"It snowed softly on , which was the fourth year of 's reign, and on Christmas morning a fleece as white and soft as a lay over London town. It hid the wooden gables and the red roof tiles, it hid the piles of filth dumped into the narrow . It muffled the rumble of carts, the clop-clop of hooves, the acrid cries of the street venders, but the church bells clanged out clear as ever above the stilled city. And while in the impatiently pounded snail shells in a , she heard rowdy singing directly outside the shop door on Old Bailey Street. "Is it ?" she cried, throwing her down on the counter top and rushing to the twinkling-pained, ."