# Quote — Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess

> "What I believe about dolls," she [Sara Crewe] said, "is that they can do things they will not let us know about. Perhaps, really, Emily can read and talk and walk, but she will only do it when people are out of the room. That is her secret. You see, if people knew that dolls could do things, they would make them work. So, perhaps, they have promised each other to keep it a secret. If you stay in the room, Emily will just sit there and stare; but if you go out, she will begin to read, perhaps, or go and look out of the window. Then if she heard either of us coming, she would just run back and jump into her chair and pretend she had been there all the time."

- Author: [Frances Hodgson Burnett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-hodgson-burnett.md)
- Book: [A Little Princess](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-hodgson-burnett/a-little-princess.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Little_Princess#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-hodgson-burnett/a-little-princess/what-i-believe

## More from this book

> Here the Indian gentleman lost his temper. "As to starving in the streets," he said, "she might have starved more comfortably there than in your attic."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-hodgson-burnett/a-little-princess/here-the-indian.md)

> [I]t was just like Sara that, having found her strange good fortune real, she should give herself up to the enjoyment of it to the utmost. She had lived such a life of imaginings that she was quite equal to accepting any wonderful thing that happened, and almost to cease, in a short time, to find it bewildering.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-hodgson-burnett/a-little-princess/i-t-was-just.md)

> Do you wonder that she felt sure she had not come back to earth? This is what she saw. In the grate there was a glowing, blazing fire; on the hob was a little brass kettle hissing and boiling; spread upon the floor was a thick, warm crimson rug; before the fire a folding-chair, unfolded, and with cushions on it; by the chair a small folding-table, unfolded, covered with a white cloth, and upon it spread small covered dishes, a cup, a saucer, a teapot; on the bed were new warm coverings and a satin-covered down quilt; at the foot a curious wadded silk robe, a pair of quilted slippers, and some books. The room of her dream seemed changed into fairyland—and it was flooded with warm light, for a bright lamp stood on the table covered with a rosy shade.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-hodgson-burnett/a-little-princess/do-you-wonder.md)