"Yet Fräulein was just so anxious and—"
"And we made things worse for her!"
"I know you didn't think—"
"We ought to think. I've excused myself all my life by saying 'I didn't think.' I ought to think."
"'I didn't think' explains, but it doesn't excuse."
"Nothing excuses meanness."
"That's true."
"And it's almost as mean not to see when people are in trouble as it is to see it and not to care."
"I'm glad you're teaching us to be observant, Aunt Marion," said Ethel Blue quietly. "I used to think it was sort of distinguished to be absent-minded and not to pay attention to people, but now I think it's just stupidity."
"Mother," said Roger, sitting up straight, "I've been a beast. Poor Fräulein is worrying herself to pieces every minute of the day and I never thought anything about it. And I let Aunt Louise freeze yesterday morning and Dorothy had to go to school before the house was warmed up and she had a cold to-day because she got chilled. I see your point, and I'm a reformed pirate from this minute!"