The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett [best books to read for beginners .TXT] 📗

te Manor, she looked so stony and stubbornly uninterestedthat they did not know what to think about her. They tried to be kind toher, but she only turned her face away when Mrs. Crawford attempted tokiss her, and held herself stiffly when Mr. Crawford patted hershoulder.

"She is such a plain child," Mrs. Crawford said pityingly, afterward."And her mother was such a pretty creature. She had a very prettymanner, too, and Mary has the most unattractive ways I ever saw in achild. The children call her 'Mistress Mary Quite Contrary,' and thoughit's naughty of them, one can't help understanding it."

"Perhaps if her mother had carried her pretty face and her prettymanners oftener into the nursery Mary might have learned some prettyways too. It is very sad, now the poor beautiful thing is gone, toremember that many people never even knew that she had a child at all."

"I believe she scarcely ever looked at her," sighed Mrs. Crawford."When her Ayah was dead there was no one to give a thought to the