"What in the world," began Betty, when Amy lifted a face, shining radiantly through her tears. "Don't you know?" she said with an understanding born of her wonderful happiness. "Grace has gone to tell her mother. You really can't blame her for being in a hurry." A few minutes later Grace called down to Amy. "Come on up, Honey," she commanded. "Mother wants to speak to you." After Amy had left the room, Mollie and Betty looked at each other questioningly. "I wonder if Mrs. Ford is going to welcome Amy into the family," chuckled Mollie. "I hardly think so, since there isn't anything definitely settled yet," said Betty absently. She was thinking of Allen and what he had said in the part of his letter she would not let Grace read. Her eyes shone mistily and her heart sang. Allen, her Allen, was safe, and, oh, those wonderful things he had said! "It must be nice to be as happy as they are," Mollie said, with a little sigh, and with a start Betty came out of her preoccupation. "Oh, Mollie, dear, I--I forgot," she confessed, putting an arm about her chum. "I was so selfishly taken up with my own happiness that I didn't think!" "It isn't your fault," said Mollie, smiling bravely. "You just can't be happy enough to suit me. You know that, don't you, Betty?" "Of course I do, you perfect brick!" said Betty, hugging her fondly. "But we can't any of us be really happy until we know you are. But even that is coming out all right, I'm sure of it," she finished gayly, her old optimism fully restored. Mollie started to shake her head moodily, thought better of it, and smiled instead. "I won't be a death's head at the feast," she told herself savagely. "I suppose I'm awfully wicked, but now that they are all so happy, it makes me feel dreadfully lonesome. I'm glad from my very heart for them, of course. But, oh, Paul! Oh, little Dodo! If you will only come back to Mollie, she will never go away from you again, never, never!" Dinner that night for the other girls was a joyful occasion. The girls dressed up in their prettiest and best, Mrs. Ford and Betty cooked a most appetizing supper, and if it had not been for the one dark cloud still hanging over them, the evening that followed would have been the happiest they had ever spent. Mollie kept her promise to herself and entered into the gayety with the best of them, and no one--except Betty, perhaps--realized how much she was suffering. However, when the lights were out that night and everybody but herself was asleep, Mollie's brave barrier broke down and she sobbed miserably into her pillow. "I want to go home!" she cried, heart brokenly. "I can't keep this up day after day! I can't! If I don't hear some good news soon, I'll die--I know I shall." Only the sound of the waves pounding angrily on the shore and the shrilling of a rapidly rising wind answered her, and after a while she sank into a troubled, uneasy sleep.