The little Enderbys, Mark, Phyllis, and Nell, had taken in the whole conversation, and understood perfectly, with the quick perception of children, the strangeness of the situation, and their own peculiar position with regard to Mrs.Kane's little girl from Wavertree.
The little Enderbys were thinking how very odd it was that the little girl whom they had often seen, as they walked with their nurse or drove past in the carriage with their mother, playing on the roads in a soiled pinafore, should be now presented to them as a new cousin.

Phyllis, the eldest, was much displeased, for pride was her ruling fault.

Mark and Nell were charmed with the transformation in Hetty and very much disposed to accept her as a playfellow, though they remembered all the time that she was not their equal.
Hetty, being only four years old, was supremely unconscious of all that was being said, and meant, and thought over her curly head.

She gazed at the three other children, and, repelled by Phyllis's cold gaze, turned to Mark and Nell, and stretched out a little fat hand to each of them.
"Come and see the beautiful flowers!" she said gleefully; "you never saw such lovely ones!".