human
Really, said Mrs. Ogilvie,
gpt
But Mummy--Mumsy!
human
Don't call me Mummy or Mumsy, say mother. I don't like abbreviations.
gpt
What's that?
human
Mummy or Mumsy are abbreviations of a very sacred name.
gpt
Sacred name! said Sibyl, in a thoughtful tone.
human
Oh yes, I won't call you anything but mother. Mother is most lovely.
gpt
Well, I hope you will be a good child, and not annoy me as you have been doing.
human
Oh, mother darling, I didn't mean to vex you, but it was such a temptation, you know. You were never, never tempted, were you, mother? You are made so perfect that you cannot understand what temptation means. I did so long to climb the trees, and I knew you would not like me spoil my pretty frock, and Freda lent me the brown holland. When I saw you, Mums--I mean, mother--I forgot about everything else but just that I had climbed a tree, and that I had been brave, although for a minute I felt a scrap giddy, and I wanted to tell you about what I had done, my ownest, most darling mother.
gpt
Come here, she said. There was a sharpness in her tone which arrested the words on Sibyl's lips.
human
Look at me, take my hand, look steadily into my face. I have just five minutes to spare, and I wish to say something very grave and important, and you must listen attentively.
gpt
Oh, yes, mother, I am listening; what is it?
human
Look at me. Are you attending?
gpt
Yes, I suppose so. Mother, Freda says she will give me a Persian kitten; the Persian cat has two, such beauties, snow-white. May I have one, mother?
human
Attend to me, and stop talking. You think a great deal of me, your mother, and you call me perfect. Now show that you put me in high esteem.
gpt
That sounds very nice, thought Sibyl to herself.
human
Mother is just in her most beautiful humor. Of course I'll listen.
gpt
I wish, continued the mother, and she turned slightly away from the child as she spoke,
human
I wish you to stop all that nonsense about your father and me. I wish you to understand that we are not perfect, either of us; we are just everyday, ordinary sort of people. As we happen to be your father and mother, you must obey us and do what we wish; but you make yourself, and us also, ridiculous when you talk as you do. I am perfectly sick of your poses, Sibyl.
gpt
Poses! cried Sibyl;
human
Oh, you are too tiresome; ask nurse to explain, or Miss Winstead, when you go home. Miss Winstead, if she is wise, will tell you that you must just turn round and go the other way. You must obey me, of course, and understand that I know the right way to train you; but you are not to talk of me as though I were an angel. I am nothing of the kind. I am an ordinary woman, with ordinary feelings and ordinary faults, and I wish you to be an ordinary little girl. I am very angry with you for your great rudeness to Lord Grayleigh. What did it mean?
gpt
Oh, mother! it meant----