"I'm not your child!" she retorted. "And as for poor—what o' this?" and she shook the bag at her girdle until the coins within it chinked.
"This is most distressing!" said I, shaking my head.
"What is?"
"A noun is not a tree—"
"You says it was—"
"I told you a tree was a noun—which is a very different thing."
"If a tree's a noun, a noun's a tree—or should be, and if 'tain't, then grammar's foolish and I don't want none of it—"
"That sentence is execrable grammar, Diana, because two negatives make a positive hence when you say 'you don't want none,' it really means that you do want some—"
"I don't care!" she said in her sullen fashion.
"But you must—"