Irony of Burglar Returning a Package - “A Burglar's Christmas”
Willie’s conscience curbs him from ambushing an exposed lass when a prospect arises. Cather elucidates, “A girl hastened by him with her arms full of packages. She walked quickly and nervously, keeping well within the shadow, as if she were not accustomed to carrying bundles and did not care to meet any of her friends. As she crossed the muddy street, she made an effort to lift her skirt a little, and as she did so one of the packages slipped unnoticed from beneath her arm. He caught it up and overtook her. "Excuse me, but I think you dropped something." Customarily, considering the Willie’s grim position, he would have preserved the girl’s package to swell his balances of survival. Returning the package to the owner indicates that he is not an archetypical robber. The irony reveals that the Willie, instinctively, is disinterested in burglary although his state of affairs is thrusting him towards robbery.
Percy Bixby’s Apathy Towards Vacations - “The Bookkeeper's Wife”
Percy Bixby’s disinclination to take retreats is mysterious: “Young Remsen was troubled about Percy Bixby because he took no summer vacations—always asked for the two weeks' extra pay instead. Other men in the office had skipped a vacation now and then, but Percy had stuck to his desk for five years, had tottered to his stool through attacks of grippe and tonsilitis. He seemed to have grown fast to his ledger, and it was to this that Oliver objected. He liked his men to stay men, to look like men and live like men. He remembered how alert and wide-awake Bixby had seemed to him when he himself first came into the office.” Percy Bixby would have taken breaks to discontinue the wearisomeness of humdrum book-keeping. However, he eschews vacations even when he is ailing. Percy Bixby’s impetus to overstrain himself is to reimburse the company’s cash which he clandestinely arrogated to sponsor his profligate social-life and overpriced nuptials. Perchance, if Remsen had not divulged the intent to inspect the books, it would have been incredible to disentangle Percy Bixby’s indifference towards orthodox holidays.
