“Like business,” 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 the room.

“Hello, Betty,” Mollie cried, her voice high with excitement.  “I guess you were right after all—­only it’s five whole days sooner than we expected.”

“I—­I wish they’d stop the old war,” sighed Amy, who had come in in time to share the wonderful news.  “I just can’t bear the thought of it.”

“Gee, that would be a nice note,” broke in Will boyishly.  “After all these weeks of training, to have the war stop just as we got ready to have a hand in it!”