"I won't be treated like a child!" cried the derelict in exactly the
tone of one, and a very naughty one. "I won't! I won't!" She stamped.

Banneker laughed.

"You're a coward," said Io.

Miss Van Arsdale laughed.

"I'll go to the hotel in the town and stay there."

"Think twice before you do that," advised the woman.

"Why?" asked Io, struck by the tone.

"Crawly things," replied Miss Van Arsdale sententiously.

"Big, hungry ones," added Banneker.

He could almost feel the little rippling shudders passing across the
girl's delicate skin. "Oh, I think you're _loathly_!" she cried. "Both
of you."

Tears of vexation made lucent the shadowed depths of her eyes. "I've
never been treated so in my life!" she declared, overcome by the
self-pity of a struggling soul trammeled by the world's injustice.

"Why not be sensible and stay with me to-night while you think it all
over?" suggested Miss Van Arsdale.