When Grace paused at Mrs. Gray's side after the two-step, she saw plainly
that the old lady was much agitated.

"Grace," she said quickly, "what is all this nonsense about Anne?"

"O Mrs. Gray," cried Grace. "Who could have been so unkind as to tell you?
We didn't want you to know. It is all so foolish."

"But I want to know," said the old lady positively. "Anne is so very dear
to me, and I can't allow these hare-brained girls to make damaging
statements about her. Tell me at once, Grace."

Grace reluctantly gave a brief account of her recent disagreement with her
class and the unpleasantness to which Anne had been subjected.

"What does ail Miriam Nesbit? She used to be such a nice child!" exclaimed
Mrs. Gray. "Really, Grace, I feel that I ought to go straight to Miss
Thompson with this."

Grace's heart sank. That was just what she did not want Mrs. Gray to do.

"Dear Mrs. Gray," she said, patting the old lady's hand, "it is better for
us to fight it out by ourselves. If Miss Thompson knew all that had
happened, she would forbid basketball for the rest of the season. She is
awfully opposed to anything of that kind, and would champion Anne's cause
to the end, but Anne would rather let matters stand the way they are, than
lose us our basketball privilege. You see, the juniors have won the first
game, and if basketball were stopped now we would have no chance to make
up our lost ground. I firmly believe that all will come right in the end,
and I think the girls will get tired of their grudge and gradually drop