her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Della, being slender, had mastered the art. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Something fine and rare and sterling-something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated.

She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Which is all very good.ĭella finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called 'Jim' and greatly hugged by Mrs. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. The 'Dillingham' had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name 'Mr. She's spent a lot of the time leading up to Christmas just thinking of what to get him.In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Della basically lives for one thing (or rather, person): Jim, her husband. She spends all of her days in a cramped flat, as 'mistress of the home.' In other words, she's a homemaker. Della is the loving, warm, selfless, and occasionally hysterical heroine of the story.

O henry the gift of the magi 1905