Ah! there was Jennie. Nancy identified her jolly laugh and chatter immediately. She could trust Jennie. Jennie would slip around the house and bring in the fatal bag secretly, and keep still about it.
So Nancy kept back in the dark hall and let the troop of laughing girls pass her without saying a word. Jennie came last and Nancy seized her arm.
"Goodness to gracious and eight hands around!" gasped Jennie. "How you startled me. Is it you, Nancy?"
"Well, what's the matter? Whose old cat is dead now?" demanded Jennie, in an equally low voice.
"I--I threw my bag out of the window, Jennie. Will you get it?" whispered the excited girl.
"I--I can't tell you here," whispered Nancy.
"What have you got _there_?" demanded Jennie, suddenly, pulling at the bundle under the other girl's arm.
"Oh, you little chump! You are starting to run away!"
"Oh, Jennie! I don't see how I _can_ stay here. Cora and Grace know everything."
"I know it--nasty cats! But I'd face 'em. There's nothing to be ashamed of," declared Jennie. But she said it a little weakly. She knew that many of the girls would be just foolish enough to follow the lead of the Montgomery girl and Cora Rathmore.
"I--I've _got_ to face 'em, I suppose," murmured Nancy. "I just thought that I couldn't run away."
"Huh! why not?" asked her friend, curiously.
"Because Madame Schakael put me on my honor not to leave the Hall in recreation hours without permission."
"Oh! goodness!" gasped Jennie. Then she burst out laughing, rocking herself to and fro, doubled up in the darkness of the hallway.
"What a delightful kid you are, Nance!" she cried, at last. "And you threw your handbag, all packed, out of the window?"
"Well, I'll go get it. But you certainly _will_ be the death of me!" cried Jennie, and opened the door again.
"Oh! I'll thank you so much," whispered Nancy.
"Go on upstairs and put that coat and hat away," ordered Jennie, with sudden gruffness. "You're no more fit to roam this wild desert of boarding-school life alone than a baby in long clothes! Run, now!" and Jennie darted out of the door.
But it was easier to say than to do! When Nancy stole back into the main hall there were a dozen girls, at least, gathered there waiting for the supper gong. And among them were some of those who had, all the time, treated Nancy with the least consideration.
