her that every self-respecting, manly man
should be a soldier.

Dick Swinton's equivocal position as the son of a needy clergyman and the
very uncertain heir to a great fortune, ruled him out of the reckoning as
an eligible bachelor, compared with Jack Lorrimer, Ned Carnaby, Harry
Bent, and Vivian Ormsby, all rich men. The miser so frequently advertised
the fact that his grandson would not inherit a penny of his money that
people had come to believe it, and they looked upon Dick with
corresponding coolness. He surely must be a scamp to be spoken of as his
own grandfather spoke of him; and, of course, wherever he went, women
flung themselves at his head. The usual attraction of a good-looking,
soft-eyed Adonis gained favor by the whispered suggestion that he was
dangerous.

But, in truth, Dick was only bored with women until he fell in love with
Dora, and took the girl's heart by storm.

Ormsby was laying siege to the citadel cautiously, as was his way. Bluff
Jack Lorrimer's courage was paralyzed by his love, and he drank deep to
dispel his melancholy. Harry Bent--who was already under the spell of
Netty Swinton, Dick's sister's--was indifferent, and Carnaby had been
rejected three times, despite his millions.

Colonel Dundas saw nothing to alarm him in the admiration of these young
men for his daughter until Dick Swinton came along, and Dora changed into
a dreamy, solemn young person. She lost all her audacity, and her hot
temper was put to rest for ever. Dick worshiped with his eyes in such a
manner that only the blind could fail to read the signs. He was not
loquacious, and Dora was unaccountably shy. They never spoke of love
until one day Dick, with simple audacity, and favored by unusual
circumstances--under the light of the moon--clasped the girl to his
heart, and kissed her. She cried, and he imprisoned her in his arms for a
full minute. For ransom and release, she gave her lips unresistingly, and
he uncaged her.

"Now, you're mine," he murmured, with a great sigh of relief, "and we're
engaged."

She smiled and nodded, and came to his heart again of her own accord.

And not a word was said to anybody. It was all too precious and wonderful
and beautiful. And yet she expected him to go away.

At the club, to-day everybody stared to see Ormsby and Dick Swinton meet
as though nothing had happened overnight, and the news was soon buzzing
around that Swinton was going, after all. Jack Lorrimer explained that