Mr. and Mrs. Endress spoke very kindly to Nancy. Bob, it seemed, had often spoken of the girl whose quick wit had saved him from the millrace almost two years before.
"And you are in Grace Montgomery's class?" observed Mrs. Endress. "It is odd we have never heard Grace speak of you, Nancy. And where will you spend your summer?"
Nancy told her how kind the Bruces were to invite her for the long vacation.
"I hope we shall see you both," said Mrs. Endress, nodding kindly to Jennie, too, "before fall. We are not so very far from Holleyburg, you know. Ah! here come Grace and the Senator."
Nancy and her chum fell back. A tall man dressed in a gray frock coat and broad-brimmed hat--the garments so often affected by the Western politician--was pacing slowly up the aisle with Grace and Cora.
He was in gray all over, from hat to spats, save that his tie had a crimson spot in it--a very beautiful ruby pin.
"My goodness me, Nance! The Man in Gray!" whispered Jennie, chuckling.
"Why, you remember the man Scorch told us of?"
"The man in gray who came to see your guardian, Mr. Gordon?"
"Oh! Well," and Nancy recovered her composure. "I guess Grace Montgomery's father has nothing to do with _me_. But I have seen him before."
"You have?" returned Jennie, in turn surprised.
"Yes. Last year just about this time. He came to the Hall to see Grace. I wonder----"
She did not finish. She wondered if the Senator would remember her. He did. But to Nancy's confusion he scowled at her as he passed, and did not speak.
"My!" murmured Jennie in her chum's ear. "He's just as unpleasant as his daughter; isn't he? I guess Grace comes by _her_ mean disposition honestly enough!"
Once that summer Nancy plucked up courage to go in to Cincinnati from Jennie's home, and called upon Mr. Gordon. She did not tell him to expect her, but bearded the lion as she had once before.
Jennie went with her, of course; only she remained waiting in a tea-room near the big office building where the lion had his lair. Even Scorch was amazed to see Nancy Nelson, dressed in her best and outwardly composed, walk into the outer office of Ambrose, Necker & Boles.
"Such a shock!" gasped Scorch, pretending to faint away in his chair beside the gate in the railing. "And, say! Miss Nancy, how tall you're getting!"