ing their backs to me. Humph! Not that I care about them
particularly, but folks back in Gridley will be asking them if
they saw me, and they'll answer that they didn't speak with me.
There's no use in running into a snub, out here in the open.
But it's easy! I'll stag it at the hop tonight, and I can get
within range before they can signal me to keep away."

Smiling grimly, Dodge went to his tent.

After a while it was necessary for Dick and Greg to take their
friends back to the hotel, for the cadets must be on hand punctually
for supper formation.

"Mr. Anstey and I will call for you at 7:30, if we may," said
Dick.

"We shall be ready," Laura promised. "And that we may not keep
you waiting, we'll be down on the veranda."

And waiting they were. Dick and Anstey found Mrs. Bentley and
the girls seated near the ladies' entrance.

Anstey, the personification of southern grace and courtesy, made
his most impressive greetings to the ladies. His languid eyes
took in Laura Bentley at a glance, almost, and he found her to
be all that Prescott had described. Belle Meade won Anstey's
quick approval, though nothing in his face betrayed the fact.

At first glance, it appeared that both girls were very simply
attired in white, but they had spent days in planning the effects
of their gowning. Everything about their gowning was most perfectly
attuned. Above all, they looked what they were---two sweet,
wholesome, unaffected young women.

"We have time now for a short stroll to camp," proposed Prescott.
"If you would like it, you can see how we live in summer. The
camp is lighted, now."

So they strolled past the heads of the streets of the camp. At
the guard tent, Dick and Anstey explained the routine of guard
duty, in as far as it would be interesting to women. They touched,
lightly, upon some of the pranks that are played against the cadet
sentries.

Wherever Mrs. Bentley and the girls passed, cadet friends lifted
their caps to the ladies with Prescott and Anstey, the salutes
being punctiliously returned.

Bert Dodge was in a rage. He could not get so much as the courtesy
of a bow from these girls whom he had known for years. He was
being cut dead and he knew it, and the humiliation of the thing
was more than he could well bear. A half hour later, he saw the
party coming, and discreetly took himself out of sight.

"I can play my cards at the hop," he muttered.

The over to Cullum Hall, through the