"Because I'm tired."
"That's a good reason, so far as it goes; and you both look and sound as if you were tired; but why the bushes, when you might be safe and snug at home in bed? Where is your home?"
"I have no home."
"Is that true?"
"Quite true. I never have had a home."
He seemed to be considering her words.
"There's a quibble about that statement somewhere. Girls like you don't attain to the ripe age of nearly eighteen years without ever having had a home; you're not a product of a vagabond life. However, I'll feign to believe you, if I don't; since, just now, the point seems to be that you do propose to spend at least this one night with no canopy above you but the sky. Is that so?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Then you're dull; my meaning's not opaque. Am I to understand that you seriously propose to spend the night out in the open?"
"I am tired; I want to rest; I must rest somewhere; I--I can't keep walking all night."