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My young pupils entered the apartment, with theirtwo younger sisters. Master Tom Bloomfield was awell-grown boy of seven, with a somewhat wiryframe, flaxen hair, blue eyes, small turned-up nose, and fair complexion. Mary Ann was a tall girl too, somewhat dark like her mother, but with a round full face and a high colour in her cheeks. Thesecond sister was Fanny, a very pretty little girl; Mrs. Bloomfield assured me she was aremarkably gentle child, and required encouragement: she had not learned anything yet; butin a few days, she would be four years old, and then she might take her first lesson in thealphabet, and be promoted to the schoolroom. The remaining one was Harriet, a little broad, fat, merry, playful thing of scarcely two, that I coveted more than all the rest—but with her Ihad nothing to do.
I talked to my little pupils as well as I could, and tried to render myself agreeable; but withlittle success I fear, for their mother's presence kept me under an unpleasant restraint. They, however, were remarkably free from shyness. They seemed bold, lively children, and I hoped Ishould soon be on friendly terms with them—the little boy especially, of whom I had heard sucha favourable character from his mamma. In Mary Ann there was a certain affected simper, anda craving for notice, that I was sorry to observe. But her brother claimed all my attention tohimself; he stood bolt upright between me and the fire, with his hands behind his back, talkingaway like an orator, occasionally interrupting his discourse with a sharp reproof to hissisters when they made too much noise.
"Oh, Tom, what a darling you are!" exclaimed his mother. "Come and kiss dear mamma; andthen won't you show Miss Grey your schoolroom, and your nice new books?"
"I won't kiss you, mamma; but I will show Miss Grey my schoolroom, and my new books."
"And my schoolroom, and my new books, Tom," said Mary Ann. "They're mine too."
"They're mine," replied he decisively.
What does the phrase "render myself agreeable" primarily reveal about the narrator?
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