"N-never mind! Thanks!" she blurted out, and turning sharply, dashed into the cover of the thicket and was almost instantly out of sight--out of sound, as well.
But she was so excited that she did not think again how she looked until she appeared before Miss Trigg.
The short-sighted teacher looked up at her--stared, evidently without identifying her charge for the moment--and then gave voice.
"Nancy! Nancy Nelson! Whatever have you been doing to yourself?"
Nancy had already heard the motor get under way. She knew that the boy and his friends were now out of hearing, or reach.
"Aren't these lilies pretty?" she asked, holding out the flowers as a peace-offering to Miss Trigg.
"_What?_" screamed the teacher, getting up nimbly, and backing away from the mud-bedaubed figure of the girl. "Your feet are wet! Did--did you _dare_ get into such a mess, just to get those--those _weeds_?"
Nancy nodded. It was true. Her bedrabblement had been the forerunner of the gift of flowers from the boy.
"Well! of all things!" gasped Miss Trigg.
"I--I believe you've taken leave of your senses. Why--why, whatever will people think of you, going home? We--we can't ride in the car. They wouldn't let you get on. And I'd be ashamed to be seen with you."
"Oh! I'm sorry, Miss Trigg," murmured Nancy.
"Being sorry won't take the mud off that dress--or bring a new pair of stockings--or clean those boots. We've got to have a cab--a closed cab. I wouldn't go home with you in anything else."
"I--I'll go home alone, Miss Trigg," said the contrite girl.
"No! While Miss Prentice is away you shall never again be out of my sight in waking hours--no, Miss! And for a bunch of weeds!"
"Oh Miss Trigg! they are _so-o_ pretty----"
"Don't you say another word!" commanded the teacher. "And you stand right here until I can signal a cab on the drive below. There, there's one now!"
The teacher burst through the bushes and waved madly to a taxi rolling slowly along the macadam below the hill. The driver saw her and stopped.
"Come!" spoke Miss Trigg. "Here! give me those--those _things_."
She snatched the lilies from Nancy's hand and flung them in the path. The girl looked back at them longingly; but she thought it best to trifle with the teacher no further.