Anne Majendie, who had come so near to Edith, had always put a certain distance between herself and her other friends.

While they were chiefly impressed with her superb superiority, and saw her forever standing on a pedestal, Edith declared that she knew nothing of Anne's austere and impressive attributes.

She protested against anything so dreary as the other people's view of her.
They and their absurd pedestals! She refused to regard her sister-in-law as an established solemnity, eminent and lonely in the scene.

Pedestals were all very well at a proper distance, but at a close view they were foreshortening to the human figure.

Other people might like to see more pedestal than Anne; she preferred to see more Anne than pedestal.