By contrast, it is distasteful for any of us to be treated as children. Matilda has put up with it before, and it isn't fair. She is smarter than her age suggests.
Remember we grew up in a place like this. She was abrupt in the way she spoke, but only after a demand for respect which held no basis in reality. She doesn't know you, Laura, any more than you know her.
No one is disrespecting you. But this situation was well within our grasp. To suggest it wasn't is to disrespect me.