work.

The athletic instructor, Miss Etching, praised Nancy for her swimming
and general athletic work. There wasn't a freshie or soph who could
stand against her on the tennis court. She had learned to play
basketball, and played it well. The coach had her eye on Nancy for one
of the best teams in the school.

On the other hand the girl from Higbee School stood well in her
classes, and she had no black marks against her. No teacher had been
forced to admonish Nancy, and Corinne Pevay had a cheerful word for her
and a smile whenever Nancy crossed her path.

And yet the girl could not be happy. Her own mates--the freshmen--seemed
afraid of her. Or, at least, some of them did. And if Nancy was to have
chums she must find them, of course, in her own class.

For the first few weeks of a school year the new girls gradually get
settled--both in their studies and in their friendships. Had Nancy by
good chance been paired with a different girl--with a girl who had not
already formed her own associates--matters might have gone along much
more smoothly.

But Cora disliked her from the start. And the black-eyed girl was sharp
enough to see that accusing Nancy of being "a nobody" for some reason
hurt her roommate more than anything else.

Therefore, being of a malicious disposition, Cora continued to harp upon
this, until she had spread through the school the suspicion that Nancy
had come to Pinewood Hall under unusual circumstances. Nobody knew where
she had come from. She never spoke of her people, nor of where she had
lived.

And, of course, this was quite true. Nancy did not want to tell about
her life at Higbee School. Fortunately no girl from Higbee had ever come
to Pinewood Hall before, and the girl thought that her secret was safe.

Cora and her friends might suspect, but they really knew nothing about
Nancy's past life. Already some of the girls had received boxes from
home--those delightful surprise boxes that give such a zest to
boarding-school life. Nancy never received a letter, even.

So, Nancy could not be very happy at Pinewood Hall.

Other girls went around in recreation hours with their arms about each
other's waists, chattering with all the cheerfulness of blackbirds. They
had "secrets" together and whispered about them in corners. There were
little, harmless gatherings in the dormitories, sometimes after curfew;
but Nancy had no part in these girlish dissipations.

Perhaps it was her own fault. Bu