“Oh, none of the boys know what vessel they are to go on or when, you know.”
Captain Holley, with perfect poise, paid no attention to Isabel’s reply, but looked inquiringly at the young lady whom he had addressed. Betty hesitated. “I have not heard for some time, but he wrote that he was hoping to go over before long. I know nothing definite.”
“Perhaps Donald will be back to see his friends before he goes,” suggested Captain Holley.
“I do not know as to that,” said Betty. “When men are in the army their time is not their own. Do not the people at Grant hear from their boys?”
The girls began to move off and Captain Holley managed to fall in by Betty and to detain her a little, while the other girls had no choice but to go in advance, though slowly.
“May I call some evening, Miss Betty?” asked Captain Holley.
“Certainly,” said Betty, who did not know how to get out of it, and felt that for some unknown reason she must keep this young instructor in a good humor.
“By the way,” said the young man, after he had thanked Betty and said that he would be over some time soon, “I found something which interested me very much the other day.” Unbuttoning his outer coat a little way, he touched, upon the lapel of the coat beneath, a little butterfly pin.
“O!” exclaimed Betty, “my butterfly pin!”
“But you have one,” smiled Captain Holley, buttoning his outer coat again.
“I had to send for another. Oh, you _wouldn’t_ keep my pin, Captain Holley! Why, it has my name on it, and everything. _Please!_”
But the captain merely smiled, made her a bow, and went back with rapid steps to the aeroplane whose aviator was beckoning.
“What do you think, girls!” exclaimed Betty. “He has my butterfly pin and wouldn’t give it to me!”
“That is certainly the limit!” said Isabel.
“And worst of all he was wearing it right on the lapel of his coat for everybody to see, and some of the boys over there know all about our Psyche Club.”
“I saw him fixing something before he started over toward us,” said Pauline. “I imagine he was putting it there. I don’t think that for his own sake he would wear it around there at Grant. He just wanted to tease you. He likes you, Betty.”
“I nudged you, Betty,” said Isabel, “because I thought if you did know anything about Donald’s sailing it would be better not to tell him. He might possibly tell some spy,——”