None of the other girls had taken part in this discussion; but they all chanced to be members of the party that had partaken of the famous spread in Number 30 when Nancy’s money paid for the goodies out of the enjoyment of which she had been crowded.
They were all, save Cora, paying the price, like Nancy, of being found out of their rooms after curfew by the principal of Pinewood Hall. All had suffered alike. Cora had been the only one to escape.
As it chanced, Cora had not been out of her room. The girls were not punished for eating ice cream and macaroons in secret, and none of them had been questioned about the incident save Nancy herself.
They had all, however, urged by Cora and Grace Montgomery, been sure that Nancy had “got even” by reporting them to the teachers. Maybe, if Cora had not so urged this—had not been so confident of Nancy’s crime, in fact—the other girls might have stopped to think that she was being punished equally with themselves, and that only Cora had escaped.
Just the same, some of them might on this evening have taken Nancy’s part had not Cora Rathmore made so much of the report upon Nancy’s character that Grace Montgomery had received from a friend in Malden.
Nobody had seen the letter (which came under cover for Grace from her sister at home, and was therefore not examined by Madame Schakael) save Grace herself and Cora. The latter had flown into a passion immediately, and had declared that she would no longer remain in the same room with a “charity foundling.”
Without stopping to think, these other girls were carried away by Cora’s eloquence. When Nancy turned to face them from the lower stair of the flight leading up to the West Side dormitories, she was like a sheep cornered by a pack of dogs.
The shrill voice of the angry Cora carried much farther than she had intended, however. Suddenly, at the top of the flight, appeared Corinne Pevay, captain of the West Side.
“What is the trouble, mes enfants?” she demanded. “Why all the outburst of variegated sounds, Cora? Is it a convention of the Freshman Calliope Society; or merely a discussion of the question: Votes for Women?”
Cora had become silent instantly. Nancy was winking back her tears, and would not turn around. The other girls did not feel called upon to speak.