“Do you know the vessel on which he will sail?” continued Captain Holley pleasantly and with an air of slight preoccupation, as he looked back at the plane and the busy aviator. Isabel nudged Betty at this juncture, and replied for her:
“Oh, none of the boys know what vessel they are to go on or when, you know.”
Captain Holley, with perfect poise, paid no attention to Isabel’s reply, but looked inquiringly at the young lady whom he had addressed. Betty hesitated. “I have not heard for some time, but he wrote that he was hoping to go over before long. I know nothing definite.”
“Perhaps Donald will be back to see his friends before he goes,” suggested Captain Holley.
“I do not know as to that,” said Betty. “When men are in the army their time is not their own. Do not the people at Grant hear from their boys?”
“Sometimes,” assented Captain Holley.
The girls began to move off and Captain Holley managed to fall in by Betty and to detain her a little, while the other girls had no choice but to go in advance, though slowly.
“May I call some evening, Miss Betty?” asked Captain Holley.
“Certainly,” said Betty, who did not know how to get out of it, and felt that for some unknown reason she must keep this young instructor in a good humor.
“By the way,” said the young man, after he had thanked Betty and said that he would be over some time soon, “I found something which interested me very much the other day.” Unbuttoning his outer coat a little way, he touched, upon the lapel of the coat beneath, a little butterfly pin.