`` Do you think it is true that father is going to marry Miss West ? '' Una had tremulously asked of Faith , after their prayers had been said . `` I do n't know , but I 'd like it , '' said Faith . `` Oh , I would n't , '' said Una , chokingly . `` She is nice the way she is . But Mary Vance says it changes people ALTOGETHER to be made stepmothers . They get horrid cross and mean and hateful then , and turn your father against you . She says they 're sure to do that . She never knew it to fail in a single case . '' `` I do n't believe Miss West would EVER try to do that , '' cried Faith . `` Mary says ANYBODY would . She knows ALL about stepmothers , Faith -- she says she 's seen hundreds of them -- and you 've never seen one . Oh , Mary has told me blood-curdling things about them . She says she knew of one who whipped her husband 's little girls on their bare shoulders till they bled , and then shut them up in a cold , dark coal cellar all night . She says they 're ALL aching to do things like that . '' `` I do n't believe Miss West would . You do n't know her as well as I do , Una . Just think of that sweet little bird she sent me . I love it far more even than Adam . '' `` It 's just being a stepmother changes them .
XXXXX says they ca n't help it .
Adam Mary Una Vance West night people prayers stepmother things