But Madame unhappily took it otherwise.
"This is yours," she said, putting into my hands an elegant
little bronze standish; — "and if I had another prize to
bestow for grace of good manners, I am sure I would have the
pleasure of giving you that too."
I bent again before Madame, and got back to my seat as I
could. The great business of the day was over, and we soon
scattered to our rooms. And I had not been in mine five
minutes before the penalties of being distinguished began to
come upon me.
"Well, Daisy! —" said Miss Lansing — "you've got it. How
pretty! Isn't it, Macy?"
"It isn't a bit prettier than it ought to be, for a prize in
such a school," said Miss Macy. "It will do."
"I've seen handsomer prizes," said Miss Bentley.
"But you've got it, more ways than one, Daisy," Miss Lansing
went on. "I declare! Aren't you a distinguished young lady!
Madame, too! Why, we all used to think we behaved pretty well
_before company_, — didn't we, St. Clair?"
"I hate favour and favouritism!" said that young lady, her
upper lip taking the peculiar turn to which my attention had
once been called.
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