extreme delight.

Mr. Gordon had sent the banknote to her without any more feeling,
seemingly, than he would have had in throwing a bone to a dog. Yet, it
might be his way of showing her sympathy. Nancy slipped it back in the
envelope and picked up the second letter.

And before she opened this she believed she knew what it contained. She
had not forgotten "Scorch" O'Brien. Scorch had promised to watch "Old
Gordon" and write to her. He had used one of the office envelopes and
had stolen a minute when some typewriter was not in use.

Madame Schakael thought both letters were from Mr. Gordon. Nancy was too
curious as to what Scorch had written to deny herself the reading of the
contraband epistle.

It was much blotted and the scrawl characteristic of an office boy's
chirography proved that his terms at public school had not done Scorch
much good. This was the letter:

"Nancy Nelson,

Dear Miss:

I guess you haven't forgotten Scorch O'Brien. That's me. I said
I'd rite if I got a line on Old Gordon, that he was doing you
queer. I bet he is, but I don't know nothing for sure yet. I
put a twist on him this morning and I see a letter now in the
male-basket for you, so I says to myself, 'Scorch, what you
said took like vaccination.' Ouch! me arm hurts yet!

Well, I says to Old G., says I, 'What's come of the girl what
blew me to lunch at the Arrandale? She was some swell little
dame, she was.'

Says he, 'Mind your own business, Scorch. That's a good motto
for you to paste up over your desk.'

'Nix,' says I. 'If I didn't mind everybody else's biz in this
office the whole joint would go to grass.' And that's right.
'That girl's just the same as in jail at that boarding-school,'
says I. 'Have you forgotten her?'

'How'd I remember?' says he, looking sort of queer.

'Come across with a piece of change for her,' says me--I'm
practerkal, I be. Money always comes in handy; now, don't it?
Write an' tell me if he took my tip. And no more now, from,

"Yours respectfully,
"Scorch O'Brien."

It was Scorch all over--that letter! Nancy Nelson came near laughing
right out in the classroom; but she could cram both letters into her
pocket and go on with her studies with a more composed mind.

Scorch was evidently her friend. And eminently practical, as he
declared.