gg had kissed anybody, and it is doubtful if she really
knew how. So she thought better of it, shook hands with Nancy in a
mannish way, turned abruptly, and stalked back into the house.

The taxi rolled away, and Nancy winked back the tears. It was not hard.
After all, the orphan girl was leaving nothing behind that she really
_loved_.

CHAPTER IV

BEARDING THE LION

Nancy Nelson's hopes ran high. She was going out into a new world--the
world of Pinewood Hall. The girls would all be strangers to her there;
not one of them would know her history--or, rather, her lack of a
history.

But as to the latter, the girl was determined to learn all there was to
know about herself before she arrived at Pinewood.

In two hours the train would be in Cincinnati. She had but half an
hour--or less--to wait for the train on the other road to Clintondale.
But she had studied the time-table and she knew that, by waiting four
hours in Cincinnati, she could get another train to her destination.

She was to telegraph back to Miss Prentice when she arrived at
Cincinnati. At the same time she was supposed to telegraph ahead to the
principal of Pinewood Hall,--Madame Schakael. This had all been arranged
beforehand; Nancy had been thoroughly instructed by Miss Prentice.

But the girl had made up her mind not to send the dispatch on to
Pinewood Hall until she was ready to leave Cincinnati. There should be
no telegraphing back and forth between the two schoolmistresses if she
could help it.

In the interim Nancy proposed to find Mr. Gordon's office and have the
long-wished-for interview with the man whom she called her guardian. All
the guardians she had ever read of seemed to have a much deeper interest
in their wards than this lawyer had shown in her.

The cab driver checked her trunk and then spoke a word to the conductor
of the train that would take the girl to Cincinnati. But Nancy felt
quite independent and "grown up."

She asked the conductor about stopping over at the big city until the
later train and he assured her that she would need no stop-over check
for that. She spent a good part of the time until she got to Cincinnati
inventing speeches which she would make to Mr. Gordon when she reached
his office.

She filed the telegram to Miss Prentice as soon as she got off the
train; then she checked her handbag at the parcel counter and walked out
of the station.

Of course, she had no idea in which direction South W