1 I can do it, for I have May Chester as a model, and I'll improve upon her.
2 To May's great delight, Mr. Laurence not only bought the vases, but pervaded the hall with one under each arm.
3 "Especially to gentlemen," added May, with a look which enlightened Amy as to one cause of her sudden fall from favor.
4 Oh, dear, I wish I hadn't asked you to speak, Mama, said May, looking disconsolately at the empty spaces on her table.
5 A group of girls were standing about May's table, admiring the pretty things, and talking over the change of saleswomen.
6 Much gratified, Jo rushed back to tell the good news, and Amy looked both touched and surprised by the report of May's word and manner.
7 Jo couldn't resist giving that little slap, but May took it so meekly she regretted it a minute after, and fell to praising the great vases, which still remained unsold.
8 I took care that the right people saw them, and they made a nice little sum of money for us, returned May, who had overcome sundry small temptations, as well as Amy had, that day.
9 "To hear is to obey, but March is fairer far than May," said little Parker, making a frantic effort to be both witty and tender, and getting promptly quenched by Laurie, who said.
10 May Chester was rather jealous of Amy because the latter was a greater favorite than herself, and just at this time several trifling circumstances occurred to increase the feeling.
11 Jo said this with such a droll imitation of May Chester's gushing style that Amy got out of the room as rapidly as possible, feeling a strong desire to laugh and cry at the same time.
12 "I ought, but I don't," thought Amy, as her eye went from the bright page to May's discontented face behind the big vases, that could not hide the vacancies her pretty work had once filled.
13 But the letter telling that Beth was failing never reached Amy, and when the next found her at Vevay, for the heat had driven them from Nice in May, and they had travelled slowly to Switzerland, by way of Genoa and the Italian lakes.
14 "You can put your own things on your own table, if you prefer," began May, feeling a little conscience-stricken, as she looked at the pretty racks, the painted shells, and quaint illuminations Amy had so carefully made and so gracefully arranged.