She fought to get loose.
He increased, gradually, his hold.
“Look ... at ... me...!”
Her piglike eyes cringed before his steel ones.
Quickly, unexpectedly, he released his hold and smiled at her. His voice was deep.
“Kiddo, I’m sorry for you. Sit down!”
She fell into a chair and began dry-sobbing. He filled a glass from the thermos jug on the mantel and placed it against her lips. And while she drank, with his free hand he soothed her ugly little forehead as one soothes a terrified child.
Kindness was the one thing the girl had never known. She couldn’t fence against it.
Higgins’ reasoning voice suggested:
“Tell me about it, won’t you?”