CHAPTER XXI
ANNE AND GRACE COMPARE NOTES
During the walk home from the links, Grace kept continually thinking, "Iknew it was Miriam. She gave them to Julia." She replied ratherabsent-mindedly to Miss Post's comments, and left the older girl with theimpression that Miss Harlowe was not as interesting as she had at firstseemed.
Grace escaped from the supper table at the earliest opportunity, andseizing her hat, made for Anne's house as fast as her feet would take her.Anne opened the door for her.
"Oh, Anne, Anne! You never can guess what I know!" cried Grace, before shewas fairly inside the house.
"Of course, I can't," replied Anne, "any more than you can guess what Iknow."
"Why, do you know something special, too?" demanded Grace.
"I do, indeed. But tell me your news first, and then I'll tell you mine,"said Anne, pushing Grace into a chair.
"Mine's about Miriam," said Grace soberly.
"So is mine," was the reply, "and it's nothing creditable, either."
"Well," began Grace, "you know I went over to the golf links to-day withEthel Post of the senior class."
Anne nodded.
"We were sitting on a bench resting after the game, and the subject ofbasketball came up. Before I knew it, she was telling me all about findingthe list of signals you lost last fall. She gave them to one of our class,you can guess who."
"Miriam," said Anne.
"Yes, it was Miriam. I always suspected that she had more to do with itthan anyone else. She gave Julia the signals, because she wanted to see mehumiliated, and fastened suspicion on you to shield herself. She knew thatI had boasted, openly, that my team would win. When Julia gave me thestatement that cleared you in the eyes of the girls, she told me that shewas under promise not to tell how she obtained the signals. But I'm sureshe knew that I suspected Miriam. What do you think we ought to do aboutit?"
Grace looked anxiously at Anne.
"I don't know, yet," Anne replied. "Now listen to my news. I have feltever since the game that your getting locked up was not accidental. Idon't know why I felt so, but I did, nevertheless. So I set to work tofind out if any one else had been around there that day. I went to thejanitress and asked her if she had noticed any one in the corridors beforehalfpast one. That was about the time that people began to come, you know.She said she hadn't. She was down in the basement and didn't go near theupstairs classrooms until after two o'clock. But when she did go up thereshe found this."
Anne held up a curious scarab pin that Grace immediately recognized. Itwas one that Miriam Nesbit often wore, and was extremely fond of.
"It's Miriam's," gasped Grace. "I wonder why----" She stopped. The reasonMiriam had not made her loss known was plain. She was afraid to tell whereand when she had lost her pin.
"I see," said Grace slowly. "It looks pretty bad, doesn't it? But whydidn't the janitress take it straight to Miss Thompson? That's what sheusually does with articles she finds."
"She missed seeing Miss Thompson that Saturday," said Anne. "When I huntedher up early Monday morning, in order to question her, she asked me if Ihad lost a pin. She said she had just returned one to Miss Thompson, andtold me where she found it. I asked her to describe the pin, and at oncerecognized it. Every girl in school knows that scarab of Miriam's. Thereis nothing like it in Oakdale.
"For a minute I didn't know what to do. Don't you remember when Miriamfirst had it? She showed it to Miss Thompson, and Miss Thompson spoke ofhow curious it was. I knew that Miss Thompson would not be apt to forgetit. I hurried up to her office and found her with the pin in her hand. Shehad sent for Miriam, but the messenger came back with the report thatMiriam wasn't in school. She laid the pin down and said, 'What is it,Anne?' So I just asked her if she would let me have the pin. Of course,she looked surprised, and asked me if I knew to whom it belonged. I toldher I did. Then she looked at me very hard, and asked me to tell herexactly why I wanted it. But, of course, I couldn't tell her, so I didn'tsay anything. Then she said: 'Anne, I know without being told why you wantthis pin. I am going to give it to you, and let you settle a delicatematter in your own way. I am sure it will be the right one.'"
"Anne Pierson, you bad child!" exclaimed Grace. "To think that you've keptthis to yourself ever since the game. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I wanted to think what to do about it, before telling even you," Annereplied. "Yesterday I had a long talk with David. He knows everythingthat Miriam has done since the beginning of the freshman year. He feelsdreadfully about it all. I think you and I ought to go to her and tell herthat we are willing to forget the past and be her friends."
"It would do no good," said Grace dubiously. "She would simply laugh atus. I used to have dreams about making Miriam see the evil of her ways,but I have come to the conclusion that they were dreams, and nothingmore."
"Let's try, anyway," said Anne. "David says she seems sad and unhappy, andis more gentle than she has been for a long time."
"All right, we'll beard the lion in her den, the Nesbit on her soil, ifyou say so. But I expect to be routed with great slaughter," said Gracewith a shudder. "When do we go forth on our mission of reform?"
"We'll call on her to-morrow after school," Anne replied, "and don'tforget that you once made the remark that you thought Miriam had a betterself. You told me the day you read Julia Crosby's statement to the girlsthat you wouldn't give her up."
"I suppose that I shall have to confess that I did say so," laughed Grace."But that was before she locked me up. She is so proud and stubborn thatshe will probably take the olive branch we hold out and trample upon it.After all, it really isn't our place to hold out olive branches anyway.She is the one who ought to eat humble pie. I feel ashamed to think I haveto tell her what I know about her."
"So do I," responded Anne. "It's horrid to have to go to people and tellthem about their misdeeds. I wouldn't propose going now if it weren't forDavid. He seems to think that she would be willing to behave if some oneshowed her how."
"All right," said Grace, "we'll go, but if we encounter a human tornadodon't say I didn't warn you."
"That's one reason I want to go to her house," replied Anne. "If weapproach her at school she is liable to turn on us and make a scene, orelse walk off with her nose in the air. If we can catch her at homeperhaps she will be more amenable to reason. But, if, to-morrow, sherefuses to melt and be forgiven, then I wash my hands of her forever."
Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School Page 21
