Without waiting for a reply, she went across to the gray-haired woman who occupied the seat opposite hers.
“Pardon me, madam,” she said, a bit breathlessly, “but have you the key for that suitcase?”
“Why, yes,” replied the woman, in some surprise.
“And might I borrow it?” she asked, going on to tell the reason for her strange request.
The woman was only too glad to accommodate her, and was as pleased as the girls themselves when the key opened Nancy’s suitcase.
“Wasn’t that the strangest coincidence?” asked Nancy, as they settled back to enjoy the scenery; and they all agreed with her.
“No one but Nancy,” observed Jeanette, with a smile at her friend, “would have had the problem solved so easily. She is always getting into difficulties, and being taken out of them. Most of us would have gone through the country with our things safely locked in.”
“Now, girls,” said Miss Ashton, “what do you know about this country?”
“Very little,” replied Nancy, “except that the scene of Longfellow’s Evangeline is laid here. And I can readily see, even after the bit of the country we have passed, why he spoke of the ‘forest primeval.’ There is plenty of forest here all right.”
“I meant to look up some information before we started, but I didn’t have a minute,” said Jeanette.