“Not if he thought he could save you girls from getting caught?” asked the matron, shrewdly.
“I am quite sure Walter was nowhere near the boathouse at that time,” Nan said, with confidence. “I know he telephoned to his sister this evening from their house. Couldn’t you call up his mother or father, and find out if he went out again after that time?”
“Good idea! I’ll do it,” said Mrs. Cupp. “You report to Dr. Prescott to-morrow, after chapel.”
This order did not make Nan sleep any more soundly that night. It was quite twelve o’clock when the girls separated under the sharp eye of Mrs. Cupp, and scattered to their rooms. Bess kissed Nan fondly before she crept into her own bed.
“I don’t care, Nancy!” she breathed, “we would have had a lovely time if it hadn’t been for old Cupp!”
“And the one who set her after us,” suggested Nan.
“Oh! who could she be? Linda?”
“We’ll never know, I s’pose,” said Nan. “I thought at first Linda and her crowd had robbed us.”
“Oh!”
“But I guess whoever did that, scared Mrs. Cupp, too.”