Charlotte Bronte
The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round
their mama in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and
with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying)
looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining the group; saying,
“She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that
until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation, that I
was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike
disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner — something lighter,
franker, more natural, as it were — she really must exclude me from privileges
intended only for contented, happy, little children.”
Charlotte Bronte, "Jane Eyre", 1.3