Cassie watched Howard carefully, looking for further signs of his thoughts and feelings. She could understand his frustration. "I don't think that everyone is necessarily expecting you to coddle them, but it's often better to try to understand where others are coming from when dealing with people. For a second, try to put yourself in their shoes. If you're frightened and hurt, would you rather that someone be kind and gentle with you or rude and abrupt? Personally, I'd prefer the first. I think the second treatment would only frighten me more and when you're already scared, that only makes the situation worse."

She noticed the eye roll, but she wasn't precisely sure what might have caused it. After a few moments of consideration, she overruled pressing the issue further though. She'd had mixed results with trying to learn more about him, but he usually needed to be somewhat willing to share for her to get anything from him. His demeanor seemed to indicate that this wasn't the case today. She'd keep it in mind though for later just in case the subject came up again.

"I will," she agreed. "I may not be able to learn anything from them though. These don't sound like the kind of cows that I'm familiar with after all. I can't wait to meet them though!"