"Can it really be full-grown ?" "Oh, no doubt, my dear! Look at its pretty little whiskers! It's just a toy, you know, nothing but a toy." Dinah turned in her chair, and gazed scathingly upon the group of critics.

Then, aware of the Colonel's eyes upon her, she turned back and gave him a swift look of apology.
He shook his head at her repressively, his whole air magisterial and condemnatory.

"You may go if you wish," he said, in the tone of one dismissing an offender.

"But be good enough to bear in mind what I have said to you!" Billy leapt to his feet.

"Can I go too, sir ?" he asked eagerly.
The Colonel signified majestic assent.