"We've given you a surprise, this time," laughed Laura. "I hope you're pleased."
"Can you doubt it?" asked Dick so absently, so reluctantly, that Laura Bentley shot a swift, uneasy look at the handsome young cadet captain.
"You don't seem over delighted," broke in Belle Meade. "Gracious!
I hope we haven't been indiscreet in coming almost unannounced?
See here, you haven't invited any other girls to to-night's hop,
have you?"
Both girls, flushed and rather uneasy looking, were now eyeing the two ill-at-ease young first classmen.
"No; we haven't invited anyone else. But there's something to be explained," replied Dick lamely. "Greg, you explain, won't you? And you'll all excuse me, won't you, while I hurry away to tog for dress parade?"
Laura's face was almost as white as Dick's had been at noon, as she gazed after the receding Prescott.
Then Greg, in his bluntest way, tried to put it all straight, and quickly, at that.
"Oh, is that all?" asked Belle with a sniff of contempt. "Why couldn't Dick remain and tell us himself? You cadets are certainly cowards in some things—-sometimes!"
But the tears were struggling for a front place in Laura's fine eyes.
"Is this 'silence' going to affect Dick very much in his career in the Army?" she asked with emotion.