I happened to look timidly up from my stitching, across the table at my godmother, and I saw in her face, looking gloomily at me, "It would have been far better, little Esther, that you had had no birthday, that you had never been born!"

I happened to look timidly up from my stitching, across the table at my godmother, and I saw her looking gloomily at me as if to say, "It would have been far better that you had no birthday, that you had never been born!"
