"You would not have known there was a child in the house, they were such still, noiseless, good little creatures.
Maria would shut herself up" (Maria, but seven!) "in the children's study with a newspaper, and be able to tell one everything when she came out; debates in Parliament, and I don't know what all.

She was as good as a mother to her sisters and brother.

But there never were such good children.

I used to think them spiritless, they were so different to any children I had ever seen.

They were good little creatures.