Arthur wasn't used to open hostility. And certainly not from a child (apart, perhaps, from his own, but that didn't count). The girl had not only been infected with radical ideas, but had also forgotten her place and whom she was talking to. His face hardened, but he did not say anything. He would not stoop down as low as to argue with her. She would find herself ostracized and ridiculed and that would be her punishment. Arthur simply walked away, cursing all these radical new notions that were destroying the country.