"I wish you wouldn't laugh at me, Hermione. It isn't kind. I can't
help being plain."
"No," said Hermione, putting her head a little on one side. "Nothing
will ever give you remarkably good eyes, or much of a nose, or anything
special of a mouth; but you have got a complexion now, and your cheeks
have filled out."
"Oh, I was always fat," I said.
"Well, but they look different," she said; "I can't tell why."
I knew, but I would not enlighten her. I knew that it was the excellent
food that I now had, and the warm rooms to live in, and the good
influence of a comfortable home. I was not going to betray myself,
however.
"You must be having a jolly time," said Hermione. "Oh! if anything were
to give me a step-mother, I should pine and long for a sort of Grace
Donnithorne."
"She is a dear," I said.
Hermione looked at me very gravely.
"Dumps," she said, "you don't like her in your heart."
"Hermione, how dare you say it?"
"You know you don't. The moment I saw you I was certain of it."
"I wish you wouldn't read people like that," I said.
"I saw it, and I was sorry; for the fact is, you have only known Grace
for a little--a very little--time."
"For two months," I said.
"And I have known her ever since I have known anybody at all."
"Then, of course, it is natural that you should be fond of her."
"Not at all. There are other people I have known, so to speak, from my
birth. There is old Mr Chatterton, and there is Mrs Frazer. Now, I
detest fussy Mrs Frazer, and I run away a mile from Mr Chatterton. It
isn't the time I have known Grace, but because she is what she is."
"Well, I suppose," I said, "you are going to give me a lecture about
her?"
"No, I am not; but I am simply going to say this--that you are in rare
luck to have got the most amiable woman in the whole of Essex to be your
step-mother. And then, Dumps dear, she is so jolly rich! She can give
you all sorts of comforts. And what is more, she is awfully fond of
you; she said so."
"Fond of me? She couldn't be!"
"She is, poor darling! She said so in such a loving and sad way just
now. I know why she is sad; it is because you won't return her love."
"Never mind," I said, jumping to my feet. I went over to the window and
looked out.
"Hermione," I said, "let us talk of something else."
"Of course. For instance, how will you like your new school?"
"What new school?"