There , Jeff , you can not accuse me of not making my meaning plain . '' `` Sara , '' he whispered , wondering , bewildered , half-afraid to believe this unbelievable joy . `` I 'm not half worthy of you -- but -- but '' -- he bent forward and put his arm around her , looking straight into her clear , unshrinking eyes . `` Sara , will you be my wife ? '' `` Yes . '' She said the word clearly and truly . `` And I will think myself a proud and happy and honoured woman to be so , Jeff . Oh , I do n't shrink from telling you the truth , you see . You mean too much to me for me to dissemble it . I 've hidden it for eighteen years because I did n't think you wanted to hear it , but I 'll give myself the delight of saying it frankly now . '' She lifted her delicate , high-bred face , fearless love shining in every lineament , to his , and they exchanged their first kiss . Clorinda 's Gifts `` It is a dreadful thing to be poor a fortnight before Christmas , '' said Clorinda , with the mournful sigh of seventeen years . Aunt Emmy smiled . Aunt Emmy was sixty , and spent the hours she did n't spend in a bed , on a sofa or in a wheel chair ; but Aunt Emmy was never heard to sigh . `` I suppose it is worse then than at any other time , '' she admitted . That was one of the nice things about Aunt Emmy . She always sympathized and understood . `` I 'm worse than poor this Christmas ... I 'm stony broke , '' said Clorinda dolefully . `` My spell of fever in the summer and the consequent doctor 's bills have cleaned out my coffers completely . Not a single Christmas present can I give .
And I did so want XXXXX give some little thing to each of my dearest people .
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