Page:George Weston--The apple-tree girl.djvu/52

 she remembered everyone had crowded around her pretty cousin to congratulate her, while she, who had graduated at the head of her class, had sat neglected in a corner, an old-fashioned little figure, thinking things out. And when the exercises were over, Willis Hayland had taken Margaret home—Willis Hayland, the richest young man in Penfield, while Charlotte had walked home with Aunt Grace, her beaky little nose held proudly to the stars, pretending not to care.

"Willis wanted to kiss me, too, mamma," reported Margaret next day; "and he called me his little girl and asked me if he could come over to-night." She had told her mother this before; she wanted Charlotte to hear it, too.

Charlotte heard it, but said nothing.

"I think it's dreadful, the way they've put my picture in the paper," continued Margaret, looking at the "Journal"