OVER THE YEARS, Rose herself had to guard against the lurking dangers of the ego trip more and more. Her prowess as a fundraiser was amazing. Celebrities and politicians liked to be seen on the same dais with her at philanthropic events. She was admired because she not only talked the humanitarian talk but walked the walk. At Christmas she and Carrie figured out what they would have spent on presents for themselves and donated the amount to charity. They did the same thing on their birthdays. When asked about this—usually by the adoring press—Rose said it made her happy to celebrate that way. Carrie the fraud agreed eagerly. Later on, when Carrie was a teenager, if she wanted a new pair of shoes or the latest CD, the look of disappointment would cross Rose's beautiful face and she would ask in her gently reproving voice, “Do you really need it, dear?” And Carrie would backtrack fast and say no, she really didn't—not when you thought about the needs of kids who didn't have enough to eat.

There was only one time when Carrie balked. She had gone to a public elementary school, but the public high schools in Manhattan were notoriously bad. Even Rose felt a little dubious about Carrie's continuing in the system, but she wanted Carrie to give it a try before they picked out a nice parochial school. Carrie refused. Her best friend, Zoe, would be attending a pricey academy known as the Dearborn School, and that was where Carrie wanted to go. No amount of guilt-tripping or arm twisting would change her mind. Rose lectured about kids they both knew—who were no less entitled than Carrie, after all—who had to bounce from school to school, never settling long enough in one place to get a decent education, because they were homeless. She threw in the plight of the youngsters who were forced to go to schools that were death traps in neighborhoods that were war zones. But Rose's look of disappointment and sorrow had no effect. Carrie said if her mother wouldn't pay for Dearborn, she was going to apply for a scholarship. Carrie was a straight-A student who aced any test that was put in front of her, so there was a good chance that she might actually follow through on her threat and deprive some child who really needed the help. Rose agreed to send Carrie to Dearborn.

It wasn't as wonderful as Carrie had thought it would be. The rich kids at her school had never been taught about the joy of self-sacrifice. They could understand why a scholarship kid didn't have the de rigueur jacket from Charivari and didn't go skiing in Aspen during Christmas break, but Carrie wasn't poor. The Dearborn kids tried to figure out where Carrie fit in their world, and came up empty. They labeled her weird and ignored her for six years. Her only real friend was Zoe.