That is, they were moderate up to a certain date, and even
then they did not directly attack him--there was nothing
cold--blooded about it at all. The thing was forced upon them,
and, though they all felt pleased and uplifted--while it was
happening--they did not understand precisely why. Nothing could
more clearly prove their innocence of heart than this very
ignorance, and yet none of the grown people who later felt
themselves concerned in the matter was able to look at it in that
light. Now, here was a characteristic working of those reactions
that produce what is sometimes called "the injustice of life",
because the grown people were responsible for the whole affair
and were really the guilty parties. It was from grown people that
Georgie Bassett learned he was a boy set apart, and the effect
upon him was what alienated his friends. Then these alienated
friends were brought (by odious comparisons on the part of grown
people) to a condition of mind wherein they suffered dumb
annoyance, like a low fever, whenever they heard Georgie's name
mentioned, while association with his actual person became every
day more and more irritating.
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