Dorothy was an innocent, harmless little girl, who had been carried by a cyclone many miles from home; and she had never killed anything in all her life.
The world was altered, too; and as I stood at my mother's grave, I could hardly realize that I was the same thoughtless, happy creature, whose cheeks she so often kissed in an excess of tenderness.
My father was clearly mimicking Socratic irony, which would start with an innocent " You don't say, " only then to lead his interlocutor onto turbulent shoals.
Throughout the series, she transforms from an innocent, sheltered girl into a shrewd and determined empress dowager, navigating the dangerous intrigues of the palace.