ss," they repeated in chorus, and were about to follow it up
with a shower of questions when there was the sound of more masculine
voices in the hall and the missing members of the quartette precipitated
themselves upon the assembled company. Roy looked disgusted--the girls
happy.

"So you thought you'd have the field all to yourself, did you?" Allen
demanded of the disconsolate Roy. "Well, that's the time you counted your
chickens too soon."

Then, turning to Betty, he caught her two hands in his and waltzed her
exuberantly about the room.

"Betty, Betty," he cried, his voice keen, his eyes shining with
excitement, "we've got special permission to tell you, because you're in
the service. We're going, little girl! We're on our way to lick the tar
out of those Huns!"

"Allen!" Betty's face went suddenly white and she sank down on the arm of
a chair, regarding him with wide, dark eyes. The other three boys with
Mollie and Grace were gathered in the opposite corner of the room,
chattering like magpies.

"It's--it's really come?" she demanded, unsteadily. "Oh, Allen, when?"

"Day after to-morrow," he replied, his own hands shaking a little as they
closed over hers. "Are you going to congratulate me, Betty?"

"A--of course," she answered, smiling at him with a bravery that made him
long to gather her in his arms and comfort her. She looked so little and
plucky and utterly adorable.

"Then do it," he said whimsically, putting his hands behind him to keep
them out of temptation.

"C-congratulations," she stammered, then her lip trembled and she bit it
to keep it steady. "I know how much you've been wanting it," she
continued, striving for a matter-of-fact tone, "and so, of c-course, I'm
glad for your sake. Only--"

"Only?" he prompted, gripping his hands hard to make them behave.

"Only," she added, her voice scarcely above a whisper, and glancing up at
him shyly, "I can't very well help missing you, Allen, just at first--"

"Betty," he cried, his hands breaking away from their imprisonment and
seeking hers fiercely, "I'm trying so hard to do the right thing,--be
honorable and all that--wait till I come back, you know--but I can't.
It--it isn't human nature. You're too wonderful--too utterly--"

"Allen, don't!" she cried breathlessly. "You forget we're not alone."

"I--don't--care--" he was beginning headily, but she wrenched her hands
free, and, eluding him, plunged into the excited group at the other end of