Eleanor was the acknowledged leader, but Edna Wright became a close second, and between them they managed to disseminate a spirit of mischief throughout the school that the teachers found hard to combat.

Grace Harlowe watched the trend that affairs were taking with considerable anxiety.  Like herself, there were plenty of girls in school to whom mischief did not appeal, but Eleanor’s beauty, wealth and fascinating personality were found to dazzle some of the girls, who would follow her about like sheep, and it was over these girls that Grace felt worried.  If Eleanor were to organize and carry out any malicious piece of mischief and they were implicated, they would all have to suffer for what she would be directly responsible.  Grace’s heart was with her class.  She wished it to be a class among classes, and felt an almost motherly anxiety for its success.

“What does ail some of our class?” she exclaimed to Anne and Nora one day as they left the school building.  “They seem possessed with imps.  The Phi Sigma Tau girls and a few of the grinds are really the only ones who behave lately.”

“It’s largely due to Eleanor, I think,” replied Anne.  “She seems to have become quite a power among some of the girls in the class.  She is helping to destroy that spirit of earnestness that you have tried so hard to cultivate.  I think it’s a shame, too.  The upper class girls ought to set the example for the two lower classes.”

“That’s just what worries me,” said Grace earnestly.  “Hardly a recitation passes in my class without some kind of disturbance, and it is always traced to one of the girls in that crowd.  The juniors will get the reputation among the teachers this year that the junior class had last, and it seems such a pity.  I overheard Miss Chester tell Miss Kane the other day that her junior classes were the most trying of the day, because she had to work harder to maintain discipline than to teach her subject.”

“That’s a nice reputation to carry around, isn’t it!” remarked Nora indignantly.  “But all we can do is to try harder than ever to make things go smoothly.  I don’t believe their society will last long, at any rate.  Those girls are sure to quarrel among themselves, and that will end the whole thing.  Or they may go too far and have Miss Thompson to reckon with, and that would probably cool their ardor.”

“O girls!” exclaimed Grace.  “Speaking of Miss Thompson, reminds me that I have something to tell you.  What do you suppose the latest is?”

“If you know anything new, it is your duty to tell us at once, without making us beg for it,” said Nora reprovingly.

“All right; I accept the reproof,” said Grace.  “Now for my news.  There is talk of giving a Shakespearian play, with Miss Tebbs to engineer it, and the cast to be chosen from the three lower classes.  The seniors, of course, will give their own play later.”

“How did you find out?” asked Anne.