"Of course I did, Betty."

"Don't you believe it," said Mr. Dudley.

"I always believe my Aunt Woggles," said Betty with infinite
scorn. "Was it nice, Aunt Woggles?" Mercifully she didn't wait
for an answer, but continued: " I lost the currant three times,
but I found it all right. I thought I had trodden on it, but I
hadn't, because I looked on the bottom of my shoe and it wasn't
there. I did have lots of currants, only when I dropped them
Mungo ate them all up, except this one. He didn't eat this one
because I stopped him. I said, 'Drop it, Mungo!' and he did. It
was a good thing he didn't eat it, wasn't it? I made lines
across, did you see ? All across the cake! I made those with a
hairpin. It was a good plan, wasn't it? "

Somehow or other my breakfast had fallen short of my expectations.
But what I had lost in appetite I had perhaps gained in other
ways, for I had until then undoubtedly existed in the mind of Mr.
Dudley only under the shadow of Diana's charming personality. I
now took my stand alone, as the Aunt Woggles who ate mud-pies, I
am afraid; but still it is something to have a separate existence.
Is it?




Chapter V