"I feel just fine," he said, striving to make his voice sound natural.
"I never cough any more, and I've got the appetite of a wolf--you saw
how I ate to-night--" a faint smile lighted his eyes and found an
answering one in Betty's. "Yet, I've been holding off for more than
three weeks for fear--just for fear--everything isn't all right. You
see, they've made a coward of me. I'm afraid of being refused twice."

"Oh, but you won't be!" cried Betty, with honest conviction in her
voice. "I'm not much of a doctor, although I've met so many of them at
Camp Liberty and heard them talk so much about different diseases that I
feel I ought at least to qualify as an assistant," she paused to smile
at herself and he thought he had never seen anything so pretty in his
life, "and I would say that whatever your trouble has been, it is cured
now. I'm sure of it."

"Hold on, hold on," he entreated a little huskily. "If I could only
believe that--"

"Say, you two over there," Mollie's voice broke in upon them gayly,
"we've been trying hard to be polite and not interrupt, but the clock
has just struck twelve and we have a long ride before us to-morrow--or
rather, to-day!"

Betty replied laughingly, but before she could rejoin the others, Joe
had whispered another question.

"You really meant what you said?" he asked.

"With all my heart," she answered earnestly.

CHAPTER XII

NEARLY AN ACCIDENT

"Look at the sun! Look at the sun!" cried Betty, sitting up in bed and
gazing joyfully out at the sun-drenched landscape. "Girls, for goodness
sake, wake up. How can you sleep, Grace?"

Grace groaned and opened one eye.

"House afire?" she asked sleepily.

"Of course not, Silly. But the world is."

Betty was evidently in high spirits, thought Grace, as she rolled over
and regarded her critically.

"What do you mean--'the world is'?" she inquired grumpily, managing with
great difficulty, to open the other eye. "Can't you talk sense?"

"Not on a morning like this," retorted Betty, running to the window and
thrusting her head far out into the balmy air. "Look, Lazybones, the
roads are pretty nearly dry and we couldn't ask for a more wonderful
day."

"What time is it?" queried Grace, without enthusiasm. She was always
unenthusiastic before breakfast in the morning, especially if she
happened to get to bed rather late the night before.

"Half-past six," replied Betty, turning from the window and beginning
hurriedly t