In fact, only one girl missed the full complement of dances. That was Linda. She was so angry with Walter that she refused to let him introduce any of his friends, and in return Walter did not ask her to dance at all. So the Linda Riggs’ clique, and Nan and the Masons, were very much at odds when they went back to the hall at ten o’clock.
The necklace disappeared from Linda’s neck before the Hall was reached. But in the morning, at breakfast time, it appeared again in a most surprising bit of gossip. Around the tables went the rumor, flying from lip to lip:
“Linda’s beautiful necklace is gone! She’s in her room in tears and will not be comforted. She declares it has been stolen.”
CHAPTER XXVII
THE HUMILIATION OF LINDA
Early in the morning after the Grand Guard Ball in Freeling, Nan Sherwood had an adventure.
She had spent part of the previous day writing another letter to her mother, and that she finished, sealed, stamped and mailed in the school letter-bag. This time she knew that no ill-natured girl would get hold of it. But, of course, the whole school knew by this time that she was going to leave at the end of the term, and that “her folks weren’t rich at all, so there!”
Not that Nan had ever talked about the Scotch legacy more than she could help; and certainly she had not boasted to the girls of her wealth. There are certain natures, however, who envy the successful, and Nan had been very successful in making friends, in finding favor with the teachers, and in standing well in her classes.
So even some girls whom she had been kind to, were glad to repeat now the story of Nan Sherwood’s coming poverty as first circulated by Linda Riggs and her satellites. Nan had heard many unkind whispers, and when alone she grieved over this.
By reason of her fretting, she did not sleep well after the ball, and she arose long before the gong sounded and when it was still quite dark. There was a paring of silver moon low on the horizon, which looked as though it had been sewed into the black velvet robe of Night; and the robe was trimmed with sparkling silver and red stars as well.