“Suppose you suggest a course of procedure, Miss Gould?” said the principal, his eyes twinkling.
“I think it would be well,” said Miss Gould, “to sift every rumor and story regarding this matter. There is much gossip among the girls. I have heard of a threat that one girl made in the gymnasium——”
“That is quite ridiculous, Miss Gould!” cried Miss Carrington, with some heat. “You have been listening to a base slander against one of my very best pupils.”
“You mean this Hester Grimes, Henry Grimes’s daughter?” said the principal, sternly.
“That is the girl,” admitted Miss Gould. “I know little about her——”
“And I know a good deal,” interposed Mrs. Case, grimly. “Miss Carrington finds her good at her books, and her deportment is always fair in classes. I find her the hardest girl to manage in all the school. She has a bad temper and she has never been taught to control it. It has gone so far that I fear I shall have to shut her out of some of the athletics,” and she related all that had happened at the basketball game with the East High girls the afternoon before.
“I do not approve of these contests,” said Miss Carrington, primly. “They are sure to cause quarreling.”
“If they do, then there is something the matter with the girls,” declared Mr. Sharp, briskly.
“And I have received this request from the girls of the team—seven of them—this morning,” continued Mrs. Case, producing the “round robin.” “The only girls beside Hester who did not sign it is a girl who always chums with her—the only really close friend Hester has to my knowledge in the school.
“Now, I should like very much to be instructed what to do about this? The girls are perfectly in the right. Hester is not dependable on the team. There should be another girl in her place——”