““The children turned and saw the spinach-green boat coming toward them. “Oh no! Not the Carters!” said Maia. She looked round desperately for somewhere to hide. “If I ran off into the jungle…” But it wasn’t the Carters. In a way it was worse, because from the woman who now rose from her seat in the stern, she would not have tried to hide or run away. “You’re mad!” shouted Miss Minton across the narrowing gap between the boats. “You’re completely mad, Maia. What do you mean by this?” Then she disappeared into the cabin, where--for the first time since Maia had been lost in the fire--she burst into tears. But the relief of seeing Maia safe soon took a different turn. On board the Arabella she complained about Maia’s tangled hair, her bare feet, her strange clothes. She had brought a toothbrush--even a hairbrush--but as she said, it would take days to get Maia to look civilized again. She berated Finn for taking Maia off, she inquired nastily about his Latin, and wanted to know how often they took their quinine pills. By the time she had finished nagging and finding fault, Maia was almost ready to wish that Minty had deserted her.””
