But a day of reckoning was at hand, for just before the close of vacation Miss Thompson chanced to call at Mrs. Gray’s home while Mrs. Gray was entertaining Miss Nevin, and the truth came out.

When Miss Nevin confronted her niece with the deception Eleanor had practised upon her, a stormy scene had followed, and Eleanor had accused Grace Harlowe of telling tales to Mrs. Gray, and Mrs. Gray of carrying them to her aunt.  This had angered Miss Nevin to the extent that she had immediately ordered Eleanor to her room without telling her from whom she had received her information.

For three days Eleanor had remained in her room, refusing to speak to her aunt, who, at the end of that time, decreed that if she did not at once apologize roundly and return to school her violin and piano would both be taken from her until she should again become reasonable.

In the face of this new punishment, which was the severest penalty that could be imposed upon her, Eleanor remained obdurate.  Her violin and piano were removed from her room and the piano in the drawing room was closed.  Still she stubbornly held out, and it was not until the day before the beginning of the new term that she went to her aunt and coldly agreed to comply with her wishes, providing she might have her violin and piano once more.

Aside from this conversation they had exchanged no words, and Eleanor therefore entered school that morning still believing the Phi Sigma Tau to be at the bottom of her misfortune.

In spite of her recent assertion that she could not forgive Eleanor, Grace’s resentment vanished at sight of her enemy’s humiliation.  A public apology was the last thing that either she or her friends desired.  Her promise to Mrs. Gray loomed up before her.  If Eleanor really did believe the Phi Sigma Tau innocent, then perhaps this would be the opportunity for reconciliation.  After a little thought, she tore a sheet of paper from her notebook and wrote: 

“Dear Eleanor: 

“The members of the Phi Sigma Tau are very sorry about your having to make an apology.  We did not wish it.  We think you showed a great deal of the right kind of courage in making the public apology you did both to Miss Thompson and to us.  Won’t you come back to the Phi Sigma Tau?

“Yoursincere friends.”

At recess Grace showed the note to her friends.  She had signed her name to the note and requested the others to do the same.  Here she met with some opposition.  Nora, Marian Barber and Eva Allen were strongly opposed to sending it.  But Jessica, Anne and Miriam agreed with Grace that it would be in fulfillment of the original promise to Mrs. Gray to help Eleanor whenever they could do so.  So the Phi Sigma Tau signed their names and the note was passed to Eleanor directly after recess.

She opened it, read it through, and an expression of such intense scorn passed over her face that Nora, who sat near her and who was covertly watching her, knew at once that Grace’s flag of truce had been trampled in the dust.