Nancy had been afraid that Corinne would go to the lower floor with her.
But when the bigger girl left her, she slipped down the stairs like a streak and ran for the rear door of the West Side.
She saw n.o.body. The lower corridors seemed empty. She reached the unlocked door and had her hand upon the k.n.o.b. Indeed, she turned the k.n.o.b and pulled the door toward her.
The cold evening air blew in upon her face. It was the Breath of the Wide World--that world that lay before her if she left the shelter of Pinewood Hall and the bitterness of her life here.
And then, for the first time, a thought struck her. She had been forbidden to leave the building, save at stated times with the physical instructor, until the Christmas holidays, which were three weeks away.
Madame Schakael had bound her, on her honor, to remain a prisoner in the Hall until the ban of displeasure should be lifted. She had tacitly promised to obey, and therefore the Madame had set no spy upon Nancy"s footsteps. There was no watching of the girls suffering under punishment. That was not the system of Pinewood Hall and its mistress.
How could Nancy break her word to Madame Schakael? Never had the Madame spoken otherwise than kindly to her. Even when she meted out punishment to her, Nancy knew that the punishment was just. The Madame could have done no less.
The princ.i.p.al had not even urged Nancy to report her schoolmates on the night of the party at Number 30, West Side. She had accepted her statement, as far as it went, as perfectly honest, too. She had not punished Jennie Bruce.
"Why, I _can"t_ run away and make Madame Schakael trouble!" gasped Nancy, closing the door again softly and crouching there in the dark hallway. "Mr. Gordon might make her trouble. Besides--I"ve promised."
The girl was much shaken by her fear of what cruelty Cora Rathmore and Grace Montgomery would mete out to her. Yet she could not play what seemed to her mind a "mean trick" upon the doll-like princ.i.p.al who had been so kind to her.
"Oh, dear me! I can"t go--I can"t go!" moaned Nancy Nelson. "It wouldn"t be right. Madame Schakael said I wasn"t to go out----"
And then she remembered the bag she had tossed out of the window. She must have that bag back, if she wasn"t going away. If it remained there over night perhaps Mr. Pease, or Samuel, would find it.
And then the story would all come out, and her position in the school would be worse!
But Nancy knew that she had no right to leave the building at this particular time. That was the plain understanding, that recreation hours should be spent within the Hall, unless Miss Etching invited her to join a walking party.
The physical instructor was now down on the ice with the girls. Nancy might have asked one of the other teachers for permission to step out for just a minute; but that would entail much explanation.
The brush clump into which she had thrown her bag was around the farther corner of the wing. And just then she heard laughing and talking as the first group from the river approached the Hall.
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 pa.s.s 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?"
"Hush! Yes."
"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.
"Your bag?"
"Yes, yes!"
"What under the sun did you do it for?"
"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.
"My--my coat."
"And your hat?"
"Ye--yes."
"Oh, you little chump! You are starting to run away!"
"No, I"m not."
"But you thought of it?"
"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?"
"Yes."
"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.
Nancy dropped her gaze, so as not to see their unpleasant looks, and stole toward the stairway with her bundle. But suddenly Cora"s sharp voice halted her. She had not seen Cora at first.
"Yes! there she goes up to our room. _That"s_ the girl _I_ have to room with. But I"m going to tell Madame Schakael right now that I sha"n"t do so any longer."
Nancy"s head came up and she flushed and paled. The lash of Cora"s words roused her temper as it had been roused once before. Yet all she said in reply to the cruel speech was:
"Why can"t you let me alone, Cora Rathmore?"
"I"ll let you alone!" repeated Cora, with a shrill laugh. "I guess I will. And every other _nice_ girl will let you alone, Miss Nelson. Don"t be afraid that you"ll be worried by friends here. We all know what you are now."