Of course I said I couldn't.

Mrs Conway Sparkes wouldn't care for me.

If she quizzed me, myself, I told him that I could take care of myself, though she were ten times Mrs Conway Sparkes, and had written finer poetry than Tennyson." "It is fine;--some of it," said Alice.
"Oh, I dare say! I know a great deal of it by heart, only I wouldn't give her the pleasure of supposing that I had ever thought so much about her poetry.

And then I told him that I couldn't take care of the Duchess,--and he told me that I was a child." "He only meant that in love." "I am a child; I know that.

Why didn't he marry some strong-minded, ferocious woman that could keep his house in order, and frown Mrs Sparkes out of her impudence?
It wasn't my fault." "You didn't tell him that." "But I did.