ONGER A NOBODY

After Jennie Bruce's father, on behalf of Nancy, made his first demand
upon Senator Montgomery in reprisal of the latter's diversion of Nancy's
fortune, Grace Montgomery disappeared suddenly from Pinewood Hall.

It had been so sudden that the girls--especially those who had been so
friendly with her--could scarcely recover from the shock.

At first, when Nancy and Jennie had gone off at midnight, it was rumored
around the school (said rumor starting from Cora Rathmore's room) that
the two chums had been expelled for holding an "orgy" after hours. And
there was nobody to contradict this statement, eagerly repeated by the
Montgomery clique, until Jennie came back.

She was bound not to tell Nancy's secret, however; otherwise Grace
Montgomery would have "sung small." The latter, however, was her bold
and mischievous self right up to the very day--some weeks later--when
she received a long letter from her heart-broken mother.

Mrs. Montgomery had never known the truth about her sister's child. It
became known somehow that Grace's mother begged Grace to make a friend
of Nancy and try to influence her to make her lawyer's demands less
severe upon the Senator, for his fortune was toppling.

But Grace would never have done this. She had talked of, and to, Nancy
Nelson too outrageously. She could not have asked a favor of the girl
she so disliked--whom she doubly disliked now!

So she borrowed her fare of Madame Schakael and took the first train
home; and Pinewood Hall never saw her again. Indeed, the girls she left
behind scarcely heard of Grace Montgomery. She never wrote to Cora,
even; and had Bob Endress not come over from Cornell for the New Year
dance, Nancy and Jennie would not have heard much about her.

"They have all gone back to California," said Bob, who did not at all
understand the rights of the matter. "Somehow the Senator has lost most
of his money, and they had just enough left to buy a little fruit ranch
down in the state somewhere. Too bad!"

Nancy did not explain. Why should she have injured his cousin in his
estimation? But she and Bob remained very good friends.

Nancy lived quite as plainly as she had before. She saw no reason for
changing her mode of living because the lawyers told her there were
great sums of money in store for her.

That summer, however, she _did_ insist on taking the entire Bruce family
to the mountains as her guests; for they had been very kind to her, and