" angrily contended Marian.
"I'll take my chance against Judith Stearns to-morrow before I'll tamely
resign like that. Come to think of it, it would be much more dignified
on my part to go to the gym. You, not I, have been accused of
unfairness. You put me on the team, you know."

"Yes, and why did I?" flung back Selina hotly. "Because you asked me to
do it. Now you think you can hang the unfairness on my shoulders and
slip free of it yourself. Well, you can't. I know that Judith Stearns
can outplay you. If I thought she couldn't, I'd say go ahead. But she
can. As you won't resign of your own accord, I'm going to demand your
resignation. If you don't give it to me in writing, I'll go straight
back to Miss Rutledge and tell her the whole thing. I'd rather confess
to her than have everybody down on Laura and me after to-morrow."

"You wouldn't do that. You can't scare me," sneered Marian.

"Oh, wouldn't I? Wait a little. You'll see."

"You'd be expelled from college. Just remember that. You'd find
yourself worse off than if you kept still," triumphantly prophesied
Marian.

"_We_ wouldn't be expelled. _You_ probably would be. We'd be severely
reprimanded and Miss Rutledge would be down on us for the rest of the
year. But you started the whole thing. You're the real offender. It
would go hard with you."

"I'm sorry I asked you to help me, Selina Brown!" Marian exclaimed
bitterly. "You're a treacherous snake! After all I've done for you, you
turn against me like this."

For the next five minutes she continued to express her candid and very
uncomplimentary opinion of Selina.

When she paused to take breath, Selina's only retaliation was, "Come on,
Laura. We'll have to hurry if we expect to catch Miss Rutledge in her
office. I suppose we'd best go to her house and wait for her. We'll be
surer of seeing her then."

It had the desired effect. Marian crumpled, shed a few tears of pure
rage, but finally wrote the resignation which Selina dictated.

"It worked!" was Selina's relieved exclamation, the moment they were out
of Madison Hall. "She's a great coward, for all her boldness. She gave
in more easily than I'd expected. You can imagine me confessing anything
like that to Miss Rutledge, now can't you?"

Selina accompanied the query with a derisive laugh. It was echoed by
Laura, though rather nervously.

"It was horrid to have to bully her." Laura made a gesture of distaste.
"I'm glad we're safely out of it. We'd b