lunch, "'money must think you're dead.'"

They laughed at her, and then suddenly Betty changed the subject.

"You know, I overheard something the other day," she said, "that's just
made me terribly blue whenever I've let myself think of it."

"Oh, Betty," gasped Mollie, jumping unerringly to the catastrophe they had
been dreading all these months, "do you mean the boys have got their
orders?"

"Oh, no, I don't actually know a thing," Betty hastened to assure her,
but there was a brilliant light of excitement in her eyes that did not
reassure the girls.

"Then what do you mean?" cried Mollie impatiently. "Oh, Betty dear, I just
haven't realized how awful it will be until this minute. When, those boys
have actually gone, I'll lie down and die, that's all."

"Well, for goodness sake, don't tell them that," beseeched Grace. "Then
they will think they can dictate."

"Well, let 'em," said Mollie recklessly. "They can, for all I care."

"Go on, Betty, do," urged Amy, her hands clasping and unclasping
nervously. "Tell us what it was you heard."

"Well, Major Adams was talking with the colonel," Betty complied, her
color bright, "and I just happened to catch a couple of phrases as I
passed.