She paused in some confusion.
"She thought it would be about a girl!" broke in Mollie. "Why wasn't it, Will?"
"It may be yet. There are lady smugglers, you know!"
"Oh, nonsense!"
"Will Ford!"
"Is it really true?"
"I think he's just teasing us!"
Thus cried the girls in turn, Betty appealing to Allen in an aside to know whether Will really had been appointed to a government position.
"Oh, yes, its true enough," Allen said, smiling indulgently.
And finally, after a little gale of laughter had subsided, Will managed to make the girls, his sister included, understand, and believe that he really was telling the truth. Then they inspected his badge, looked at a sort of identifying card he carried in an inner pocket, and were satisfied.