"You must not have been in London before." Granted, even by the standards of the children there, Alice is unnaturally pale. But at least the contrast is a bit lessened by the fact that practically no one in that city is ever doing particularly well, aside from the very wealthy.

Her tone is not quite as sassy as it might have been in other cases. It's hard to be rude in the face of such strange concern.

"Any doctor would probably say there's not much to be done about it."