"How can I tell? Perhaps I did. I think you are rude and unkind," said the girl in an aggrieved voice.
"Great Scot!" ejaculated Adrian. "Well, of all the extraordinary females----"
Christobel was putting food on the table while this curious conversation took place. She now interrupted it by ordering this surprising visitor to eat, which she did, heartily and hungrily. Afterwards Crow ordained that she was to take off her skirt, shoes, and stockings, and they could be dried at the stove.
"You can roll up in a blanket," she said, "and stay where you are; you'll soon be warm all through down here. Adrian and I have got to get home now."
"I don't want to go home," said the girl, untying her shoes.
"Why not?"
"I am not happy. If I go back I shall be very uncomfortable."
"It looks as though you thought of no one but yourself," said Crow. "I dare say you don't mean it, but it sounds so."
The girl took off her shoe and felt the wet foot. Then she glanced up at Crow, and said with more strength in her voice--she was revived by the food:
"But, of course, I mean it. Everyone is the most important person in the world to himself. You must think of yourself first, of course."