"I don't think that friendships bought in that way last; do you?" asked Nancy.

"Say! how do you expect to get popular in a school like this?" demanded Cora, in disgust.

"I--I don't know," sighed Nancy.

"How is it Grace is so popular?" cried Cora Rathmore. "Why, she's always doing something to get the other girls interested. She's going to be our cla.s.s president."

Nancy said nothing. She wondered if Grace Montgomery, after all, was quite as popular as Cora thought.

"I tell you what," said the black-eyed girl, suddenly, "let's have a party in here, anyway?"

"Why, I--I don't know anything about giving a party," confessed Nancy.

"And I'm afraid the girls wouldn't come."

"Sure they will--in a minute!" declared Cora, confidently. "All I've got to do is to tell 'em. You see, I've been making friends in Pinewood Hall, while you've been 'boning.' Some of them think you are too stiff."

"I don't mean to be," protested Nancy, shaking her head.

"Well, here's a chance for you to show 'em. You say you've got some money left?"

"Oh, yes."

"How much?" asked Cora, bluntly.

"Well--I've got more than twenty dollars," confessed Nancy.

"Crickey-me!" gasped Cora. "Twenty dollars? Why, we'd give the dandiest kind of a spread--salad, and ice cream, and cakes--Oh, crickey-me! that would be great."

"But what would Corinne say?" blurted out Nancy.

"Hah! those big girls have after-lights-out spreads, too. That Canuck won't dare say a word."

"But some of the teachers----"

"You needn't borrow trouble," said Cora. "Of course, if you don't want to do it----"

"I--I----"

"Sure, you understand that I'll pay my half," went on Cora, eagerly.

"All you got to do is to lend me the money until Christmas time."

"Oh, that's not it!" cried Nancy, who was naturally a generous-hearted girl.

"Then you're in for it?"

"If--if you think the other girls will like it?"

"Sure they will!" cried Cora. "Hurrah! Now, you leave it to me. I'll tell Grace first of all, and we'll pick out a nice crowd. Why, with twenty dollars we can have at least twenty girls."

Nancy began to enthuse a little herself. She longed so to be friendly with her own cla.s.s, especially. There was Jennie Bruce, the fun-loving girl, and several others whom she particularly liked. Of course, they would all have to be domiciled in the West Side. No girl could cross from one side of the Hall to the other after curfew without being observed.

And the spread which Cora planned was not to begin until all the lights were out and the teacher, whose turn it was to be on that night, had gone her rounds to see that all the dormitories were quiet.

"We'll take a night when Maybrick is on, if we can," said Cora. "She goes to bed to sleep! No prowling around for her after she has once decided that all the chickens are on the roost."

And Nancy, with a suspicion deep in her mind that it was all wrong, and yet willing to suffer much for the sake of gaining "popularity,"

so-called, allowed Cora to go ahead with the preparations for the coming surrept.i.tious feast.

CHAPTER XIII

IT PROVES DISASTROUS

Nancy might have given too much thought and time to the coming "midnight spread," and neglected her lessons a bit had Cora Rathmore not taken the entire arrangements for the affair into her own hands. Cora did not seem to mind getting only "fair" marked on her weekly reports. She just shrugged her shoulders and said:

"_I_ should worry!"

But before Nancy plucked up the courage to say anything about who was to be invited she found that Cora had already seen to that--Cora and Grace Montgomery.

"I'd like to have Jennie Bruce come," Nancy suggested timidly one day.

"Goodness! why didn't you say so before?" snapped Cora.

"Why? Won't there be room for her?"

"We've made up the whole list, and the girls have been invited. We couldn't squeeze in another girl."

"Why--why, who made up the list?"

"Grace and I. Here it is," and Cora snapped a paper upon Nancy's desk.

Nancy read it over without comment. There wasn't a girl invited to the party at Number 30, West Side, whom Nancy liked any better than she did Cora herself! She began to doubt if the coming entertainment was going to be a success--as far as she was concerned--after all.

The girls ran in to see Cora again. Even Grace appeared in Number 30.

But none of them spoke more than perfunctorily to Nancy, and the lonely girl felt herself as much "out of it" as ever.

But she had one enjoyment now that made up for many previous lonely hours at the school. She could skate!

Clinton River remained frozen over; the ice grew thicker and the lodgekeeper and Samuel reported each morning that it was perfectly safe.

The boys from the Academy, too, appeared. Nancy was not much interested in them--only curious. Even the girls of her own cla.s.s seemed to be very desirous of making acquaintances among the Academy boys.

"You see," Jennie Bruce told her, "after the holidays we have entertainments at the Hall, and Dr. Dudley lets his boys give a minstrel show. We each have a dance during the winter--one at the Academy and one at the Hall; and if you know some of the boys beforehand it's lots easier to get partners at the dance."

"I'd just as lief dance with another girl, I think," said Nancy, timidly.