So now they both said together:

"What in the world are you two talking of?"

"Do you mean to say you really don't know?" queried Grace in a superior
tone. "Have you so soon forgotten our knight of the wayside, Joe
Barnes?"

"Joe Barnes," they repeated weakly, then turned their astonished gaze on
Betty.

"Well, I can't help it," retorted Betty, feeling vaguely the need of
defense. "I didn't ask him to."

"But how did he get your address?" asked Mollie, still staring. "Who
gave it to him?"

"I told him where we were going," cried Betty desperately, driven into a
corner. "But I had no idea he was going to write to me until--until--"
hesitating as a picture of Joe Barnes, standing beside her car and
asking if he might tell her "how things were with him" came vividly
before her eyes.

"Yes. Until?" they baited her, forgetting for a moment the dark shadows
hanging over them in the fun of this unexpected discovery.

"Until the morning we came away," Betty answered, seeing that she could
not get away from these pitiless inquisitors until she had satisfied
their curiosity.

"Did he ask to write to you then?" probed Mollie relentlessly.

"I don't see what right--" Betty was beginning spiritedly when she
caught Mollie's eye and ended in a little helpless laugh. "I suppose
I'll have to tell you all about it or you'll turn a simple little
molehill into a mountain."

"Quite right," said Grace cheerfully, and even Betty had to laugh at
her.

"Make a clean breast of it," ordered Mollie.

"But there really isn't anything to make a clean breast of," protested
Betty. "He simply asked me if he might write and tell me how he--how
he--"

"How he what?" they queried.

"But I don't know whether I ought to tell you about that or not." Betty
was really in earnest. "You see, what he told me was sort of in
confidence."

"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!"