You'll live to see the day, very shortly, when you'll change every word of it." "I haven't done anything but get surer about it every day for two years, anyway," said Sarah Hood.
"Exactly!" said Laddie, "but wait until I have taken the plunge! Let me tell you how the Pryor family strikes me.

I think he is a high-tempered, domineering man, proud as Lucifer! For some cause, just or not, he is ruining his life and that of his family because he so firmly believes it just; he is hiding here from his home country, his relatives, and friends.

I think she is, barring you and mother, the handsomest woman of her age I ever saw----" All of them laughed, because Sarah Hood was nearly as homely as a woman could grow, and maybe other people didn't find our mother so lovely as we thought her.

I once heard one of her best friends say she was "distinctly plain." I didn't see how she could; but she said that.
"-- and the most pitiful," Laddie went on.

"Sarah, what do you suppose sends a frail little woman pacing the yard, and up and down the road, sometimes in storm and rain, gripping both hands over her heart ?" "I suppose it's some shameful thing I don't want you mixed up with!" said Sarah Hood promptly, and people just shouted.
"Sarah," said Laddie, "I've seen her closely, watched her move, and studied her expression.