I would be so glad to pick up any little hints--" "I have, of course, no time," said Aunt Amy hurriedly, "but, speaking generally, I am afraid I can't approve altogether of your system." "It isn't very good, I'm afraid," said Miss Jones weakly.

"The children would be glad, I know, to have a few hints from you if you could spare a moment--" Jeremy, who was listening, giggled, tried to turn the giggle into a sneeze and choked.
"Jeremy!" said Aunt Amy severely.
"Oh, do look, Aunt Amy!" cried Mary, always Jeremy's faithful ally, "all your hairpins are dropping out!" She devoted herself then to Jeremy and worried him in every possible way, and after two days of this he hated her with a deep and bitter hatred, very different from that earlier teasing of Miss Jones.

That had sprung from a sudden delicious discovery of power, and had been directed against no one.

This was a real personal hatred that children of a less solid and tenacious temperament than Jeremy would have been incapable of feeling.
He did not laugh at her, he did not tease her, he no longer put out his tongue at her.

He was older than that now--he was simply reserved and silent, watching her with his large eyes, his square body set, and resolved as though he knew that his moment would come.
Her experience with him was baffling.