"In confidence!" repeated Grace, adding wickedly: "Now we know it's a serious case."
"Nonsense," said Betty, almost crossly. "He simply said he hadn't been allowed to get into the army because of ill health, but now that he felt well again he was going to try once more. It was that he wanted to write and tell me about. And because I was really interested, I said he might. That's all."
"How romantic!" cried Mollie irrepressibly. "For goodness sake, hurry up and read it, Betty, and relieve our curiosity."
"I'll read it," said Betty firmly, "when I get good and ready, and not one minute before!"
CHAPTER XVIII
SERIOUSLY WOUNDED
They walked the rest of the distance to the house in absorbed silence, reading as they went. Then suddenly Betty gave a little cry of amazement.
"I thought this was for me," she said, holding up a letter. "But it isn't. It's for your mother, Grace. I don't see how I could have made such a mistake!"
But Grace only heard the first part of Betty's speech. The last of it passed right over her head.