Mildred was perfectly aware that the young lieutenant admired her. She saw that her proposition was displeasing to him; but what she did not know was that he had not yet recovered from that profound fall which results from exchanging the chevrons of a first-class man for the shoulder-straps of a second lieutenant. That young officer must indeed have a seared conscience who can lay his hand on his heart and declare that he entertains only cordial sentiments for a cadet of the first class when their ways chance to cross.
"You refused to attend the cadet ball with me at the New York Building to-night," added Eames reproachfully.
"Why, of course; in my ignorance. Wasn't it stupid of me? Oh, what are they running for? Isn't that pretty? Wouldn't you like to be a cadet again, Mr. Eames?"
"Heaven forbid!" ejaculated that officer devoutly. "I am waked up by reveille yet. Hope I shall get over it some time."
"Mildred is contracting cadet fever, Mr. Van Tassel," declared Helen, looking up at Jack in a way which Miss Bryant noted resentfully, in spite of her preoccupation.
"I never before noticed how objectionable Helen's ways with men are," she thought. "I know Jack wishes she wouldn't look at him like that."
"I suppose so, Miss Eames," replied Van Tassel. "I am trying to find out what it is that is so fetching about those all-conquering youngsters."
But Jack need not have tried. No male civilian under forty was ever known to discover.
"What is cadet fever?" asked Mildred, "and what is the microbe; a bell-button? I haven't one yet."
The "double-timing" companies had retreated down the streets of camp, and the cheering crowds of spectators quieted. Many of them moved toward the lake shore; for in a short time it had been learned that the cadets would next march to supper preceded by the drum corps; and any ceremony which they performed, no matter how simple, drew a curious throng.