The boy was a pale youth, but he flushed deeply now and edged farther away, as though he really feared her.
"Oh, yes! I live near here. I--I'm glad I could help you. Good-bye!"
Before Nan could stop him by word or act, he turned around and ran up the shore of the lake until he was hidden from the girl's surprised view.
"Well! isn't that the strangest thing?" demanded Nan, of nobody at all. Then she realized that she was getting very cold indeed, standing there with wet feet and ankles, and she herself started on a run for the steps to the top of the bluff, and had just time enough to get to the Hall and change her shoes and stockings before breakfast.
At the table she was giving to Bess an eager account of her adventure when Laura Polk said to the chums from Tillbury:
"Don't know. What is the latest?" asked Bess. "Nan's got a yarn to tell that almost passes human belief. She seems to have interviewed a ghost and got her feet wet at the same time."
"That's nothing," declared Laura. "Linda's lost that beautiful necklace."
"Goodness! you don't mean it?" gasped Bess.
"The poor girl!" exclaimed Nan, with sympathy. "How did it happen?"
"The deponent knoweth not," said Laura, tightly. "It's a big loss--bigger than that awful maxim Miss Craven used to teach all us girls: 'Lost! Somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever!'"
"It is no laughing matter, girls," said Nan, with gravity.
"Pooh! What do I care?" scoffed Bess. "I'm wasting no tears over Linda."
"Oh! her father won't mind. He has more money than anybody else in the world--to hear her tell it," laughed the heartless Bess.
"She can't help being foolish, I suppose," added Laura.
"She showed how silly she was by wearing the necklace," Bess declared. "Maybe a burglar saw it; and followed her home, and stole it."
Mrs. Cupp rang her bell sharply. "Young ladies!" she exclaimed, when there was comparative silence. "Young ladies! Attention! Miss Sherwood is wanted in Dr. Prescott's office at once."
Many of the girls stared at Nan as she slowly arose, her breakfast partly eaten. More than one whisper went around the tables. One girl asked right out loud: