Floretta had already received hers, and it lay in its case on her lap.

Ellen looked at the package, not hearing in the least the Baptist minister who had taken his place on the stage, and was delivering an address.
She had felt her aunt Eva's and Amabel's eager eyes on her when she unrolled the gaudy vase; now she felt her father's and mother's.

The small, daintily tied package was inscribed "Ellen Brewster, from Father and Mother." "Why don't you open it ?" came in her ear from Floretta.

Maria was leaning forward also, over her lapful of carnations which John Sargent had presented to her.
"Why don't she open it ?" she whispered to Floretta.

They were all quite oblivious of the speaker, who moved nervously back and forth in front of them, so screening them somewhat from the observation of the audience.