"Everything's all right now, so let's forget it.

She always meant it for kindness, I'm sure." "Even when she told you in the first place what a--er--torment you were to us ?" quizzed Cyril.
"Yes," flashed Billy.

"She was being kind to _you_, then." "Humph!" vouchsafed Cyril.
For a moment no one spoke.

Cyril's eyes were on Marie, who was nervously trying to smooth back a few fluffy wisps of hair that had escaped from restraining combs and pins.
"What's the matter with the hair, little girl ?" asked Cyril in a voice that was caressingly irritable.

"You've been fussing with that long-suffering curl for the last five minutes!" Marie's delicate face flushed painfully.
"It's got loose--my hair," she stammered, "and it looks so dowdy that way!" Billy dropped her thread suddenly.