orridor into the
short passage leading to the principal's office. Eleanor, holding the
door slightly ajar, peered stealthily out at the new-comer, who was none
other than Grace Harlowe.

Having no recitation that hour, Grace had run up to the office to obtain
Miss Thompson's permission to use the gymnasium that afternoon for
basketball practice. A hasty glance inside the office revealed to Grace
that the principal was not there. She hesitated a moment, walked toward
the desk, then turned and went out again.

The moment she turned the corner, Eleanor darted out of the lavatory and
fled down the corridor, just as the bell rang for the end of the period.
In a moment the main corridor was filled with girls from the various
classrooms, and, joining them, Eleanor entered the study hall without
reporting her dismissal from French class.

She was somewhat nervous and trembled a little at the thought of her
near discovery, but felt not the slightest qualm of conscience at her
ruthless destruction of another's property. On the contrary, she
experienced a wicked satisfaction, and smiled to herself as she pictured
Miss Thompson's consternation when the latter should discover her loss.
Best of all, the principal would never find out who did it, for Eleanor
vowed never to admit her guilt.

She decided to go at once to Professor La Roche and apologize, so that
he would not report her to Miss Thompson. Without a doubt an effort
would be made to find the culprit, and if it were proven that she did
not return to the study hall as soon as dismissed from French, she might
be asked to account for it, and thus call down suspicion upon herself.

On her way to rhetoric recitation, she stopped at Professor La Roche's
door, greatly astonishing him by a prettily worded apology, which he
readily accepted and beamed upon her with forgiving good-nature. Feeling
that she had bridged that difficulty, Eleanor entered the classroom to
find Miss Thompson talking in low, guarded tones to Miss Chester, who
looked both, shocked and surprised. She caught the words "entirely
destroyed," "serious offence" and "investigate at once," Then the
principal left the room and Miss Chester turned to the class and began
the recitation.

To Eleanor's surprise, nothing was said of the matter that day. School
was dismissed as usual, and the girls went out without dreaming that on
the morrow they would all be placed under suspicion until the person
guilty of the outr