The girls were all in their best, and by and by they were to have a tableau.

Myrtle came out in all her force.

She dressed herself as nearly as she dared like the handsome woman of the past generation whom she resembled.

The very spirit of the dead beauty seemed to animate every feature and every movement of the young girl whose position in the school was assured from that moment.
She had a good solid foundation to build upon in the jealousy of two or three of the leading girls of the style of pretensions illustrated by some of their talk which has been given.

There is no possible success without some opposition as a fulcrum: force is always aggressive, and crowds something or other, if it does not hit or trample on it.
The cruelest cut of all was the remark attributed to Mr.Livingston Jerkins, who was what the opposition girls just referred to called the great "swell" among the privileged young gentlemen who were present at the gathering.
"Rip Van Myrtle, you call that handsome girl, do you, Miss Clara?
By Jove, she's the stylishest of the whole lot, to say nothing of being a first-class beauty.