ou've got some
money left?"

"Oh, yes."

"How much?" asked Cora, bluntly.

"Well--I've got more than twenty dollars," confessed Nancy.

"Crickey-me!" gasped Cora. "Twenty dollars? Why, we'd give the dandiest
kind of a spread--salad, and ice cream, and cakes--Oh, crickey-me! that
would be great."

"But what would Corinne say?" blurted out Nancy.

"Hah! those big girls have after-lights-out spreads, too. That Canuck
won't dare say a word."

"But some of the teachers----"

"You needn't borrow trouble," said Cora. "Of course, if you don't want
to do it----"

"I--I----"

"Sure, you understand that I'll pay my half," went on Cora, eagerly.
"All you got to do is to lend me the money until Christmas time."

"Oh, that's not it!" cried Nancy, who was naturally a generous-hearted
girl.

"Then you're in for it?"

"If--if you think the other girls will like it?"

"Sure they will!" cried Cora. "Hurrah! Now, you leave it to me. I'll
tell Grace first of all, and we'll pick out a nice crowd. Why, with
twenty dollars we can have at least twenty girls."

Nancy began to enthuse a little herself. She longed so to be friendly
with her own class, especially. There was Jennie Bruce, the fun-loving
girl, and several others whom she particularly liked. Of course, they
would all have to be domiciled in the West Side. No girl could cross
from one side of the Hall to the other after curfew without being
observed.

And the spread which Cora planned was not to begin until all the lights
were out and the teacher, whose turn it was to be on that night, had
gone her rounds to see that all the dormitories were quiet.

"We'll take a night when Maybrick is on, if we can," said Cora. "She
goes to bed to sleep! No prowling around for her after she has once
decided that all the chickens are on the roost."

And Nancy, with a suspicion deep in her mind that it was all wrong, and
yet willing to suffer much for the sake of gaining "popularity,"
so-called, allowed Cora to go ahead with the preparations for the coming
surreptitious feast.

CHAPTER XIII

IT PROVES DISASTROUS

Nancy might have given too much thought and time to the coming "midnight
spread," and neglected her lessons a bit had Cora Rathmore not taken the
entire arrangements for the affair into her own hands. Cora did not seem
to mind getting only "fair" marked on her weekly reports. She just
shrugged her shoulders and said:

"_I_ should worry!"

But before Nan