This first was not a pleasant adventure, however; and it brought in its train incidents which colored all Nan Sherwood's initial semester at Lakeview Hall.
When Bess Harley heard about the over-dressed girl's accusation, and how Nan had been treated, she wanted to jump right up and "give the stuck-up thing a piece of my mind!" as she expressed it. Bess was very angry indeed, and quite overlooked the fact, of course, that her own carelessness had brought the trouble about.
"I'd have slapped her," declared the vigorous Bess. "Calling you a thief! Why! I couldn't have kept my hands off of her. Who is she?"
"I--I did not pay much attention to what she said about herself," Nan replied. "Only her name. That's Riggs."
"And that's homely enough," scoffed Bess.
"She is not homely," Nan confessed. "That is, I think she may be quite pretty when she isn't angry. And she had on a dress that would have made you gasp, Bess."
"No; but it was of very rich material, and daringly cut," said her friend.
"Where is she now?" demanded Bess, standing up to look over the day coach in which they now rode, for the chair-car with the broken rod had been left behind and the train was hurrying on to the junction.
"I think she went into the dining car, forward," said Nan.
"Humph! I wish we had. We could see out better."
"But we have a nice lunch, you know," Nan objected.
"Just the same, it's _common_ to eat lunch out of a shoe-box on a train. I don't know what mother was thinking of. And we could have seen that girl with the fancy dress in the dining car."
"Pshaw!" laughed Nan. "You're always crazy after the styles. I don't wish to see her again, I assure you."
"I never saw such a girl as you," complained her chum. "You're as bold as a lion about some things and as meek as a mouse about others."
Nan's ready laugh was her only reply to this. She had begun to feel better. The sting of her encounter with the unkind and vulgar girl was soothed. She did not mind now the curious glances of those passengers from the chair-car who were within the limit of her view.
But Bess considered that one person's interest in her and her chum was distasteful. She whispered to Nan.
"Do you see that old, goggle-eyed gentleman staring at us, Nan? I declare! Are we a pair of freaks?"