“Yes.”
“Well, he was talking away just as dignified as could be, and had just asked me if he might have ‘the pleasure of my company’ for the military reception, and then he laughed and said that Lieutenant Maxwell was going to arrange to take me and that he—Captain Van Horne—told him to get somebody else! Then he said in a most persuasive way, ‘Do you mind very much’?”
“And did you tell him, ‘Oh, no, I’d far rather be with you, my love’?”
“Scarcely. I said, ‘I think it is very kind of you to invite me, and I am perfectly satisfied with my escort,’ and then went right on with some reference to our visit in New York.”
“You know they do invite the girls they like, but it isn’t altogether arranged for that reason. Only the collegiate girls and the senior academy girls can go, so they fix up the lists some way. I’m so glad they are having one this year. I just love dress parades and drills and things.”
“Oh, yes; I was asking Captain Van Horne about Captain Holley, if the boys liked him, and what sort of a man he is, and Captain Van Horne said that he is all right so far as he knows, and said that he asked him to arrange for you to go with him—it seems that Captain Van Horne had something to do with the lists, but Donald Hilton was ahead of him.”
“Saved again!” exclaimed Betty. “I can’t tell you how I hate to be with him!”
“He is one of the handsomest men at the school, too.”
“That doesn’t make any difference. I know there is something wrong with him, for all his handsome face.”
“I don’t believe you ought to say that, Betty, but he is certainly different, and it is natural that we shouldn’t have much confidence in him, knowing about his family as we do. I was so surprised to see Louise back this year. I wonder how it happened. But I would not dare ask Miss Randolph. Your meeting with the distinguished Rudolph was so romantic!”