"How ridiculous!" chuckled Bess.
"It is no laughing matter, girls," said Nan, with gravity.
"What isn't; the maxim?" cried Bess.
"No. Linda's loss."
"Pooh! What do I care?" scoffed Bess. "I'm wasting no tears over Linda."
"But that lovely necklace!" cried Nan.
"It was a beauty," admitted Laura.
"Oh! her father won't mind. He has more money than anybody else in the world--to hear her tell it," laughed the heartless Bess.
"She can't help being foolish, I suppose," added Laura.
"She showed how silly she was by wearing the necklace," Bess declared.
"Maybe a burglar saw it; and followed her home, and stole it."
Mrs. Cupp rang her bell sharply. "Young ladies!" she exclaimed, when there was comparative silence. "Young ladies! Attention! Miss Sherwood is wanted in Dr. Prescott's office at once."
Many of the girls stared at Nan as she slowly arose, her breakfast partly eaten. More than one whisper went around the tables. One girl asked right out loud:
"Wonder what Dr. Prescott wants her for?"
"I know!" squealed the eager voice of one of the younger pupils. "I came right past Linda Riggs' door, and I heard her say to Cora Courtney that she knew Nan stole that necklace!"
"Oh!" The exclamation was general. But Amelia Boggs' voice rose above the confusion.
"You miserable infant!" she cried. "You ought to be spanked and put to bed for a week!"
"Young ladies!" came in Mrs. Cupp's stern voice, "less confusion, please!"
Nan had risen in some trepidation to go to the principal's study. But the suggestion that she was wanted because Linda had lost her necklace almost bound her feet where she stood. It seemed to Nan as though she could not move.
"Nan! Nan!" cried Bess, jumping up, her face ablaze. "It's a story, a wicked story! They sha'n't treat you so!"
Her arm was over Nan's shoulders and she was crying, frankly. Mrs.
Cupp's voice again was heard above the noise.
"Elizabeth! Sit down!"
The reckless Bess paid no attention to the command, but went on with Nan to the door. This flagrant disobeying of the matron's order awed the other girls to silence.
Bess left her chum in the hall and came back, her eyes streaming.
"I don't care what you do to me, Mrs. Cupp, so there!" she sobbed.
"Nan is shamefully abused. You can punish me all you want to, Mrs.
Cupp, only don't tell me to keep my mouth closed for a week, for I--just--could--not--do--it!"
"I believe you, Elizabeth," said the matron, drily, preparing to follow Nan Sherwood. "I will attend to your case later."
In the principal's office Nan found Linda in tears and Dr. Prescott looking very grave indeed.
"Do you know anything about the loss of Linda's necklace, my dear?" the preceptress said kindly to Nan.
"No, Dr. Prescott," whispered Nan, her face very white and her lips fairly blue.
"That is sufficient, Nancy. You are mistaken, Linda. And it is a mistake that can hardly be excused."
"You just take her word for it!" cried Linda, wildly. "And my father will about _kill_ me when he knows grandmother's necklace is gone. She's a----"
"That will do!" Dr. Prescott sternly warned her.
"I don't care! She's a pauper! Nobody else in the school is poor enough to _want_ to steal. She tried to take my bag on the train----"
"No more of it!" commanded Dr. Prescott, rising angrily. "You are incorrigible, Linda. First of all, I want to know how you came to have the necklace to wear. Mrs. Cupp tells me she strictly forbade you to take it out of your trunk."
Mrs. Cupp entered at that moment. "Here's Henry," she said shortly to the doctor. "He has something to show you."
The man came in, wiping his snowy boots on the mat.
"What is it, Henry?" asked the troubled principal.
"This, Mum," said Henry, holding out something that glittered in his hand. "I reckon 'tis some gewgaw of the young ladies. I found it under a window with some trash from a wastepaper basket, and I want you to be tellin' 'em again that I will _not_ have 'em throwing trash out o'
window."
"My necklace!" shrieked Linda, and leaped to seize it.
But Henry closed his hand, and Linda might as well have tried to open a bank-vault without the combination.
"Give it to me," said Dr. Prescott, soberly. "When did you empty your basket out of the window, Linda?"
"La--last night--after we got home from the ball. I forgot it yesterday and it was--was too full," wept Linda.
"And your necklace went out of the window with it," said Dr. Prescott, sternly.
"Look at that child!" suddenly exclaimed Mrs. Cupp. The matron crossed the room quickly and caught poor Nan before she fell. "She's just about made sick by this," she said tartly. "Why! she's fainted. And she's feverish! Here's a pretty to-do!"
The principal hurried to Nan's side and looked into her pallid face.
"There is trouble here--more trouble than we know about," she whispered.
"Don't take her to her room. In here! You may go, Henry. Thank you! And you return to your room, Linda. We will look further into this affair."
Half an hour later Mrs. Cupp came out of the principal's suite of rooms with a troubled face, and telephoned for Dr. Larry, the school physician.