"I'll always have it too--like Mary's--when I'm grown up and all....

I say, shall I open the other one now ?" "Yes, you can," said Helen and Mary, ceasing to take the central place in the ceremony, spectators now and eagerly excited.
But Mary had a last word.
"You do like mine, don't you ?" "Of course, like anything." She wanted to say "Better than Helen's ?" but restrained herself.
"I was ever so long doing it; I thought I wouldn't finish it in time." He saw with terror that she meditated a descent upon him; a kiss was in the air.

She moved forward; then, to his extreme relief, the door opened and the elders arriving saved him.
There were Father and Mother, Uncle Samuel and Aunt Amy, all with presents, faces of birthday tolerance and "do-as-you-please-to-day, dear" expressions.
The Rev.Herbert Cole was forty years of age, rector of St.James's, Polchester, during the last ten years, and marked out for greater preferment in the near future.

To be a rector at thirty is unusual, but he had great religious gifts, preached an admirable "as-man-to-man" sermon, and did not believe in thinking about more than he could see.

He was an excellent father in the abstract sense, but the parish absorbed too much of his time to allow of intimacies with anyone.
Mrs.Cole was the most placid lady in Europe.