Latest / The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library / The Little Princess Chapter 6 - The Diamond Mines
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: CHAPTER VI. THE DIAMOND MINDS Not very long after this
- 0:16Speaker 1: a very exciting thing happened. Not only Sarah but the
- 0:20Speaker 1: entire school found it exciting and made it the chief
- 0:23Speaker 1: subject of conversation for weeks after it occurred. In one
- 0:27Speaker 1: of his letters he Captain Crewe told a most interesting story.
- 0:31Speaker 1: A friend who had been at school with him when
- 0:33Speaker 1: he was a boy had unexpectedly come to see him
- 0:36Speaker 1: in India. He was the owner of a large tract
- 0:39Speaker 1: of land upon which diamonds had been found, and he
- 0:42Speaker 1: was engaged in developing the mines. If all went as
- 0:46Speaker 1: was confidently expected, he would become possessed of such wealth
- 0:50Speaker 1: as it made one dizzy to think of, and because
- 0:53Speaker 1: he was fond of the friend of his school days,
- 0:55Speaker 1: he had given him an opportunity to share in this
- 0:57Speaker 1: enormous fortune by becoming a partner in his scheme. This,
- 1:02Speaker 1: at least, was what Sarah gathered from his letters. It
- 1:05Speaker 1: is true that any other business scheme, however magnificent, would
- 1:09Speaker 1: have had but small attraction for her or for the schoolroom.
- 1:12Speaker 1: But diamond mines sounded so like the Arabian Nights that
- 1:16Speaker 1: no one could be indifferent. Sarah thought them enchanting and
- 1:21Speaker 1: painted pictures for Ermengarde and Lottie of labyrinthine passages in
- 1:25Speaker 1: the bowels of the earth where sparkling stones studded the
- 1:28Speaker 1: walls and roofs and ceilings and strange dark men dug
- 1:32Speaker 1: them out with heavy picks. Ermengarde delighted in the story
- 1:36Speaker 1: and Lottie insisted on its being retold to her every evening.
- 1:40Speaker 1: Lavinia was very spiteful about it and told Jessie that
- 1:43Speaker 1: she didn't believe such things as diamond mines existed. My
- 1:48Speaker 1: mama has a diamond ring which cost forty pounds, she said.
- 1:52Speaker 1: And it is not a big one either. If there
- 1:55Speaker 1: were mines full of diamonds, people would be so rich
- 1:57Speaker 1: it would be ridiculous. Perhaps Sarah will be so rich
- 2:01Speaker 1: that she will be ridiculous, giggled Jessie. She's ridiculous without
- 2:06Speaker 1: being rich, Lavinia sniffed. I believe you hate her, said Jessie. No,
- 2:13Speaker 1: I don't, snapped Lavinia. But I don't believe in mines
- 2:17Speaker 1: full of diamonds. Well, people have to get them from somewhere,
- 2:21Speaker 1: said Jessie.' Lavinia!' with a new giggle.' What do you
- 2:26Speaker 1: think Gertrude says?'' I don't know, I'm sure, and I
- 2:30Speaker 1: don't care if it's something more about that everlasting Sarah.'' Well,
- 2:34Speaker 1: it is. One of her pretends is that she is
- 2:37Speaker 1: a princess. She plays it all the time, even in school.
- 2:41Speaker 1: She says it makes her learn her lessons better. She
- 2:44Speaker 1: wants Ermengarde to be one too, but Ermengarde says she
- 2:47Speaker 1: is too fat.'' She is too fat,' said Lavinia.' and
- 2:52Speaker 1: Sarah is too thin. Naturally, Jessie giggled again. She says
- 2:57Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with what you look like
- 2:59Speaker 1: or what you have. It has only to do with
- 3:01Speaker 1: what you think of and what you do. I suppose
- 3:05Speaker 1: she thinks she could be a princess if she was
- 3:07Speaker 1: a beggar, said Lavinia. Let us begin to call her
- 3:12Speaker 1: Your Royal Highness. Lessons for the day were over, and
- 3:17Speaker 1: they were sitting before the schoolroom fire, enjoying the time
- 3:20Speaker 1: they liked best. It was the time when Miss Minchin
- 3:23Speaker 1: and Miss Amelia were taking their tea in the sitting-room
- 3:26Speaker 1: sacred to themselves. At this hour a great deal of
- 3:30Speaker 1: talking was done, and a great many secrets changed hands,
- 3:34Speaker 1: particularly if the younger pupils behaved themselves well and did
- 3:37Speaker 1: not squabble or run about noisily, which, it must be confessed,
- 3:41Speaker 1: they usually did. When they made an uproar the older
- 3:45Speaker 1: girls usually interfered with scolding and shakes. They were expected
- 3:49Speaker 1: to keep order, and there was danger that if they
- 3:52Speaker 1: did not, Miss Minchin or Miss Amelia would appear and
- 3:55Speaker 1: put an end to festivities. Even as Lavinia spoke, the
- 3:58Speaker 1: door opened and Sarah entered with Lottie, whose habit was
- 4:02Speaker 1: to trot everywhere after her like a little dog.' There
- 4:05Speaker 1: she is, with that horrid child!' exclaimed Lavinia in a whisper.'
- 4:09Speaker 1: If she's so fond of her, why doesn't she keep
- 4:12Speaker 1: her in her own room? She'll begin howling about something
- 4:15Speaker 1: in five minutes!' It happened that Lottie had been seized
- 4:19Speaker 1: with a sudden desire to play in the schoolroom and
- 4:22Speaker 1: had begged her adopted parent to come with her. She
- 4:25Speaker 1: joined a group of little ones who were playing in
- 4:27Speaker 1: a corner. Sarah curled herself up in the window seat,
- 4:31Speaker 1: opened a book, and began to read. It was a
- 4:35Speaker 1: book about the French Revolution, and she was soon lost
- 4:38Speaker 1: in a harrowing picture of the prisoners in the Bastille,
- 4:41Speaker 1: men who had spent so many years in dungeons that
- 4:44Speaker 1: when they were dragged out by those who rescued them—
- 4:47Speaker 1: Their long gray hair and beards almost hid their faces,
- 4:51Speaker 1: and they had forgotten that an outside world existed at
- 4:53Speaker 1: all and were like beings in a dream. She was
- 4:57Speaker 1: so far away from the schoolroom that it was not
- 5:00Speaker 1: agreeable to be dragged back suddenly by a howl from Lottie.
- 5:04Speaker 1: Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep
- 5:06Speaker 1: herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed
- 5:09Speaker 1: while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of
- 5:12Speaker 1: books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them
- 5:15Speaker 1: at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and
- 5:19Speaker 1: snappish is one not easy to manage. It makes me
- 5:24Speaker 1: feel as if someone had hit me, Sarah had told
- 5:26Speaker 1: Ermengarde once in confidence, and as if I want to
- 5:30Speaker 1: hit back. I have to remember things quickly to keep
- 5:33Speaker 1: from saying something ill-tempered. She had to remember things quickly
- 5:38Speaker 1: when she laid her book on the window seat and
- 5:40Speaker 1: jumped down from her comfortable corner. Lottie had been sliding
- 5:44Speaker 1: across the schoolroom floor, and having first irritated Lavinia and
- 5:48Speaker 1: Jessie by making a noise, had ended by falling down
- 5:51Speaker 1: and hurting her fat knee. She was screaming and dancing
- 5:55Speaker 1: up and down in the midst of a group of
- 5:57Speaker 1: friends and enemies who were alternately coaxing and scolding her.'
- 6:00Speaker 1: Stop it this minute, you crybaby! Stop this minute!' Lavinia commanded.'
- 6:06Speaker 1: I' m not a crybaby! I'm not!' wailed Lottie.' Sarah! Sarah!'
- 6:14Speaker 1: If she doesn't stop, Miss Minchin will hear her, cried Jessie. Lottie, darling,
- 6:19Speaker 1: I'll give you a penny. I don't want your penny,
- 6:22Speaker 1: sobbed Lottie, and she looked down at the fat knee,
- 6:25Speaker 1: and seeing a drop of blood on it, burst forth again.
- 6:29Speaker 1: Sarah flew across the room, and kneeling down, put her
- 6:32Speaker 1: arms round her. Now, Lottie, she said. Now, Lottie, you
- 6:37Speaker 1: promised Sarah. She said I was a crybaby, wept Lottie.
- 6:43Speaker 1: Sarah patted her, but spoke in the steady voice Lottie knew.
- 6:48Speaker 1: But if you cry, you will be one, Lottie Pet.
- 6:51Speaker 1: You promised. Lottie remembered that she had promised, but she
- 6:55Speaker 1: preferred to lift up her voice. I haven't any, Mama,
- 7:00Speaker 1: she proclaimed. I haven't a bit of Mama. Yes, you have,
- 7:05Speaker 1: said Sarah cheerfully. Have you forgotten? Don't you know that
- 7:09Speaker 1: Sarah is your Mama? Don't you want Sarah for your Mama?
- 7:13Speaker 1: Lottie cuddled up to her with a consoled sniff. Come
- 7:17Speaker 1: and sit in the window seat with me, Sarah went on,
- 7:21Speaker 1: and I'll whisper a story to you. Will you, whimpered Lottie,
- 7:26Speaker 1: will you tell me about the diamond mines? The diamond mines,
- 7:32Speaker 1: broke out Lavinia. Nasty little spoiled thing, I should like
- 7:36Speaker 1: to slap her. Sarah got up quickly on her feet.
- 7:40Speaker 1: It must be remembered that she had been very deeply
- 7:43Speaker 1: absorbed in the book about the Bastille, and she had
- 7:45Speaker 1: had to recall several things rapidly when she realized that
- 7:49Speaker 1: she must go and take care of her adopted child.
- 7:52Speaker 1: She was not an angel, and she was not fond
- 7:54Speaker 1: of Lavinia. Well, she said with some fire, I should
- 7:59Speaker 1: like to slap you, but I don't want to slap you,
- 8:03Speaker 1: restraining herself. At least, I both want to slap you
- 8:06Speaker 1: and I should like to slap you, but I won't
- 8:08Speaker 1: slap you. We are not little gutter children. We are
- 8:11Speaker 1: both old enough to know better. Here was Lavinia's opportunity. Ah, yes,
- 8:18Speaker 1: your royal highness, she said. We are princesses, I believe.
- 8:25Speaker 1: At least one of us is. The school ought to
- 8:27Speaker 1: be very fashionable now Miss Minchin has a princess for
- 8:30Speaker 1: a pupil. Sarah started toward her. She looked as if
- 8:35Speaker 1: she were going to box her ears. Perhaps she was.
- 8:38Speaker 1: Her trick of pretending things was the joy of her life.
- 8:42Speaker 1: She never spoke of it to girls she was not
- 8:44Speaker 1: fond of. Her new pretend about being a princess was
- 8:47Speaker 1: very near to her heart, and she was shy and
- 8:50Speaker 1: sensitive about it. She had meant it to be rather
- 8:53Speaker 1: a secret, and here was Lavinia deriding it before nearly
- 8:56Speaker 1: all the school. She felt the blood rush up into
- 8:59Speaker 1: her face and tingle in her ears. She only just
- 9:03Speaker 1: saved herself. If you were a princess you did not
- 9:06Speaker 1: fly into rages. Her hand dropped, and she stood quite
- 9:10Speaker 1: still a moment. When she spoke, it was in a quiet,
- 9:14Speaker 1: steady voice. She held her head up, and everybody listened
- 9:18Speaker 1: to her.' It' s true,' she said.' Sometimes I do pretend
- 9:23Speaker 1: I am a princess. I pretend I am a princess
- 9:27Speaker 1: so that I can try and behave like one.' Lavinia
- 9:30Speaker 1: could not think of exactly the right thing to say,
- 9:33Speaker 1: Several times she had found that she could not think
- 9:35Speaker 1: of a satisfactory reply when she was dealing with Sarah.
- 9:39Speaker 1: The reason for this was that, somehow, the rest always
- 9:42Speaker 1: seemed to be vaguely in sympathy with her opponent. She
- 9:46Speaker 1: saw now that they were pricking up their ears interestedly.
- 9:49Speaker 1: The truth was, they liked princesses, and they all hoped
- 9:53Speaker 1: they might hear something more definite about this one, and
- 9:56Speaker 1: drew nearer Sarah accordingly. Lavinia could only in one remark,
- 10:01Speaker 1: and it fell rather flat.' Dear me,' she said,' I
- 10:06Speaker 1: hope when you ascend the throne you won't forget us.''
- 10:08Speaker 1: I won't,' said Sarah, and she did not utter another word,
- 10:14Speaker 1: but stood quite still, and stared at her steadily as
- 10:17Speaker 1: she saw her take Jessie's arm and turn away. After this,
- 10:22Speaker 1: the girls who were jealous of her used to speak
- 10:24Speaker 1: of her as Princess Sarah whenever they wished to be
- 10:27Speaker 1: particularly disdainful, and those who were fond of her gave
- 10:30Speaker 1: her the name among themselves as a term of affection.
- 10:34Speaker 1: No one called her Princess instead of Sarah, but her
- 10:37Speaker 1: adorers were much pleased with the picturesqueness and grandeur of
- 10:40Speaker 1: the title, and Miss Minchin, hearing of it, mentioned it
- 10:44Speaker 1: more than once to visiting parents, feeling that it rather
- 10:48Speaker 1: suggested a sort of royal boarding school. To Becky it
- 10:52Speaker 1: seemed the most appropriate thing in the world. The acquaintance,
- 10:56Speaker 1: begun on the foggy afternoon when she had jumped up
- 10:58Speaker 1: terrified from her sleep in the comfortable chair, had ripened
- 11:02Speaker 1: and grown, though it must be confessed that Miss Minchin
- 11:05Speaker 1: and Miss Amelia knew very little about it. They were
- 11:08Speaker 1: aware that Sarah was kind to the scullery-maid, but they
- 11:11Speaker 1: knew nothing of certain delightful moments snatched perilously when, the
- 11:16Speaker 1: upstairs rooms being set in order with lightning rapidity, Sarah's
- 11:20Speaker 1: sitting room was reached, and the heavy coal box set
- 11:23Speaker 1: down with a sigh of joy. At such times, stories
- 11:27Speaker 1: were told by installments. Things of a satisfying nature were
- 11:31Speaker 1: either produced and eaten or hastily tucked into pockets to
- 11:35Speaker 1: be disposed of at night, when Becky went upstairs to
- 11:38Speaker 1: her attic to bed. but I asked to eat them careful, miss,
- 11:42Speaker 1: she said once, because if I leave crumbs, the rats
- 11:45Speaker 1: come out to get them. Rats? exclaimed Sarah in horror.
- 11:50Speaker 1: Are there rats there? Lots of them, miss, Becky answered
- 11:54Speaker 1: in quite a matter-of-fact manner. They're mostly as rats and
- 11:58Speaker 1: mice and addicts. You get used to the noise they
- 12:00Speaker 1: make scuttling about. I've got so I don't mind them,
- 12:03Speaker 1: not only they don't run over my pillar. Ugh, said Sarah.
- 12:08Speaker 1: You get used to anything after a bit said Becky.
- 12:12Speaker 1: You have to, miss, if you're born a scullery maid.
- 12:15Speaker 1: I'd rather have rats than cockroaches. So would I, said Sarah.
- 12:21Speaker 1: I suppose you might make friends with a rat in time,
- 12:23Speaker 1: but I don't believe I should like to make friends
- 12:26Speaker 1: with a cockroach. Sometimes Becky did not dare to spend
- 12:30Speaker 1: more than a few minutes in the bright, warm room,
- 12:33Speaker 1: and when this was the case, perhaps only a few
- 12:35Speaker 1: words could be exchanged. and a small purchase slipped into
- 12:39Speaker 1: the old-fashioned pocket Becky carried under her dress skirt tied
- 12:42Speaker 1: round her waist with a band of tape. The search
- 12:46Speaker 1: for and discovery of satisfying things to eat which could
- 12:49Speaker 1: be packed into small compass added a new interest to
- 12:52Speaker 1: Sarah's existence. When she drove or walked out she used
- 12:56Speaker 1: to look into shop windows eagerly. The first time it
- 12:59Speaker 1: occurred to her to bring home two or three little
- 13:02Speaker 1: meat pies she felt that she had hit upon a discovery.
- 13:05Speaker 1: When she exhibited them Becky's eyes quite sparkled.' Oh, miss,'
- 13:11Speaker 1: she murmured,' they will be nice and fillin'.' It' s filliness
- 13:15Speaker 1: that's best.' Sponge cake's a heavenly thing, but it melts
- 13:19Speaker 1: away like,' if you understand, miss.' These' ll just stay in
- 13:23Speaker 1: your stomach.'' Well,' hesitated Sarah,' I don't think it would
- 13:29Speaker 1: be good if they stayed always,' but I do believe
- 13:31Speaker 1: they will be satisfying.'' They were satisfying,' and so were
- 13:36Speaker 1: beef sandwiches bought at a cook-shop, and so were rolls
- 13:40Speaker 1: and bologna sausage. In time, Becky began to lose her hungry,
- 13:45Speaker 1: tired feeling, and the coal-box did not seem so unbearably heavy.
- 13:50Speaker 1: However heavy it was, and whatsoever the temper of the
- 13:53Speaker 1: cook and the hardness of the work heaped upon her shoulders,
- 13:57Speaker 1: she had always the chance of the afternoon to look
- 13:59Speaker 1: forward to, the chance that Miss Sarah would be able
- 14:02Speaker 1: to be in her sitting-room. In fact, the mere seeing
- 14:06Speaker 1: of Miss Sarah would have been enough without meat pies.
- 14:09Speaker 1: If there was time only for a few words, they
- 14:12Speaker 1: were always friendly, merry words that put heart into one.
- 14:15Speaker 1: And if there was time for more, then there was
- 14:18Speaker 1: an installment of a story to be told, or some
- 14:20Speaker 1: other thing one remembered afterward, and sometimes lay awake in
- 14:24Speaker 1: one's bed in the attic to think over. Sarah, who
- 14:28Speaker 1: was only doing what she unconsciously liked better than anything else,
- 14:31Speaker 1: nature having made her for a giver, had not the
- 14:34Speaker 1: least idea what she meant to poor Becky, and how
- 14:37Speaker 1: wonderful a benefactor she seemed. If nature has made you
- 14:41Speaker 1: for a giver, your hands are born open, and so
- 14:45Speaker 1: is your heart. And though there may be times when
- 14:47Speaker 1: your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and
- 14:50Speaker 1: you can give things out of that. Warm things, kind things,
- 14:55Speaker 1: sweet things, help and comfort and laughter, and sometimes gay,
- 15:00Speaker 1: kind laughter is the best help of all. Becky had
- 15:04Speaker 1: scarcely known what laughter was through all her poor little
- 15:07Speaker 1: hard-driven life. Sarah made her laugh, and laughed with her,
- 15:11Speaker 1: and though neither of them quite knew it, the laughter
- 15:14Speaker 1: was as filling as the meat pies. A few weeks
- 15:18Speaker 1: before Sarah's eleventh birthday, a letter came to her from
- 15:21Speaker 1: her father, which did not seem to be written in
- 15:24Speaker 1: such boyish high spirits as usual. He was not very well,
- 15:28Speaker 1: and was evidently overweighted by the business connected with the
- 15:31Speaker 1: diamond mines. You see, little Sarah, he wrote, your daddy
- 15:37Speaker 1: is not a businessman at all, and figures and documents
- 15:40Speaker 1: bother him. He does not really understand them, and all
- 15:44Speaker 1: this seems so enormous. Perhaps if I was not feverish
- 15:48Speaker 1: I should not be awake, tossing about one half of
- 15:51Speaker 1: the night and spend the other half in troublesome dreams.
- 15:55Speaker 1: If my little missus were here, I dare say she
- 15:57Speaker 1: would give me some solemn good advice. You would, wouldn't you,
- 16:01Speaker 1: little missus? One of his many jokes had been to
- 16:05Speaker 1: call her his little missus, because she had such an
- 16:07Speaker 1: old-fashioned air. He had made wonderful preparations for her birthday.
- 16:13Speaker 1: Among other things, a new doll had been ordered in Paris,
- 16:17Speaker 1: and her wardrobe was to be indeed a marvel of
- 16:19Speaker 1: splendid perfection. When she had replied to the letter asking
- 16:23Speaker 1: her if the doll would be an acceptable present, Sarah
- 16:26Speaker 1: had been very quaint.' I am getting very old,' she wrote.'
- 16:31Speaker 1: You see, I shall never live to have another doll
- 16:34Speaker 1: given me. This will be my last doll. There is
- 16:37Speaker 1: something solemn about it. If I could write poetry, I
- 16:41Speaker 1: am sure a poem about a last doll would be
- 16:43Speaker 1: very nice. But I cannot write poetry. I have tried,
- 16:47Speaker 1: and it made me laugh. It does not sound like
- 16:50Speaker 1: Watts or Coleridge or Shakespeare at all. No one could
- 16:54Speaker 1: ever take Emily's place. But I should respect the last
- 16:57Speaker 1: doll very much, and I am sure the school would
- 16:59Speaker 1: love it. They all like dolls, though some of the
- 17:03Speaker 1: big ones, the almost fifteen ones, pretend they are too
- 17:06Speaker 1: grown up. Captain Crewe had a splitting headache when he
- 17:10Speaker 1: read this letter in his bungalow in India. The table
- 17:13Speaker 1: before him was heaped with papers and letters which were
- 17:16Speaker 1: alarming him and filling him with anxious dread, but he
- 17:19Speaker 1: laughed as he had not laughed for weeks.' Oh,' he said,
- 17:23Speaker 1: 'she's better fun every year she lives.' God grant this
- 17:28Speaker 1: business may right itself and leave me free to run
- 17:31Speaker 1: home and see her. What wouldn't I give to have
- 17:33Speaker 1: her little arms round my neck this minute? What wouldn't
- 17:37Speaker 1: I give? The birthday was to be celebrated by great festivities.
- 17:42Speaker 1: The schoolroom was to be decorated, and there was to
- 17:45Speaker 1: be a party. The boxes containing the presents were to
- 17:48Speaker 1: be opened with great ceremony, and there was to be
- 17:51Speaker 1: a glittering feast spread in Miss Minchin's sacred room. When
- 17:54Speaker 1: the day arrived, the whole house was in a whirl
- 17:56Speaker 1: of excitement. How the morning passed nobody quite knew, because
- 18:01Speaker 1: there seemed such preparations to be made. The schoolroom was
- 18:04Speaker 1: being decked with garlands of holly, the desks had been
- 18:07Speaker 1: moved away, and red covers had been put on the forms,
- 18:10Speaker 1: which were arrayed around the room against the wall. When
- 18:14Speaker 1: Sarah went into her sitting-room in the morning, she found
- 18:17Speaker 1: on the table a small dumpy package tied up in
- 18:20Speaker 1: a piece of brown paper. She knew it was a present,
- 18:23Speaker 1: and she thought she could guess whom it came from.
- 18:26Speaker 1: she opened it quite tenderly. It was a square pincushion
- 18:30Speaker 1: made of not quite clean red flannel, and black pins
- 18:34Speaker 1: had been stuck carefully into it to form the words,
- 18:38Speaker 1: Many happy returns. Oh, cried Sarah with a warm feeling
- 18:43Speaker 1: in her heart, what pain she has taken. I like
- 18:46Speaker 1: it so. It makes me feel sorrowful. But the next
- 18:51Speaker 1: moment she was mystified. On the underside of the pincushion
- 18:55Speaker 1: was secured a card, bearing in neat letters the name
- 18:58Speaker 1: Miss Amelia Minchin. Sarah turned it over and over. Miss Amelia,
- 19:04Speaker 1: she said to herself, how can it be? And just
- 19:07Speaker 1: at that very moment she heard the door being cautiously
- 19:10Speaker 1: pushed open and saw Becky peeping round it. There was
- 19:13Speaker 1: an affectionate happy grin on her face and she shuffled
- 19:16Speaker 1: forward and stood nervously pulling at her fingers. Do you
- 19:20Speaker 1: like it, Miss Sarah? she said. Do you? Like it,
- 19:25Speaker 1: cried Sarah. You darling Becky, you made it all yourself.
- 19:29Speaker 1: Becky gave a hysteric but joyful sniff, and her eyes
- 19:32Speaker 1: looked quite moist with delight. It ain't nothing but flannan,
- 19:36Speaker 1: and the flannan ain't new, but I wanted to give
- 19:38Speaker 1: you something that I made that of nice. I knew
- 19:41Speaker 1: you could pretend it was satin with diamond pins in.
- 19:44Speaker 1: I tried to when I was making it. The card, miss,
- 19:49Speaker 1: rather doubtfully,' It weren't wrong of me to pick it
- 19:51Speaker 1: up out of the dustbin, was it?' Miss Melia had
- 19:54Speaker 1: thrown it away.' I hadn't no card of my own,'
- 19:56Speaker 1: and I know there wouldn't be proper present if it
- 19:59Speaker 1: didn't pin a card on, 'so I pinned Miss Melia's.''
- 20:01Speaker 1: Sarah flew at her and hugged her.' She could not
- 20:05Speaker 1: have told herself or anyone else' why there was a
- 20:08Speaker 1: lump in her throat.' Oh, Becky, she cried out with
- 20:12Speaker 1: a queer little laugh. I love you, Becky. I do.
- 20:15Speaker 1: I do. Oh, miss, breathed Becky. Thank you, miss, kindly.
- 20:22Speaker 1: It ain't good enough for that. The flannin' wasn't new.
- 20:27Speaker 1: End of chapter six