the only kind of room to be had in the house, so full
was it--a little seven by ten box on the office floor. He would have
slept in the coal bin rather than leave her. He saw her go off to the hop
looking radiant, glancing back over her shoulder and smiling sweetly at
him. He rushed to his trunk, dragged out his evening clothes, and stood
at the wall looking on until the last note of the last dance--he a noted
German leader in the younger set and the best dancer of his years in
Gotham. Not so much as a single spin had he, and he longed to show those
tight-waisted, button-bestrewed fellows in gray and white how little they
really knew about dancing well as many of them appeared on the floor. His
reward was tendered as the hop broke up. She came gliding to him with
such witchery in her upraised face. "Now, sir, it is your turn. I
couldn't give you a dance, for my card was made out days ago, but Mr.
Latrobe was glad enough to get rid of taking me home. He is daft about
Nita, and of course she _can't_ let him take her to more than one hop a
week. Mr. Stanton is her escort to-night."

Then she placed her little hand on his arm, and drew herself to his side,
and when he would have followed the others, going straight across the
broad plain to the lights at the hotel, turned him to the left. "I'm
going to take you all the way round, sir," she said joyously. "Then we
can be by ourselves at least ten minutes longer."

And so began the second period of Gouverneur Prime's thralldom. A young
civilian at the Point has few opportunities at any time, but when the
lady of his love is a belle in the corps, he would much better take a
long ocean voyage than be where he could hear and see, and live in daily
torment. One comfort came to him when he could not be with Mrs. Garrison
(who naively explained that "Gov" was such a dear boy and they were such
stanch friends, real comrades, you know). He had early made the
acquaintance of Pat Latrobe, and there was a bond of sympathy between
them which was none the less strong because, on Prime's side, it could
neither be admitted nor alluded to--that they were desperately in love
with the sisters, and it was not long before it began to dawn on Prime
that pretty little Nita was playing a double game--that even while
assuring her guardian sister that she had only a mild interest in
Latrobe, she was really losing or had lost her heart to him, and in every
way in her power was striving to conceal the f