_I_ called _that_ sucking up to her." "But Dan is always polite," said Kitty, warm in defence of him at once.
She might sometimes admit to herself that there was a flaw in her brother, but she could not endure that any one else should see one; "and he is always sorry for people when they are hurt, and it was our fault that she was hurt." "Yes, it was his fault really," said Betty, whose memory was a good one--too good at times, some said--"for he was the first to kick off his boots and leave them there." "I know; but he didn't tell us to do the same.

And you see we had all agreed to be polite to Aunt Pike, and you could have got the embrocation for her if you had liked." "But I don't see why it should be called 'polite' if Dan does it, but 'sucking up' if _I_ do it," argued Betty.
Kitty sighed.

She often wished that Betty would not want things explained so carefully.

She never made allowances for changes of mood or sudden impulses.

Kitty herself so constantly experienced both, that she could sympathize with others who did the same, and as she put it to herself--"What can you do if you feel sorry for a person that you hated only a little while before ?" Kitty could not understand the right and the wrong of these things, or what to do under such circumstances.