ry important--this that you have to say to me," replied
Betty, adding demurely: "Perhaps if you would tell me all about it, we
could dance again."

"In other words, 'get the agony over'," said Joe, with a grimace. He
waited a moment, while the girls, who had danced to the end of the
record, turned it over, put in a new needle and started off all over
again.

"I don't know whether it will seem important to you or not," he said at
last, turning slowly toward her. "But what I have to tell you is just
about the most important thing in life to me."

The tone as well as the words sobered Betty, and she turned to him
earnestly.

"I shall be very glad to hear it then," she said simply.

"I--you--it's rather hard to begin," he stammered, then straightened up
and faced her frankly.

"The truth is, I can't help knowing that you wondered when you first
saw me and am wondering now--as any one has a right to wonder these days
when they see a fellow like me in civilian clothes--"

Betty started and the color rushed to her face.

"No, I haven't--" she began, then stopped confused, remembering that she
had been wondering just that thing only a few minutes, yes, only a
minute before. "I mean I thought--"

"Yes, it's easy to guess what you thought," he interrupted,
misinterpreting her sentence while the bitter look crept once more into
his eyes. "It's easy enough to guess what everybody thinks. But," he
straightened his shoulders and threw back his head, "I don't think
anybody will have a right to think that very much longer. You see," he
added, turning to her again and speaking more calmly, "I tried to enlist
at the beginning of the war, but they told me there was something wrong
here," he touched his chest, "with my lungs."

Betty gave an involuntary exclamation of pity.

"The doctor said it was just beginning," he went on slowly, "and he
said--he was a good old scout, that doctor--that if I got out of the
city where I could get fresh air, eggs, and milk--you know, the same old
stuff--that I might succeed in curing myself up in a hurry and get in
the game in time to bring in my share of helmets after all."

"Oh, so that's why you and your mother are away out here!" cried Betty
eagerly, laying an impulsive little hand on his. "And you are well,
aren't you? Why, you must be! You look the very picture of health."

Joe gulped a little, looked at the friendly little hand on his, tried to
speak once or twice and failed, then--