A hundred times they have volunteered it, with that healthy disregard of any sickly sensitiveness which arms one against blows to one's vanity through all after-life.

Yes: I am plain; not offensively so, not largely, fatly, staringly plain, but in a small, blond, harmless way.

However, Sir Roger thinks me pretty.

Did not he say so, in unmistakable English?
I have tried darkly to hint this to the boys, but have been so decisively pooh-poohed that I resolve not to allude to the subject again.

Not only am I plain now, but I shall remain plain to my life's end.