nough obtained," smiled Dick, rising quickly.

"O-o-o-h! Don't, please!" called Miss Bentley uneasily, for Dick,
after examining the face of the little cliff for footing, had
begun to scale up toward the honeysuckle.

"Hold your parasol---open," he directed, looking down with a smile.

In another moment he was tossing down the beautiful blossoms into
the open parasol that Miss Bentley held upside down.

"How would you like some of these ferns?" Dick called down, pulling
out a sample by the roots and holding it out to view.

"Oh, if you please!"

Several ferns fell into the upturned parasol. Then Dick scrambled
down, resuming his lounging seat on the grass, while Laura examined
her treasures and chatted.

"What a splendid, thoroughbred girl she has become!" kept running
through Prescott's mind.

Every detail, from the tip of her small, dainty boot, peeping out
from under the hem of the skirt, up to the beautiful coloring of her
face and the purity of her low, white feminine brow Dick noted in
turn. He had never seen Laura look so attractive, not even in her
dainty ball finery of the night before. He had never felt so
strongly drawn toward her as he did now. He longed to tell her so,
and not lightly, either, but with direct, manly force and meaning.

Though Cadet Prescott's face showed none of his temptation, he
found himself repeatedly on the dangerous brink of sentimentality.
Since coming to West Point he had seen many charming girls, yet
not one who appealed to him as did this dainty one from his own
home town and the old, bygone school days.

But Dick tried to hold himself back. He had, yet, nothing to
offer the woman whom he should tell of his love. He was by no
means certain that he would finally graduate from the Military
Academy. Without a place in life, what had he to offer? Would
it be fair or honorable to seek to capture the love of this girl
when his own future was yet so uncertain?

Yet caution and prudence seemed more likely to fly away every
time he glanced at this dear girl. In desperation Dick rose quickly.

"Laura," he said softly, "if we remain here all afternoon there
is a lot that we shall fail to see. Are you for going on with
our walk?"

Laura Bentley looked up at him with something of a little start.
Perhaps she, too, had been thinking, but a girl may not speak
all that passes in her mind.

"Yes," she answered; "let us keep on."

Dick, as he walked beside her, was to