cribably angry with himself. In the first place, the question
he had asked was really none of his business. In the second place,
his inquiry, under the circumstances, was a rude one.

"Mr. Cameron was in the party," Laura replied readily. "There
was quite a number of us; it was a 'bus ride one May afternoon.
We came out to gather wild flowers."

"If I had the right," flamed up within the cadet, "I'd soon make
Mr. Cameron my business, or else I'd be some of his. But it wouldn't
be fair. I'm not through West Point yet, and I may never be.
Until my future is fairly assured I'm not going to ask the sweetest
girl on earth to commit her future to my hands. Even if I felt
that I could, a cadet is forbidden to marry and a two years' engagement
is a fearfully long one to ask of a girl. And a girl like Laura
has a chance to meet hundreds of more satisfactory fellows than I
in two years."

It required all the young soldier's will power to keep silent
on the one subject uppermost in his mind. And even Dick realized
that some very trivial circumstance was likely to unseat his firm
resolve.

What he was trying to act up to was his sense of fairness. Hard
as it was under the circumstances, he was more anxious to be fair
to this girl than to any other living being.

"I mustn't spoil her afternoon, just because my own mind is so
dizzy!" he thought reproachfully.

So, a moment later, he became merrier than ever---on the surface.

It was Laura's turn to take a covert look at his face. She wondered,
for she felt that Prescott's assumed gayety had an almost feverish
note.

"How much further are you going to drive?" she asked presently.

"The only pleasure I recognize in the matter, Laura, is yours.
So I am wholly at your command."

He tried to answer lightly and gallantly, yet felt, an instant
later, that his words had had a strained sound.

The same thought had struck the girl.

Yet, instead of asking him to turn the horse's head about, Laura
ventured:

"Gridley must be pleasant, as your home town, yet I fancy you are
already looking forward to getting back to your ideals at West Point?"

"Is she tired of having me around?" wondered Cadet Prescott, wincing
within, as though he had been stabbed.

"I'm keener for West Point, every day, Laura," he answered quietly.
"Yet, even in the case of such a grand old place as the Military
Academy, it is worth while to get away once in a while. If it
were not for this lon