"Huh!" grunted Jennie. "Only Cora? Well! she can stand it, I guess."

"Well, I don't know but she's right," wheezed Belle, who was also of the party. "They ought not to let such girls into a school like Pinewood Hall."

"Hul-_lo!_" exclaimed Jennie, suddenly interested. "Who's been treading on _your_ tootsies, Belle?"

"Why, it's that Nelson girl," snapped Judy.

"And what's Nancy been doing?"

"Well, it's what she _is_," exclaimed another, eagerly. "You are pretty thick with her, Jen. Do you know who she is?"

Jennie nodded.

"You don't!"

"I know just as much about her as she knows about herself," declared Jennie, with gravity.

"And that's just nothing," cried Judy, with a little laugh. "That's what Cora says."

"And who told Cora?" asked Jennie.

"Grace. And Grace knows!"

"And who told Chicken-Little-Ducky-Lucky-Goosy-Poosy-Montgomery that the sky had fallen?" demanded the sarcastic Jennie.

"Did you know that Nancy Nelson came here from a charity school, and that she has no folks?" asked Belle Macdonald, with considerable bitterness.

"Yes," said Jennie, nodding.

"Well! what do you suppose your mother would say if she knew you were familiar with such a girl?"

Jennie suddenly became grave. "She'd say," declared the fun-loving girl, her voice shaking a little, "she'd say: 'That's a good girl, Jennie.

She's an orphan--be kind to her.'"

"Oh, rats!" cried Judy. "She doesn't even know she's an orphan. Cora says she believes Nancy's parents are in jail."

"Maybe Cora has a wider acquaintance among jails than the rest of us,"

said Jennie airily, preparing to go upstairs.

"And what was Nancy doing with her hat and coat at this hour?" put in another girl, craftily. "The Madame noticed that right away."

"The Madame!" gasped Jennie, stopping instantly.

"Oh, they've all gone into the office," said Belle, eagerly.

"Who--all?"

"Corinne and Cora and Nancy."

"They've caught Nancy because she was going to run away?" cried Jennie.

"Run away?" repeated the other girls in chorus.

The angry Jennie shook the bag in their faces.

"Do you know what _this_ is?" she demanded. "Do you know what you girls by your meanness almost drove Nancy Nelson to?

"I'll tell you! She knows you all dislike her--hate her, in fact. She is so unhappy here that she was going to run away from Pinewood Hall and get work somewhere--that is what she was going to do.

"She packed this bag and tossed it out of the window, and then she ran down to the door intending to slip away. But she remembered that she had been forbidden to leave the building at this time of day, and that Madame Schakael had trusted her.

"So Nance wouldn't break her word, and I found her crying in the back hall there, and told her I would bring back her bag. That's the truth!

You girls have driven her to all that.

"And now," continued the wrathful Jennie, "I'm going in there to tell Madame Schakael all about it. You girls don't want to a.s.sociate with Nancy because she is an orphan and has no home? Well, _I_ don't want to a.s.sociate with _you_ because you are all too mean to bother with! There now!"

And the excited Jennie came down the steps, strode across the hall and entered the anteroom of the princ.i.p.al's office, closing the door with a bang.

CHAPTER XVIII

BETTER TIMES

It was seldom that Madame Schakael seemed so stern as on this occasion.

She perched herself upon her cushioned chair behind the desk table in her inner office, while the three girls--the senior and the two freshmen--lined up before her.

"Now, Corinne, tell me all about it," was her command to the older girl.

"I am not sure that I _can_ tell you all, Madame," said Corinne, slowly.

"For I did not hear it all."

But the black-eyed Cora was getting back her courage now, and she suddenly burst out:

"_I_ can tell you, Madame!"

"Perhaps--as it was your voice which I first heard--you had better tell me your side of it, Miss Rathmore," agreed the princ.i.p.al.

"There's only one side to it, Madame!" exclaimed Cora. "I was just telling those girls--and Miss Pevay, who interfered----"

"Corinne is the captain of the West Side. You belong on the West Side.

By no possibility could your captain have interfered if you chose the public hall for any discussion," said the Madame, with sudden sharpness.

"I want all you freshmen to understand that: The school captains must be respected and obeyed."

"Well--I--I didn't mean to be disrespectful," murmured Cora, suddenly abashed.

"Perhaps not. But, Miss Rathmore, I fancy you will have to watch yourself closely to correct a tendency in that direction," observed the Madame, drily. "Now, you may continue your statement."