"Oh, what's the good of pretending," she said.

"He's so great.

He could be the Prime Minister of England if he chose.

But then he would have to visit kings and nobles, and receive them at his house, and Mama--" She broke off with a passionate gesture of the small thin hands.
Joan was puzzled what to say.

She knew exactly what she ought to say: what she would have said to any ordinary child.