A Little Princess: Chapters 7–8

by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Ten-year-old Sara Crewe is treated like a princess at her boarding school. When her father dies unexpectedly in India, Sara must live in the attic and work as a maid and errand girl. With the help of her vivid imagination — and a mysterious benefactor — she learns to survive and thrive.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–6, Chapters 7–8, Chapters 9–14, Chapters 15–19
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. rapturous
    feeling great delight
    Becky had quite forgotten herself in her excitement, and was grinning at Lottie, who was wriggling with rapturous expectation.
  2. meritorious
    deserving reward or praise
    "Several of you here have also been eleven years old, but Sara's birthdays are rather different from other little girls' birthdays. When she is older she will be heiress to a large fortune, which it will be her duty to spend in a meritorious manner."
  3. scathing
    marked by harshly abusive criticism
    "That is what a real princess does when the populace applauds her. Lavinia"—scathingly—"the sound you just made was extremely like a snort. If you are jealous of your fellow-pupil, I beg you will express your feelings in some more lady-like manner. Now I will leave you to enjoy yourselves."
  4. rueful
    feeling or expressing pain or sorrow
    The little children broke into a rueful murmur, and Ermengarde looked aghast.
  5. aghast
    struck with fear, dread, or consternation
    The little children broke into a rueful murmur, and Ermengarde looked aghast.
  6. impassive
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
    "Suppose," Sara said, as she stood by the table, putting a large, black-velvet hat on the impassively smiling owner of all these splendors—"suppose she understands human talk and feels proud of being admired."
  7. garret
    floor consisting of open space at the top of a house
    "It's all very well to suppose things if you have everything," said Lavinia. "Could you suppose and pretend if you were a beggar and lived in a garret?"
  8. indiscretion
    the trait of lacking good judgment or tact
    Becky, who was not expected to partake of refreshments, had the indiscretion to linger a moment to look at these beauties—it really was an indiscretion.
  9. reverent
    feeling or showing profound respect or veneration
    "Go back to your work, Becky," Miss Amelia had said; but she had stopped to pick up reverently first a muff and then a coat, and while she stood looking at them adoringly, she heard Miss Minchin upon the threshold, and, being smitten with terror at the thought of being accused of taking liberties, she rashly darted under the table, which hid her by its tablecloth.
  10. succinctly
    with concise and precise brevity; to the point
    "A hundred pounds," Mr. Barrow remarked succinctly. "All expensive material, and made at a Parisian modiste's. He spent money lavishly enough, that young man."
  11. disparagement
    a communication that belittles somebody or something
    Miss Minchin felt offended. This seemed to be a disparagement of her best patron and was a liberty.
  12. patron
    someone who supports or champions something
    Miss Minchin felt offended. This seemed to be a disparagement of her best patron and was a liberty.
  13. extravagance
    the trait of spending lavishly
    "Birthday presents," said Mr. Barrow in the same critical manner, "to a child eleven years old! Mad extravagance, I call it."
  14. brusque
    rudely abrupt or blunt in speech or manner
    "He's dead, ma'am," Mr. Barrow answered with jerky brusqueness.
  15. shrewd
    marked by practical hardheaded intelligence
    Mr. Barrow was a shrewd businessman, and felt it as well to make his own freedom from responsibility quite clear without any delay.
  16. foist
    force onto another
    "If you think she is to be foisted off on me, you are greatly mistaken," Miss Minchin gasped. “I have been robbed and cheated; I will turn her into the street!”
  17. discreet
    marked by prudence or modesty and wise self-restraint
    If she had not been so furious, she would have been too discreet to say quite so much.
  18. redress
    act of correcting an error or a fault or an evil
    She had absolutely no redress. Her show pupil had melted into nothingness, leaving only a friendless, beggared little girl.
  19. sumptuous
    rich and superior in quality
    "Has she a black frock in her sumptuous wardrobe?"—in bitter irony.
  20. preposterous
    inviting ridicule
    "Go and tell her to take off that preposterous pink silk gauze, and put the black one on, whether it is too short or not. She has done with finery!"
  21. finery
    elaborate or showy attire and accessories
    "Go and tell her to take off that preposterous pink silk gauze, and put the black one on, whether it is too short or not. She has done with finery!"
  22. pauper
    a person who is very poor
    "Captain Crewe is dead," she said. "He has died without a penny. That spoiled, pampered, fanciful child is left a pauper on my hands."
  23. proprietor
    someone who owns a business
    During the last year the story of the diamond mines had suggested all sorts of possibilities to her. Even proprietors of seminaries might make fortunes in stocks, with the aid of owners of mines. And now, instead of looking forward to gains, she was left to look back upon losses.
  24. desolate
    crushed by grief
    She did not look in the least like the rose-colored butterfly child who had flown about from one of her treasures to the other in the decorated schoolroom. She looked instead a strange, desolate, almost grotesque little figure.
  25. pallor
    an unnatural lack of color in the skin
    As she had not found a piece of black ribbon, her short, thick, black hair tumbled loosely about her face and contrasted strongly with its pallor.
  26. swathe
    wrap in or as if in strips of cloth
    She held Emily tightly in one arm, and Emily was swathed in a piece of black material.
  27. steadfast
    marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
    She was a woman who liked to domineer and feel her power, and as she looked at Sara's pale little steadfast face and heard her proud little voice, she quite felt as if her might was being set at naught.
  28. oblong
    deviating from a shape by being elongated in one direction
    Under the skylight in the roof, which showed nothing but an oblong piece of dull gray sky, there stood an old battered red footstool.
  29. humble
    marked by meekness or modesty; not arrogant or prideful
    And as she sat in this silence there came a low tap at the door—such a low, humble one that she did not at first hear it, and, indeed, was not roused until the door was timidly pushed open and a poor tear-smeared face appeared peeping round it.
  30. furtively
    in a secretive manner
    It was Becky's face, and Becky had been crying furtively for hours and rubbing her eyes with her kitchen apron until she looked strange indeed.
  31. woe
    misery resulting from affliction
    The first night she spent in her attic was a thing Sara never forgot. During its passing she lived through a wild, unchildlike woe of which she never spoke to anyone about her.
  32. reproof
    an act or expression of criticism and censure
    During the first month or two, Sara thought that her willingness to do things as well as she could, and her silence under reproof, might soften those who drove her so hard.
  33. exacting
    severe and unremitting in making demands
    But the time came when she saw that no one was softened at all; and the more willing she was to do as she was told, the more domineering and exacting careless housemaids became, and the more ready a scolding cook was to blame her.
  34. commission
    a special assignment that is given to a person or group
    Sara could be trusted with difficult commissions and complicated messages.
  35. besiege
    harass, as with questions or requests
    She clung to Sara in a simple, helpless way; she brought her lessons to her that she might be helped; she listened to her every word and besieged her with requests for stories.
  36. spasmodic
    occurring in spells and often abruptly
    “I’m—I’m quite well,” said Ermengarde, overwhelmed with shyness. Then spasmodically she thought of something to say which seemed more intimate. “Are you—are you very unhappy?” she said in a rush.
  37. listless
    marked by low spirits; showing no enthusiasm
    At that time it was noticed that Ermengarde was more stupid than ever, and that she looked listless and unhappy.
  38. stoutly
    in a resolute manner
    "I don't see any good in them," said Ermengarde stoutly.
  39. enrapture
    hold spellbound
    Ermengarde was at once enraptured and awed.
  40. adversity
    a state of misfortune or affliction
    She was a small thing and did not know what adversity meant, and was much bewildered by the alteration she saw in her young adopted mother.
Created on Wed Oct 30 14:07:26 EDT 2019 (updated Wed Oct 30 14:12:55 EDT 2019)

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