"I won't play at all!" said Nora. "If I can't be Esther I won't be anything. You have all the good things, Daisy! you have all the prettiest pictures; and I might have had just this one. Just Esther. I just wanted to be Esther! It's mean."
"Why, you've been plenty of things I think," said Jane
Linwood, coming near this corner of gloom.
"I haven't! I have been that hateful prince in the tower and
Cinderella's ugly sister only hateful things."
"But you were Little Red Riding-Hood."
"Red Riding-Hood!" exclaimed Nora, in unspeakable disdain. "Red Riding-Hood was nothing at all but a red cloak! and Daisy wore feathers, and had the dog "
And the vision of Queen Esther's jewels and satin gown and mantle here overcame Nora's dignity if not her wrath; she began to cry.
"But won't you come and be one of the queen's maids? They will be very nicely dressed too," Daisy ventured, gently.
"No! I won't be anybody's maid, I tell you," sobbed the disconsolate child.
"Bring her along, Daisy," Mrs. Sandford called from the other side of the room. "I am almost ready for her."
Daisy made another vain effort to bring Nora to reason, and then went sorrowfully to Mrs. Sandford. She thought tableaux were on the whole a somewhat troublesome amusement.