ugly child. She was
not in the least like Isobel Grange, who had been the beauty of the
regiment, but she had an odd charm of her own. She was a slim, supple
creature, rather tall for her age, and had an intense, attractive
little face. Her hair was heavy and quite black and only curled at the
tips; her eyes were greenish gray, it is true, but they were big,
wonderful eyes with long, black lashes, and though she herself did not
like the color of them, many other people did. Still she was very firm
in her belief that she was an ugly little girl, and she was not at all
elated by Miss Minchin's flattery.
"I should be telling a story if I said she was beautiful," she thought;
"and I should know I was telling a story. I believe I am as ugly as
she is--in my way. What did she say that for?"
After she had known Miss Minchin longer she learned why she had said
it. She discovered that she said the same thing to each papa and mamma
who brought a child to her school.
Sara stood near her father and listened while he and Miss Minchin
talked. She had been brought to the seminary because Lady Meredith's
two little girls had been educated there, and Captain Crewe had a great
respect for Lady Meredith's experience. Sara was to be what was known
as "a parlor boarder," and she was to enjoy even greater privileges
than parlor boarders usually did. She was to have a pretty bedroom and
sitting room of her own; she was to have a pony and a carriage, and a
maid to take the place of the ayah who had been her nurse in India.
"I am not in the least anxious about her education," Captain Crewe
said, with his gay laugh, as he held Sara's hand and patted it. "The
difficulty will be to keep her from learning too fast and too much.
She is always sitting with her little nose burrowing into books. She
doesn't read them, Miss Minchin; she gobbles them up as if she were a
little wolf instead of a little girl. She is always starving for new
books to gobble, and she wants grown-up books--great, big, fat
ones--French and German as well as English--history and biography and
poets, and all sorts of things. Drag her away from her books when she
reads too much. Make her ride her pony in the Row or go out and buy a
new doll. She ought to play more with dolls."
"Papa," said Sara, "you see, if I went out and bought a new doll every
few days I should have more than I could be fond of. Dolls ought to be
intimate friends. Emily is going to be m
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