He knew what the girls gloated over.

He was sorry to be the cause of this new dissension.
"They can have all the secrets in the world," she went on, brooding bitterly; "but they might refrain from glorying in them, and making me feel more out of it than ever.

It is--it is almost unbearable." Paul thought for a few minutes.

He was much perturbed.
"I will tell you what it's all about," he said, pale and nervous.

"It's my birthday, and they've bought me a fine lot of paints, all the girls.