"Perhaps she will improve as she grows older,"
the officer's wife said good-naturedly. "If she
were not so sallow and had a nicer expression, her
features are rather good. Children alter so
much."

"She'll have to alter a good deal," answered
Mrs. Medlock. "And there's nothing likely to
improve children at Misselthwaite -- if you ask
me!"

They thought Mary was not listening because
she was standing a little apart from them at the
window of the private hotel they had gone to.
She was watching the passing buses and cabs, and
people, but she heard quite well and was made very
curious about her uncle and the place he lived in.
What sort of a place was it, and what would he be
like? What was a hunchback? She had never
seen one. Perhaps there were none in India.

Since she had been living in other people's
houses and had had no Ayah, she had begun to
feel lonely and to think queer thoughts which were
new to her. She had begun to wonder why she
had never seemed to belong to any one even when
her father and mother had been alive. Other
children seemed to belong to their fathers and
mothers, but she had never seemed to really be
any one's little girl. She had had servants, and
food and clothes, but no one had taken any notice

[[15]]

p014 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p015w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p016

v?