Mrs. Latham was very angry. “I am sure I beg your pardon, Miss Thurston,” she rejoined icily, before she moved away. “I meant nothing by my harmless inquiry. I can assure you I am not unduly interested in your protégée. If you wish to keep the gypsy girl’s hiding place a secret, do so, by all means.”
“Mollie, I am exceedingly angry with you!” said Miss Sallie.
“How could you be so horrid, Mollie?” whispered Bab.
Mollie’s blue eyes were swimming in tears, but she would not let them fall on her flushed cheeks. She knew she must say good-bye to her new acquaintances, so she dared not answer Miss Sallie then.
But on the way back to their hotel, seated next Miss Stuart in the automobile, Mollie tried to offer an explanation for her rude behavior.
“Miss Sallie,” she pleaded softly, “I know you are dreadfully angry with me; and I am afraid you won’t forgive me; but I just couldn’t make up my mind to let Mrs. Latham know where to find Eunice and her old grandmother. I know you will think I am foolish. Perhaps I am. But I have a feeling that Reginald Latham and his mother mean no good to Eunice. I can’t help remembering how the old squaw acted when she first heard the name of Latham. I cannot believe she was just acting for effect as Reginald Latham said she was. There is some mystery about little Eunice. Do you think, Miss Sallie, we girls have a right to betray the old Indian woman’s secrets?”
“My sympathies are all with Mollie, Aunt Sallie!” Ruth declared. “I shall have to come in for a share of her scolding.”
But Barbara shook her head. “I never knew anyone so prejudiced as Mollie is against Reginald Latham. What on earth do you suppose he and his mother could have against a poor old squaw and her little girl? Would you have helped pulled Reginald down out of his airship, if you had known how you would dislike him, Mollie?” Bab asked.
But Mollie was looking wistfully at Miss Sallie, and did not heed Barbara’s question.
“I don’t care what a young girl may think on any subject,” Miss Stuart declared firmly, “she has no right to be rude to an older woman. And Mollie was undeniably rude to Mrs. Latham in refusing to answer her simple question. It could have done no harm to have told her the name of the hospital where Eunice is being treated.”