The other girls of the class were as young and as pretty, but none of them had that indescribable quality which seemed to raise her above them all.

Ellen still kept her blond fairness, but there was nothing of the doll-like which often characterizes the blond type.

Although she was small, Ellen's color had the firmness and unwavering of tinted marble; she carried her crown of yellow braids as if it had been gold; she moved and looked and spoke with decision.

The violent and intense temperament which she had inherited from two sides of her family had crystallized in her to something more forcible, but also more impressive.

However, she was, after all, only a young girl, scarcely more than a child, whatever her principle of underlying character might be, and when she stood there before them all--all her townspeople who represented her world, the human shore upon which her own little individuality beat--when she saw those attentive faces, row upon row, all fixed upon her, she felt her heart pound against her side; she had no sensation of the roll of paper in her hand; an awful terror as of suddenly discovered depths came over her, as the wild clapping of hands to which her appearance had given rise died away.