at girl," cried Cora, pointing a quivering finger at the silent
Nancy, "was just found by somebody when she was a baby and was sent to
a charity school--the Higbee Endowment School in Maiden, it's called.

"She's a foundling. Her parents deserted her--or they were sent to
jail--and other people sent this girl to school. She knows it's so! She
daren't say it isn't!" continued the enraged Cora.

"She's just a little Miss Nobody. If such girls as she, without family
or friends, are going to come to Pinewood Hall, I am sure _my_ mother
won't want me to stay here. And one thing I _am_ very sure of," pursued
Cora. "I will _not_ remain in Number 30 with this--this nameless girl
that no one knows anything about."

"Quite so, Miss Rathmore," observed a quiet voice behind the excited
Cora. "What you say is emphatic, at least; and it really seems to be in
earnest. Therefore, it shall have my respectful consideration."

A horrified silence fell upon the group of girls at the foot of the
stairs.

"Miss Pevay," said the Madame, calmly, "bring Nancy Nelson and Cora
Rathmore to my office at once. What is that on the floor?"

The little lady pointed to Nancy's coat and cap. Nancy, with dry lips,
told her.

"Have you been out without permission at this hour, Nancy?" asked the
Madame.

"No, Madame."

"Bring the coat and cap. At once!" commanded the Madame, and led the way
into her own suite of offices.

Like three prisoners bound for the stake, the three girls followed. Even
Corinne felt that she had done wrong in allowing this squabble to
continue in the public hall.

The other girls did not even dare whisper at first after the Madame and
the three girls were behind the closed door of the Madame's anteroom. It
was seldom that the principal of Pinewood Hall took the punishment, or
interrogation, of offenders into her own hands. When she did it was a
solemn moment for all concerned.

And the girls gathered at the bottom of the West Side stairway felt this
solemnity. They whispered together fearfully until suddenly Jennie Bruce
burst in from outdoors.

"Hullo, girls! what's gone wrong?" she demanded, swinging a small bag in
her hand.

"You may well say 'What's gone wrong?'" declared Judy Craig, Belle
Macdonald's chum. "The Madame caught poor Cora in an awful stew----"

"Huh!" grunted Jennie. "Only Cora? Well! she can stand it, I guess."

"Well, I don't know but she's right," wheezed Belle, who was also of
the party. "Th