Never meet pertness and flippancy with the same spirit. A fallacious
idea exists that evil must always be met in kind. This is not true. Miss
McPheag should have looked at George in steady silence for a few
seconds, and then quietly engaged him and his companions in some
entirely new activity that would draw their attention from the incident.
Later, she should have talked to him alone, kindly and with dignified
impersonality, upon his breach of good manners.