And yet Letitia only repeated what she had been told.
"My child," she said, feeling that now was the time to speak, and that the truth must be spoken even to a child, "your Aunt Henrietta makes a great mistake.

She says and believes what is not true.

I married your papa because I"-- (oh that she could have said "loved him!")--"I thought him the best man in the world.

And so he is, as we all know well.
Don't we, Arthur ?" "Hurrah! Three cheers for papa! The jolliest papa that ever was!" cried Arthur from the sofa, where, by his own special desire, he lay watching the end of the toilet.
Letitia was too ladylike to commit herself to much enthusiasm, but she smiled.

If there was a warm place in that poor little frigid heart, papa certainly had it, as in every heart belonging to him.
"You look quite pretty" said she, condescendingly.