How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"She thinks my father comes out of the decanter," said Arrietty, "and one day when I'm older he's going to take me there and She'll think I've come up with the decanter too […] once he took my mother, and She perked up like anything and kept asking after her and why didn't she come anymore and saying they watered the Madeira because once, she says, she saw a little man and a little woman and now she only sees a little man…" (10.1)
Great-Aunt Sophy believes what she sees, but she also thinks they are hallucinations from drinking. So she believes in the borrowers, but she also knows they're not real at the same time. How does that work?
Quote #8
"I saw them, I tell you," gasped Mrs. Driver, "little people like with hands—or mice dressed up…"
Crampfurl stared into the hole. "Mice dressed up?" He repeated uncertainly.
"Hundreds of them," went on Mrs. Driver, "running and squeaking. I saw them, I tell you!" (17.10-12)
Would you believe someone who says she saw hundreds of mice dressed up? Probably… not. And Crampfurl here seems disbelieving, but not dismissive. Maybe he's not such a grump after all.
Quote #9
"Keep the bottle corked," she managed at last and motioned them weakly away. They heard her laughing still as they went on down the stairs.
"She don't believe in them," muttered Mrs. Driver, and she tightened her grip on my brother's arm. "More fool her! She'll change her tune, like enough, when I take them up afterwards, laid out in sizes, on a clean piece of newspaper…" (19.47-48)
Do you think Great-Aunt Sophy is right about Mrs. Driver—that she saw things because she had taken too much of her mistress's Madeira? Could the boy be making all this up?