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!"

"We'll be lucky if we don't leave a couple of hands in it," said Roy,
again trying to be witty and again finding himself the battery for a score
of indignant glances.

"If you think that's funny," Grace was beginning when Betty, color high,
heart still beating suffocatingly from that brief little battle with
Allen and her own inclination, interceded in his behalf.

"Oh, do leave him alone," she cried, patting Roy's scorned shoulder
soothingly. "I, for one, would forgive him for anything he said or did
just now without even being asked."