ion. Not so nice;
eh?"

"Oh!" exclaimed the girl again, looking at him now through her tears.

"So I accepted the responsibility--as I accept many responsibilities in
the way of business. It is nothing personal to me. I am paid a certain
sum for handling the money devoted to your support. That is all."

The girl asked a strange question--strange for one so young, at least.
The thought had stabbed her like a knife:

"What would you do if I should die? How would you tell those--those who
send the money?"

If the lawyer hesitated it was but for a moment. And his huge face was a
veritable mask.

"I should advertise in the personal column of a certain metropolitan
newspaper--that is all," he declared.

"Then--then I'm just nobody, after all?" sighed the girl, wiping her
eyes.

"Why--why--I wouldn't say that!" and for the first time a little human
note came into Mr. Gordon's voice, and his pink face seemed to become
less grim.

"But that's what I _am_--Miss Nobody from Nowhere. I had no friends at
Higbee School because of it; I'll have no standing at Pinewood Hall,
either."

"Nonsense! nonsense!" ejaculated Mr. Gordon, tapping his desk again.

"Girls who have homes--and folks--don't want to associate with girls who
come from nowhere and don't know anything about themselves."

"Well, well! That's a thought that had never entered my mind," said the
lawyer, more to himself than to Nancy.

"You see how it is, sir. I thought there might be an estate, maybe. I
thought maybe that, as so much money was being spent for me--I might be
of some importance somewhere----"

"Ha!" exclaimed the lawyer, still staring at her.

"But now you say there's nobody--and nothing. Just money comes--comes
out of the air for me. And you pass it on. Oh, dear me! it's very
mysterious, sir."

He said nothing, but still looked at her.

"And you're not even my guardian! I hoped when I went to Pinewood and
the girls began to get curious, I could talk about you," confessed
Nancy, plaintively. "I thought maybe, if you even weren't married----"

"Ahem! I am _not_ married," said the lawyer, quickly.

"But, then, if you were truly my guardian, I might come and see you
once--or you could come to the school and see me," pursued the girl,
wistfully. "But now--now there's nothing--absolutely nothing."

"Now there's nothing," repeated Mr. Gordon, uncompromisingly.

"And the girls at Pinewood Hall will be just like those at Higbee,"
sighed Nan