But whereas the under gardener smiled in return and praised her skating, the girls stared at her as though she were a complete stranger. Grace turned her back contemptuously. Cora scowled blackly.

And when she was back in Number 30, West Side, making ready for supper, her roommate came in noisily, tossed her skates on the floor, and burst out with:

"Well! you're a nice girl, _you_ are!"

"What's the matter now?" asked Nancy, with more courage than usual.

"I should think you'd ask!"

"I _do_ ask," said Nancy.

"Well, you've just about spoiled my--our--party."

"How?"

"You know well enough," snapped Cora.

"I do not," declared Nancy. "I have done nothing."

"Oh, no! Just walking off with Bob Endress and keeping him all the afternoon. Why, Grace is his cousin--and she'll never forgive you."

It was on the tip of Nancy's tongue to say she didn't care; but instead she remained silent.

"I had the hardest work to coax her to come to-night," went on Cora.

This was the evening marked for the spread in Number 30.

"I do not see that I have done anything to you girls," said Nancy, with some warmth. "I happened to know Bob Endress----"

"How did _you_ come to know Bob? He never said anything about it,"

snapped Cora.

"Well, I can a.s.sure you we were acquainted."

"It's certainly very strange," said the other girl, suspiciously.

"I don't see that it is anybody's business but our own," Nancy Nelson returned, with growing confidence. "And I did not mean to offend either you or Miss Montgomery."

"It's very strange."

"Not at all."

"Well, I don't know how you will explain it to Grace."

"I don't have to," said Nancy, and now she _was_ getting angry.

"Let me tell you, Miss, you will have to," cried Cora, more snappishly than ever.

"I do not see why."

"Let me tell you Grace Montgomery is the most influential and popular girl in our cla.s.s. You'll find that out if you continue to offend her."

"I don't see how I have offended her; nor do I see how I can pacify her if she is angry with me," returned Nancy, doggedly.

"You'd better let Bob Endress alone, then," cried Cora.

"Why! how meanly you talk," said Nancy, fairly white now with anger.

"Well! there's something very strange about how you took him right away from us----"

"If you don't stop talking like that," Nancy answered, her eyes blazing, "I shall not speak to you at all."

"Well, you've got to explain to Grace, then."

"I will explain nothing to her."

"Then you mean to spoil our party to-night?"

"No. It isn't _my_ party, that is evident. I'll go into some other room while you are holding it, if that's what you want."

Cora looked at her askance. Nancy had never shown any temper before since the term had opened. Cora did not really know whether her roommate would do as she said, or not.

"Oh, we're not dying to have you in here. You can go to Number 38. You know both of the girls from there will be here."

"That's what I'll do, then," answered Nancy, firmly.

"I'll tell Grace," said Cora, rather uncertainly. "Then she'll be sure and come. Oh, she _is_ mad."

"I hope she will remain mad with me as long as we are both at Pinewood!"

cried Nancy, desperately, and then she ran out of the room to hide the tears of anger and disappointment which she could no longer keep back.

CHAPTER XIV

HEAPS OF TROUBLE

Nancy wept as she had never wept since coming to Pinewood Hall. But she was weeping as much for rage as for sorrow. Cora's insulting words, and her cruelty, had lashed Nancy's indignation to the boiling point.

She _could_ spoil all their fun on this evening. She knew where all the goodies were hidden. Most of them were in her closet, and in Cora's. And her money had paid for every sc.r.a.p that had been smuggled in from the Clintondale caterer's and from the delicatessen store and grocery.

She could not only stop the girls from having the spread in Number 30; but she could stop their having it at all.

However, the heat of her pa.s.sion was soon over. She bathed her eyes and flushed face and went down to supper without seeing Cora again.

She did not sit near the Montgomery clique at table, anyway; but she heard them talking and laughing during the meal, and afterward some of them pa.s.sed where Nancy sat and looked at her oddly.