A Little Princess: Chapters 4–6

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. domineering
    tending to rule in a cruel manner
    If she had been a self-opinionated, domineering child, she might have become disagreeable enough to be unbearable through being so much indulged and flattered.
  2. indulge
    treat with excessive pampering
    If she had been a self-opinionated, domineering child, she might have become disagreeable enough to be unbearable through being so much indulged and flattered.
  3. indolent
    disinclined to work or exertion
    If she had been an indolent child, she would have learned nothing.
  4. worldly
    very sophisticated and experienced
    Privately Miss Minchin disliked her, but she was far too worldly a woman to do or say anything which might make such a desirable pupil wish to leave her school.
  5. amiable
    diffusing warmth and friendliness
    Accordingly, Sara was praised for her quickness at her lessons, for her good manners, for her amiability to her fellow pupils, for her generosity if she gave sixpence to a beggar out of her full little purse; the simplest thing she did was treated as if it were a virtue, and if she had not had a disposition and a clever little brain, she might have been a very self-satisfied young person.
  6. disposition
    your usual mood
    Accordingly, Sara was praised for her quickness at her lessons, for her good manners, for her amiability to her fellow pupils, for her generosity if she gave sixpence to a beggar out of her full little purse; the simplest thing she did was treated as if it were a virtue, and if she had not had a disposition and a clever little brain, she might have been a very self-satisfied young person.
  7. stolid
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
    "Lavinia has no trials," said Ermengarde, stolidly, "and she is horrid enough."
  8. inordinate
    beyond normal limits
    She was inordinately jealous of Sara.
  9. eccentric
    conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual
    "She's always doing something silly," snapped Lavinia. "My mamma says that way of hers of pretending things is silly. She says she will grow up eccentric."
  10. allude
    make an indirect reference to
    She never pushed them out of her way or alluded to their years as a humiliation and a blot upon their small characters.
  11. flighty
    guided by whim and fancy
    Lottie had been sent to school by a rather flighty young papa who could not imagine what else to do with her.
  12. stately
    refined or imposing in manner or appearance
    She refused so strenuously indeed that Miss Minchin was obliged to almost shout—in a stately and severe manner—to make herself heard.
  13. tempestuous
    characterized by violent emotions or behavior
    "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!" Lottie howled tempestuously.
  14. impotent
    lacking power or ability
    Miss Minchin's voice rose until it almost thundered, then suddenly she sprang up from her chair in impotent indignation and flounced out of the room, leaving Miss Amelia to arrange the matter.
  15. flounce
    walk in an emphatic or exaggerated way
    Miss Minchin's voice rose until it almost thundered, then suddenly she sprang up from her chair in impotent indignation and flounced out of the room, leaving Miss Amelia to arrange the matter.
  16. endeavor
    attempt by employing effort
    "Oh, Sara!" she exclaimed, endeavoring to produce a suitable smile.
  17. asperity
    harshness of manner
    Then, seeing that Sara looked slightly chilled by her asperity, she changed her manner.
  18. consternation
    sudden shock or dismay that causes confusion
    When Sara entered the room, Lottie was lying upon the floor, screaming and kicking her small fat legs violently, and Miss Amelia was bending over her in consternation and despair, looking quite red and damp with heat.
  19. detestable
    offensive to the mind
    "Poor darling," she said one moment, "I know you haven't any mamma, poor—" Then in quite another tone, "If you don't stop, Lottie, I will shake you. Poor little angel! There—! You wicked, bad, detestable child, I will smack you! I will!"
  20. implore
    beg or request earnestly and urgently
    This was a new state of affairs for little Miss Legh, who was accustomed, when she screamed, to hear other people protest and implore and command and coax by turns.
  21. coax
    influence or persuade by gentle and persistent urging
    This was a new state of affairs for little Miss Legh, who was accustomed, when she screamed, to hear other people protest and implore and command and coax by turns.
  22. grievance
    a complaint about a wrong that causes resentment
    She did not want to give up her grievance, but her thoughts were distracted from it, so she wriggled again, and, after a sulky sob, said, "Where is she?"
  23. ominously
    in a manner suggesting something bad will happen
    She dragged herself close to Sara, and drank in every word until the end came—far too soon. When it did come, she was so sorry that she put up her lip ominously.
  24. beseech
    ask for or request earnestly
    Anyone who has been at school with a teller of stories knows what the wonder means—how he or she is followed about and besought in a whisper to relate romances; how groups gather round and hang on the outskirts of the favored party in the hope of being allowed to join in and listen.
  25. forlorn
    marked by or showing hopelessness
    She dodged out of sight like a jack-in-the-box and scurried back into the kitchen, disappearing so suddenly that if she had not been such a poor little forlorn thing, Sara would have laughed in spite of herself.
  26. drudge
    a laborer who is obliged to do menial work
    The small drudge before the grate swept the hearth once and then swept it again.
  27. grotto
    a small cave, usually with attractive features
    The voice of the storyteller went on and drew her with it into winding grottos under the sea, glowing with soft, clear blue light, and paved with pure golden sands.
  28. scullery
    a small room next to the kitchen for household jobs
    She was a forlorn little thing who had just taken the place of scullery maid—though, as to being scullery maid, she was everything else besides.
  29. preside
    act as executive officer
    Sara's comfortable sitting room seemed a bower of luxury to the scullery maid, though it was, in fact, merely a nice, bright little room. But there were pictures and books in it, and curious things from India; there was a sofa and the low, soft chair; Emily sat in a chair of her own, with the air of a presiding goddess, and there was always a glowing fire and a polished grate.
  30. diaphanous
    so thin as to transmit light
    The pupils were attired in their prettiest frocks, and as Sara danced particularly well, she was very much brought forward, and Mariette was requested to make her as diaphanous and fine as possible.
  31. impudent
    marked by casual disrespect
    Oh, she had got herself into trouble now with a vengeance! To have impudently fallen asleep on such a young lady's chair!
  32. impertinence
    the trait of being rude and inclined to take liberties
    "I didn't go to do it, miss," protested Becky. "It was the warm fire—an' me bein' so tired. It—it WASN'T impertinence!"
  33. delirium
    a usually brief state of excitement and mental confusion
    The next ten minutes seemed to Becky like a sort of delirium. Sara opened a cupboard, and gave her a thick slice of cake.
  34. largesse
    a gift or money given, usually ostentatiously
    "If I WAS a princess—a REAL princess," she murmured, "I could scatter largess to the populace. But even if I am only a pretend princess, I can invent little things to do for people. Things like this. She was just as happy as if it was largess. I'll pretend that to do things people like is scattering largess. I've scattered largess."
  35. populace
    people in general considered as a whole
    "If I WAS a princess—a REAL princess," she murmured, "I could scatter largess to the populace. But even if I am only a pretend princess, I can invent little things to do for people. Things like this. She was just as happy as if it was largess. I'll pretend that to do things people like is scattering largess. I've scattered largess."
  36. tract
    an extended area of land
    He was the owner of a large tract of land upon which diamonds had been found, and he was engaged in developing the mines.
  37. indifferent
    marked by a lack of interest
    It is true that any other business scheme, however magnificent, would have had but small attraction for her or for the schoolroom; but "diamond mines" sounded so like the Arabian Nights that no one could be indifferent.
  38. labyrinthine
    resembling a maze in form or complexity
    Sara thought them enchanting, and painted pictures, for Ermengarde and Lottie, of labyrinthine passages in the bowels of the earth, where sparkling stones studded the walls and roofs and ceilings, and strange, dark men dug them out with heavy picks.
  39. harrowing
    causing extreme distress
    It was a book about the French Revolution, and she was soon lost in a harrowing picture of the prisoners in the Bastille—men who had spent so many years in dungeons that when they were dragged out by those who rescued them, their long, gray hair and beards almost hid their faces, and they had forgotten that an outside world existed at all, and were like beings in a dream.
  40. deride
    treat or speak of with contempt
    Her new "pretend" about being a princess was very near to her heart, and she was shy and sensitive about it. She had meant it to be rather a secret, and here was Lavinia deriding it before nearly all the school.
Created on Wed Oct 30 14:07:10 EDT 2019 (updated Wed Oct 30 14:29:53 EDT 2019)

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