"I think I like you best just as you are."
Dolly's face curled all up into a smile at this; brow and eyes and cheeks and lips all spoke her sense of amusement; and stooping forward a little at the same time, she laid a loving kiss upon her aunt's mouth, who was unspeakably delighted with this expression of confidence. But then she repeated gravely—
"I think they want me changed."
"And pray, what are you going to do, with that purpose in view?"
"I don't know. I am going to study, and learn things; a great many things."
"I don't believe you are particularly ignorant for eleven years old."
"Oh, I do not know anything!"
"Can you write a nice hand?"
Dolly's face wrinkled up again with a sense of the comical. She gave an unhesitating affirmative answer.
"And you have read Shakespeare. What else, Dolly?"