But when Madame Schakael entered the anteroom she was not alone. Nancy, from within, heard another voice--a shrill and unpleasant voice which she very well knew.
"Well, I don't care what you say, Madame, it _was_ her. There's no other girl in the whole school who gets up so early and disturbs us other girls--so now! She's stirring around half the night, I declare! And she was the _only_ girl out of doors this morning so early."
"And she is your roommate; is she, Miss Rathmore?" interrupted the Madame's smooth, low voice.
"Well! I never wanted her! I wrote home and told my mother she was a nobody----"
"Your mother was kind enough to write to me on the subject," said the principal of Pinewood Hall. "But I could not allow any change in the dormitory arrangements for the inconsequential reasons given. Nancy Nelson is quite the same as any other girl at the Hall. I wish to hear nothing more on _that_ topic, Cora.
"But this other matter, of course, is different. If a rule has been broken of course I must take cognizance of it. And I feel sure that if your roommate was the person on the ice this morning, she will report the fact to me herself----"
She pushed the office door wide open. Nancy had listened to this conversation perforce. There had been no escape for her.
"Ah! As I expected," said the doll-like little woman, smiling calmly at Nancy. "You see how mistaken one may be, Cora? Nancy is here ahead of us."
Cora Rathmore shrank back from the door with a very red face. Nancy's eyes flashed as she looked at her ill-natured roommate. She realized well enough that Cora had deliberately--and without sufficient evidence herself--tried to get her into trouble with the principal.
Cora was not easily embarrassed, however. In a moment she shot the other girl a scornful glance and, without a word to Madame Schakael, walked out of the office. It really did seem as though it was Nancy who had done the wrong, instead of her roommate.
"You are here to see me, Miss Nelson?" asked the Madame, briskly, ignoring the other girl and her report.
"You are a new girl. Did you not know of the rule that all girls must keep off the river until it is pronounced safe by Mr. Pease?"
"I did not know of the rule. And I did not think that I was doing wrong when I went on the ice this morning," returned Nancy, quietly.