human
Oh, Betty, I do admire you!
gpt
Well, now, listen to one thing, said Betty.
human
I hate flattery.
gpt
But it isn't flattery if I mean what I say. If I do admire a person I say so. Now, I admire our darling Martha West. She has always been kind to me. Martha is a dear, a duck; but, of course, she doesn't fascinate in the way you do. Several of the other girls in my form--I'm in the upper fifth, you know--have been talking about you and wondering where your charm lay. For you couldn't be called exactly pretty; although, of course, that very black hair of yours, and those curious eyes which are no color in particular, and yet seem to be every color, and your pale face, make you quite out of the common. We love your sisters too; they are darlings, but neither of them is like you. Still, you're not exactly pretty. You haven't nearly such straight and regular features as Olive Repton; you're not as pretty, even, as Fanny Crawford. Of course Fan's a dear old thing--one of the very best girls in the school; and she is your cousin, isn't she, Betty?
human
Yes.
gpt
Betty, it is delightful to walk with you! And isn't it just wonderful to think that you've not been more than a few weeks in the school before you are made a Speciality, and with all the advantages of one? Oh, it does seem quite too wonderful!
human
I am glad you think so,
gpt
But it is very extraordinary. I don't think it has ever been done before. You see, your arrival at the school and everything else was completely out of the common. You didn't come at the beginning of term, as most new girls do; you came when term was quite a fortnight old; and you were put straight away into the upper school without going through the drudgery, or whatever you may like to call it, of the lower school. Oh, I do--yes, I do--call it perfectly wonderful! I suppose you are eaten up with conceit?
human
No, I am not, said Betty.
gpt
I am not conceited at all. Now listen, Sibyl. You are to be a guest, are you not, at our Speciality party to-night?
human
Of course I am; and I am so fearfully excited, more particularly as you are going to tell stories with the lights down. I'm going to wear a green dress; it's a gauzy sort of stuff that my aunt has just sent me, and I think it will suit me very well indeed. Oh, it is fun to think of this evening!
gpt
Yes, of course it's fun, said Betty.
human
Now, I tell you what. Why don't you go into the front garden and ask the gardener for permission to get a few small marguerite daisies, and then make them into a very simple wreath to twine round your hair? The daisies would suit you so well; you don't know how nice they'll make you look.
gpt
Will they? said Sibyl, her eyes sparkling.
human
Do you really think so?
gpt
Of course I think so. I have pictures of all the girls in my mind; and I often shut my eyes and think how such a girl would look if she were dressed in such a way, and how such another girl would look if she wore something else.
human
And when you think of me?
gpt
And when you think of me? repeated Sibyl, her face beaming all over with delight.
human
You think of me, do you, darling Betty, as wearing green, with a wreath of marguerites in my hair?
gpt
Yes, that is how I think of you,
human
Very well, I'll go and find the gardener. Mrs. Haddo always allows us to have cut flowers that the gardener gives us.
gpt
Don't have the wreath too big, said Betty;