she did. The trousers were black, and greyish at the knee. And ‘But she wore black shoes. I remember.’ are imagining things, my dear.’ Miss Eliot’s voice was like a ‘You window slamming shut. I promise, I’m not!’ Sophie did not add, ‘But potato-faced old hag!’ but she did very much want to. The ‘you problem was that a person could not grow up with Charles without becoming polite to their very bones. To be impolite felt, to Sophie, like wearing dirty underwear, but it was difficult to be polite when people talked about her mother. They were so very certain that she was making it up; and she was so very certain that they were wrong.
‘But she did. The trousers were black, and greyish at the knee. And she wore black shoes. I remember.’ ‘You are imagining things, my dear.’ Miss Eliot’s voice was like a window slamming shut. ‘But I promise, I’m not!’ Sophie did not add, ‘you potato-faced old hag!’ but she did very much want to. The problem was that a person could not grow up with Charles without becoming polite to their very bones. To be impolite felt, to Sophie, like wearing dirty underwear, but it was difficult to be polite when people talked about her mother. They were so very certain that she was making it up; and she was so very certain that they were wrong.