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Page 37
She could hardly realize that her own team had dealt this cruel blow. For
the first time in her life she had received a real shock. She took a long
deep breath and clenched her hands. She did not wish to break down before
she had spoken what was in her mind.
Nora was muttering angrily to herself. Jessica looked ready to cry, while
Anne, pale and resolute, came over and stood by Grace. She felt that she
had been the primary cause of the whole trouble. She had borne the girls'
unjust treatment of herself in silence, but, now, they had visited their
displeasure upon Grace, and that was not to be borne.
"How dared you do such a despicable thing?" she cried. "You are cruel,
unfeeling, and oh, so unjust. You accused me of something I would scorn
to do, and not satisfied with that, visited your petty spite upon a girl
who is the soul of truth and honor. You may say what you choose about me,
but you shall not hurt Grace, and if you don't immediately retract what
you have written I will take measures which may prove most unpleasant to
all of you."
Just what Anne intended to do she did not know, but her outburst had its
effect on the conspirators, and they squirmed uneasily under the lash of
her words. Perhaps, they had misjudged this slender, dark-eyed girl after
all.
Before Anne could say more, Grace spoke quietly.
"Sit down, all of you," she said at last, with a sweetness and dignity
that was remarkable in so young a girl. "I have something to say to you.
It is curious," she went on, "that I was just talking about our basketball
team when you came into the room. I had said to Nora, Jessica and Anne
that I wanted more than anything else in the world to beat the junior
team. Miss Thompson had been praising the team to me, and I said to the
girls that I thought I loved it just as a mother loves her daughters.
There is no sacrifice I wouldn't make to keep up the team's good work, and
that is the reason why I am going to make a sacrifice, now, and decline
to resign. If I had been a poor captain, you would have had a right to
ask for my resignation But I haven't. I have been a good, hard-working,
conscientious captain, and I have made a success of the team. None of you
can deny it. If you took a new captain at this stage it might ruin
everything, and I tell you I have thought too much about it; I have set my
heart on it so firmly that it would just break if we lost the deciding
game."
Her voice broke a little. Nora was sobbing openly. It was hard work for
Grace to control her own tears.
"Of course," she went on, clearing her throat and raising her voice to
steady it, "it will be a sacrifice for me to keep on being your captain
when you don't want me. It's no fun, I can assure you. Perhaps none of you
has ever felt the hurt that comes of being turned out by people who were
once fond of you. I hope you never will. I am still fond of all of you,
and some day, perhaps, you will see that you have made a mistake. At any
rate, I decline to resign my place. It was given to me for the year, and I
won't give it up."
Grace turned her back and walked to the window. She had come at last to
the end of her strength. She leaned against the window jamb and wept
bitterly.
But the address of Mark Anthony over the dead body of C�sar was not more
effective than this simple schoolgirl's speech. Every girl there melted
into tears of remorse and sympathy.
"Oh, Grace," cried Marian Barber, "won't you forgive us? We never dreamed
it would hurt you so. Now that I look back upon it, I can't see how we
could have asked you to do it. We did believe that Miss Pierson betrayed
us; but after all, that had nothing to do with your being captain of the
team. I think you have been a great deal more loyal than we have. I want
to say right here, girls, that I apologize to Grace and scratch my name
off the list."
She took a pencil, dashing it through her signature, which was the first
one on the letter.
One by one each of the other girls put a pencil stroke through her name.
Then they pinned on their hats, slipped into their coats and left the room
as quickly as possible. They were all desperately ashamed; each in her
secret heart wished she had never entered into the conspiracy.
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