Chapter I

There Is No One Left

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite
Manor to live with her uncle everybody
said she was the most disagreeable-looking
child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a
little thin face and a little thin body, thin
light hair and a sour expression. Her hair
was yellow, and her face was yellow because
she had been born in India and had always
been ill in one way or another. Her father
had held a position under the English Government
and had always been busy and ill himself, and her
mother had been a great beauty who cared only
to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people.
She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when
Mary was born she handed her over to the care of
an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she
wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the
child out of sight as much as possible. So when
she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was

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v?