Question  #22

At the beginning of the book, a little girl named Mary Lennox was living in a large house owned by her mother and her father. Everybody said that she was the most disagreeable looking child ever seen. Mary had a little chin and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow and her face is yellow as she was born in India and had always been sick, one way or another. Her parents were always so busy doing work that they barely had enough time to even think about their daughter, Mary. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been ill himself. Mary's mother had been a great beauty who only cared to go parties and amuse herself with gay people. She never even wanted a little girl, and when Mary was born she handed Mary over to her Ayah. So Mary spent most of her time with her Ayah. Her Ayah looked after her all the time and tried to keep Mary out of sight from her parents because she was a sickly fretful toddling thing. Her parents had a large house which was filled with native servants that worked in every room. They lived in India. One day, when Mary was about nine years old, she woke up, feeling very cross and she got crosser when she saw that she was not looking up to her Ayah, but instead she was looking at a strange woman.

The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett, p.1-p.2