , that she might have opened them ; to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes , and never raised a blush ; to have let loose waves of hair , an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price : in short , I should have liked , I do confess , to have had the lightest licence of a child , and yet to have been man enough to know its value . But now a knocking at the door was heard , and such a rush immediately ensued that she , with laughing face and plundered dress , was borne towards it in the centre of a flushed and boisterous group , just in time to greet the father , who came home attended by a man laden with Christmas toys and presents . Then the shouting and the struggling , and the onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter ! The scaling him , with chairs for ladders , to dive into his pockets , despoil him of brown-paper parcels , hold on tight by his cravat , hug him round the neck , pummel his back , and kick his legs in irrepressible affection ! The shouts of wonder and delight with which the development of every package was received ! The terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll 's frying-pan into his mouth , and was more than suspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey , glued on a wooden platter ! The immense relief of finding this a false alarm ! The joy , and gratitude , and ecstasy ! They are all indescribable alike . It is enough that by degrees , the children and their emotions got out of the parlour , and , by one stair at a time , up to the top of the house , where they went to bed , and so subsided . And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever , when the master of the house , having his daughter leaning fondly on him , sat down with her and her mother at his own fireside ; and when he thought that such another creature , quite as graceful and as full of promise , might have called him father , and been a spring-time in the haggard winter of his life , his sight grew very dim indeed . `` Belle , '' said the husband , turning to his wife with a smile , `` I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon . '' `` Who was it ? '' `` Guess ! '' `` How can I ? Tut , do n't I know ? '' she added in the same breath , laughing as he laughed . `` Mr. Scrooge . '' `` Mr. Scrooge it was .
I passed his office window ; and XXXXX it was not shut up , and he had a candle inside , I could scarcely help seeing him .
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