"I didn't know there was anybody here."
"Come and speak to me," said Rowena, with her sunshiny smile. "I am not an old lady, only a prisoner."
The child looked up at her with bright interested eyes. "Who put you in prison?"
"An old man I call Niddy-Noddy."
"Oh, what a lovely name! Tell me about him. What's he like?"
"He speaks like this—"
Rowena drew in her lips till her mouth looked as if she had no teeth—she lowered her brows fiercely, and then nodded her head up and down very wisely.
"This child is wet. Take her clothes off, put her to bed, and a hot basin of bread-and-milk and a good sleep will prevent a chill."
The child's peal of delighted laughter rang through the room.
"Is that what he would say to me? Why, rain and water is nothing important to me! I get drowned nearly, over and over again."