CHAPTER XXVI

THE GRAND GUARD BALL

Bess was in a terrible state of mind when the news was told to her. She told Nan before suppertime that the girls were saying awful things, and she wanted to know what it meant. The fact that Nan was still bound by Dr. Prescott's sentence of silence made no difference to Bess.

"You've got to tell me what it means, or I'll never speak to you again, so there!" cried Bess. "How is it your own chum never knows anything about your secrets, and other girls do? It's a horrid shame!"

Nan, much troubled herself now, having discovered the loss of her unfinished letter, ran off to the principal and begged to be relieved of her sentence of silence. "Else I shall lose my dearest friend!" she told Dr. Prescott, quite wildly. "Something has happened that I _must_ tell her about, dear Dr. Prescott! I _must_!"

"'Must' is a hard master, Nancy," said the principal, softly. "Are you in trouble?"

"Yes, Dr. Prescott," admitted Nan, almost sobbing.

"Can I help you at all, my dear?"

"No! Oh, thank you, no! Oh! it's nothing to do with my own self here at school; but it is about my father and my mother. They--they are having some trouble in Scotland."

"I see, my dear," said Dr. Prescott, quietly. "I hope it is not as bad as you evidently think. But, whatever it is, remember that I am always ready to help my girls if I can. There may be something later that I can do."

"Thank you! thank you, so much, Dr. Prescott!" Nan cried, putting up her lips for the warm kiss the preceptress gave her. "And I may speak to Bess?"

"I absolve you from further silence. I think you will remember this punishment," said the principal, with a smile.

Then Nan went back and told Bess all. The two girls read Mrs. Sherwood's letter again and again, and Bess declared that Nan should not leave Lakeview Hall, no matter what happened about the Scotch legacy. "My father will pay for you to stay here with me, Nan Sherwood. You know he will."

Nan would not argue this point. They had talked that over to a conclusion long before circumstances had made it possible for Nan to attend the school. With all her desire for an education, Nan was the soul of independence. She knew now just what she would do. Her parents could not get home much before the Christmas holidays, and Nan determined to go to Tillbury to them when they reached there, and at once get a certificate from Mr. Mangel, the high-school principal, and try to secure a position in some store in Tillbury. She told Bess, to that young lady's disgust and alarm, that she must help support the family and help her father pay off the mortgage that would have to be put on the little cottage on Amity Street.

"I think it's just as mean as it can be!" sobbed Bess, fairly given up to woe. "And we were going to have such fun this winter. And Dad's almost promised that we should have a nice boat next spring. Oh, dear me, Nan Sherwood! Something always is happening to you to stir us all up!"

At another time Nan would have laughed at this way of expressing it; but she found no food for laughter in anything now. The girls who were closest to her, and loved her, were just as tender and kind as their several natures suggested. Grace Mason cried outright and her eyes were swollen and red the next morning when Walter ran over in the motor car to see her.

"What's the matter, Sis?" he demanded. "Who's been picking on you now?"

"Sh! Nobody. Nan and Bess and Laura wouldn't let them," his sister confessed. "But it's Nan--in _such_ trouble!"

She related what she knew of the circumstances, and Walter was deeply impressed by the story.

"Go ahead and get Nan, and we'll take a little spin," suggested the boy.

While his sister ran to ask permission, and to find Nan, Linda Riggs came along and stopped, as always, to speak to Walter.

"How is it you never take us girls to ride any more, as you used to last term?" asked the rich girl, smiling winningly on Walter.

"I--I don't have much time," stammered the boy, awkwardly. "Tutors, you know, and all that. Awfully busy."

"Yes--you--are!" laughed Cora, who was with her friend. "We see you on the roads, flying by."

Just then Grace appeared.

"Here we are, Walter!" she cried. "We're all ready."

"Oh! all right," answered the boy, and got out quickly to crank up.

Linda tossed her head as Nan followed Grace down the front steps. "That is what it means, eh?" she whispered to Cora. "That poverty-stricken Nan Sherwood! I wonder if Walter knows he's taking out a pauper in that handsome car."

"Oh! maybe Nan isn't quite a pauper," said Cora doubtfully.

"Yes, she is! And a thief! Or, she tried to be----"

"You know Mrs. Cupp warned you about repeating that story, Linda," said Cora, hastily.

"Well! just the same there'll be another story to tell," muttered Linda, watching the automobile party get under way with envious eyes. "I'll just fix that Nan Sherwood; you see!"

In the automobile Walter found time to say to Nan, when Grace could not hear: "I'm awfully sorry you're in trouble, Nan. I wish I could help you. We all like you tremendously. You know that, don't you?"

"I believe you mean it, Walter," said Nan, winking fast to keep back the tears. "And it's just _dear_ of you to say so. Thanks!" and Nan pressed the boy's offered hand warmly.

The Grand Guard Ball, a social event that shook Freeling and the surrounding towns to their social centre, was to be held on this evening. The older girls of Lakeview Hall were usually allowed to attend the assembly under the care of one or two teachers. Sometimes Dr. Beulah Prescott herself attended the ball.

Nan did not really care to go; but Bess insisted, and would not go without her. Mrs. Harley had seen to it that both girls had pretty party dresses, and these compared well with the frocks worn by the other girls who filled Charley's old omnibus and the several automobiles that transported the pupils from Lakeview Hall to the ball.

Linda Riggs wore a frock as unfitted for her age as Mrs. Cupp would allow. It was noticed, too, that Linda did not wear the pretty coral necklace she had displayed so frequently during the term. That was around Cora's pretty throat, while Linda's neck was bare of any ornament. Mrs. Cupp did not attend the assembly on this occasion. She hurried off to the village early in the evening, having received a note from her sister, Miss Vane. Some of the girls said that Mrs. Cupp and her sister were in trouble over an orphan boy whom Miss Sadie Vane had once taken to bring up.

"He was more like a bond-slave than an adopted son, I reckon," Susan told Laura Polk, in her gossipy way. "If you gals yere think Mrs. Cupp is a Tartar, yo'd ought to have some 'sperience with Miss Sadie Vane. I wo'ked fo' her once. Never again!"

"What's happened to the boy?" Laura asked.

"He done run away, and now it tu'ns out that there's money comin' to him an' the 'thorities want to know whar he done gone. It's makin' Miss Vane a sight of trouble--an' sarve her right!"

This story Laura, of course, told to her chums; but nobody expressed any sorrow for Mrs. Cupp but Nan. The latter could not help but feel that, after all, the matron had shown her some kindness, even if she had told Dr. Prescott about the boathouse banquet.

Dr. Prescott did not herself attend the Grand Guard Ball. Mademoiselle Loro was very near-sighted, and Miss Gleason, the physical culture instructor, who also went to chaperon the girls, was not of an observant nature.

Therefore, when Linda Riggs suddenly blazed out in all the glory of a diamond and ruby necklace in an old-fashioned setting "more fit," as Amelia Boggs said, "for a Choctaw princess to wear than a white girl!" there really was nobody to forbid the display.

People remarked about it, however. It was plainly a family heirloom and very valuable. If it was done to advertise Mr. Riggs' wealth, it was in poor taste, and Dr. Prescott certainly would be greatly displeased if she heard of Linda's action. However, nobody had any concern about that unless it was Linda herself.

The girls enjoyed every minute they were allowed to remain at the ball. Each girl was allowed three dances, and the question of partners was a burning one.

Walter Mason had done yeoman's duty in this matter. He knew every youth who attended the ball. He was indefatigable in introducing them to his sister and the other girls from the Hall. Even Amelia had partners for her three dances.

In fact, only one girl missed the full complement of dances. That was Linda. She was so angry with Walter that she refused to let him introduce any of his friends, and in return Walter did not ask her to dance at all. So the Linda Riggs' clique, and Nan and the Masons, were very much at odds when they went back to the hall at ten o'clock.

The necklace disappeared from Linda's neck before the Hall was reached. But in the morning, at breakfast time, it appeared again in a most surprising bit of gossip. Around the tables went the rumor, flying from lip to lip:

"Linda's beautiful necklace is gone! She's in her room in tears and will not be comforted. She declares it has been stolen."