Which excerpt from “the gift of the magi” presents the reader with the initial conflict of the story? there was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. tomorrow would be christmas day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy jim a present. she had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: " god, make him think i am still pretty." twenty dollars a week doesn't go far.