Helen, proud and cold, Mary, blinking and nervous, stood pressed close together whilst other little girls stared and giggled, moved forward and then backward again, until suddenly Canon Lasker's Emily, who was fifteen and had such long legs that she was known as "the Giraffe," came up and said: "Isn't it hot! Do you play croquet?
Please-do! I'll have--the--blue ball..." And the Coles were initiated.
Meanwhile, Aunt Amy had said: "Now, Jeremy, dear, run about and make friends." Which so deeply infuriated him that he choked.

Oh! supposing the Dean's Ernest had heard her!...
And he had! A mocking voice behind him said: "Now, Jeremy, dear--" Jeremy turned round and beheld the Dean's Ernest mockingly waiting his retort.

And he could not retort.

No words would come, and he could only stand there, his cheeks flushed, aware that Ernest had grown and grown during those three months, that he wore a straw hat with a black-and-red ribbon upon it, that round his long ugly neck was a stiff white collar, and across his waistcoat a thick silver watch-chain.
"Hallo!" said Jeremy.
"Hallo!" said the new Ernest scornfully.
A long pause.
Then Ernest, turning on his heel, said to someone behind him: "Let's get away from all these girls!" The tears burnt in Jeremy's eyes, hot and salt.

He clenched his fists and gazed upon a garden that swam in a mist of tears and sunlight.