"Do you know where Max is?" she asked.
"No, I don't!" snapped Gwen.
Mrs. Harcourt turned and faced them. She extended her hands.
"There!" she cried. "You see, do you not, that it was idle to tease Gwen? She does not know where he is."
"She certainly said that she knew where he went," said a stout lady. "I do know where he went!" shouted Gwen, "but how do I know where he is now?"
"Where did he go?" questioned Mrs. Harcourt.
"I promised him I wouldn't tell," said Gwen, "and I won't!"
She wriggled from her mother's grasp, and racing across the piazza, fled up the stairway to her room.
"Gwen is too honorable to break a promise," sighed Mrs. Harcourt, as she left the group of disgusted ladies, to follow her small girl to her apartment.
"Too stubborn would be nearer the truth," muttered the stout lady.