"No, I can't. He won't help me about anything. Old Mary says she should think He would hate me, I plague you so much."
"Oh, I don't think old Mary said that!"
"Well, maybe she didn't. She said something like it."
"My poor child, He hates nobody on earth. And now, if in spite of all your fractious, disobedient ways, I, only a human being at best, love you, how do you think He feels?"
"I think He can't bear me. And I don't believe you love me, either. But papa did, and I mean to ask him to let me come home."
"So you have said a dozen times. If you think you had better go, and that you will be happier there, and more likely to outgrow your faults, I shall not prevent you."
"You won't ever let me have my own way, and mamma did."
"And were you becoming a model eldest daughter to her?"
"Nobody could be a model in the house with Rosabelle. On the whole, I'd rather stay here than go home. Rosabelle is just horrid!"