CHAPTER XXX
NO LONGER A NOBODY
After Jennie Bruce’s father, on behalf of Nancy, made his first demand upon Senator Montgomery in reprisal of the latter’s diversion of Nancy’s fortune, Grace Montgomery disappeared suddenly from Pinewood Hall.
It had been so sudden that the girls—especially those who had been so friendly with her—could scarcely recover from the shock.
At first, when Nancy and Jennie had gone off at midnight, it was rumored around the school (said rumor starting from Cora Rathmore’s room) that the two chums had been expelled for holding an “orgy” after hours. And there was nobody to contradict this statement, eagerly repeated by the Montgomery clique, until Jennie came back.
She was bound not to tell Nancy’s secret, however; otherwise Grace Montgomery would have “sung small.” The latter, however, was her bold and mischievous self right up to the very day—some weeks later—when she received a long letter from her heart-broken mother.
Mrs. Montgomery had never known the truth about her sister’s child. It became known somehow that Grace’s mother begged Grace to make a friend of Nancy and try to influence her to make her lawyer’s demands less severe upon the Senator, for his fortune was toppling.
But Grace would never have done this. She had talked of, and to, Nancy Nelson too outrageously. She could not have asked a favor of the girl she so disliked—whom she doubly disliked now!