Gwen, thoroughly frightened, tried to rush from the room, but it was useless. The big man filled the doorway. He did not intend to hurt her, when he firmly grasped her arm, but he did intend to give her a lesson, and he proceeded to do it, walking her along the hall on the way to the stairway.
Usually, Gwen's boldness was equal to any emergency, but this time she was too frightened to object, to wriggle in the firm grasp, or indeed, to do anything other than allow him to take her wherever he chose, and he chose——the piazza filled with guests.
Mrs. Harcourt, at the farthest end of the piazza, busy with her embroidery, did not look up when the two appeared.
"I found this in my room!" said the angry man. "Anyone who owns it may claim it. This is what has been entering rooms, and handling other people's property."
"Oh, mamma! Why don't you come and tell them I don't do such things!"
Of course Mrs. Harcourt dropped her embroidering frame, and rushed forward, snatching Gwen from the big man's grasp.
"'Twould be useless, because I caught her just as she had opened my trunk, and was examining all my belongings. The best thing to do with your smart girl, is to keep her away from hotels, unless you can keep a chain on her to keep her from prowling," growled Mr. Buffington.
"You don't understand children!" declared Mrs. Harcourt, as with Gwen, she went up the stairway to her room, to which the big man responded: "I shouldn't want to if they're all like that!"
Of course the piazza was alive with buzzing voices.
"What a perfectly horrid child!"