"Isn't that splendid ?" Mandoline did not mean to be cruel.

She had observed that her mother urged her own guests to stay, and sometimes kept them almost by force.
This she supposed was true politeness.

More than that, she was anxious, for private reasons, to hold Dotty, so she might not have to knit so much.

She knew, too, that her mother was proud to have such a well-bred little girl in the house.

So she would not give up Dotty's hat.
At eight o'clock, Dotty went to bed with Mandoline in the unfinished chamber, sorely against her will; and Mandoline told her such dreadful stories that she could not close her eyes for fright.
"This is the queerest house I was ever in," thought she, "and the queerest bed.