“Yes, I remember, now,” Marian faltered, “but it is too late.”

“I might try to checkmate her at her own game by threatening to tell the story of the missing costumes,” reflected Grace aloud.  “I’ll try it at any rate.  But even if we do succeed in silencing Eleanor, where are we to get the money to pay back the class fund?  We can’t arrest that miserable Henry Hammond without making the affair public, and this simply must remain a private matter.  It is the hardest problem that I have ever been called upon to contend with.

“You must brace up, Marian, and go back to school to-morrow,” directed Grace.  “If you keep on this way it will serve to create suspicion.  You have done a very foolish and really criminal act, but your own remorse has punished you severely enough.  None of us are infallible.  The thing to do now, is to find a way to make up this money.”

Marian wiped her eyes, and, leaving the lounge, walked over to Grace, and, putting her arms about Grace’s neck, said, with agonized earnestness: 

“Grace, can you and the girls ever forgive me for being so hateful?”

“Why, of course, we can.  There is nothing to forgive.  We have never stopped thinking of you as a member of our sorority.  We wouldn’t ask any one else to take your place.”

An expression of intense relief shone in Marian’s face.

“I am so glad,” she said.  “I can’t help being happy, even with this cloud hanging over me.”

“Cheer up, Marian,” said Grace hopefully.  “I have an idea that I shall straighten out this tangle yet.  I must go now.  Keep up your courage and whatever you do, don’t tell any one else what you have told me.  There are too many in the secret now.”

CHAPTER XXI

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE HAUNTED HOUSE

The moment that Grace left Marian, she set her active brain at work for some solution of the problem she had taken upon her own shoulders.  She had no money, and the members of her sorority had none.  Besides, Grace inwardly resolved not to tell the other girls were it possible to avoid doing so.

Mrs. Gray would be home before long, and Grace knew that the gentle old lady would gladly advance the money rather than see Marian disgraced.  But Eleanor had planned to denounce Marian on Thursday, and it was now Monday.

There was but one course to pursue, and that was to go to Eleanor and beg her to renounce her scheme of vengeance.  Grace felt very dubious as to the outcome of such an interview.  Eleanor had in the past proved anything but tractable.

“I’ll go to-night,” decided Grace.  “I’m not afraid of the dark.  If mother objects, I’ll take Bridget along for protection, although she’s the greatest coward in the world.”

Grace giggled a little as she thought of Bridget in the role of protector.

That night she hurried through her supper, and, barely tasting her dessert, said abruptly: