"I don't know," Midshipman Dalzell replied slowly. "I haven't
had much experience."

Miss Atterly laughed as though she felt certain that she knew
better.

"Do you say that to every girl?" she asked.

"I don't get many chances," Dan insisted. "Miss Atterly, all
the hops that I've attended could be counted on your fingers,
without using the thumbs?"

"Oh, really?"

"It is the truth, I assure you. Some of the midshipmen attend
many hops. Most of us are too busy over our studies as a rule."

"Then you prefer books to the society of girls?"

"It isn't that," replied Dan, growing somewhat red under Miss
Atterly's amused scrutiny. "The fact is that a fellow comes here
to the Naval Academy for the purpose of becoming an officer in
the Navy."

"To be sure."

"And, unless the average fellow hugs his books tightly he doesn't
have any show to get through and become an officer. There are
some fellows, of course, to whom the studies come easily. With
most of us it's a terrible grind. Even with the grind about forty
per cent. of the fellows who enter the Naval Academy are found
deficient and are dropped. If you are interested in knowing,
I had a fearful time in keeping up with the requirements."

"Oh, you poor boy!" cried Miss Atterly half tenderly.

"I never felt that I wanted any sympathy," Dan declared stoutly.
"If I couldn't keep up, then the only thing to do was to go back
to civil life and find my own level among my own kind."

"Now, that was truly brave in you!" declared Miss Atterly, admiration
shining in her eyes.

"There's the music starting," Dan hastily reminded her. "Our
dance."

"Would it seem disagreeable in me if I asked you to sit out this
number with me?" inquired the girl. "The truth is, I can dance
any evening, but you and your brave fight here, Mr. Dalzell, interest
me---oh, more than I can tell you!"

Under this line of conversation Midshipman Dalzell soon began
to feel highly uncomfortable. Miss Atterly, however, in getting
Dan to talk of the midshipman and the Naval life, soon had him
feeling at his ease. Nor could Dalzell escape noticing the fact
that Miss Atterly appeared to enjoy his company hugely.

Then Dan was led on into talking of the life of the Naval officer
at sea, and he spoke eloquently.

"A life of bravery and daring," commented Miss Atterly thoughtfully.
"Yet, after all, I would call it rather a lonely life."

"Perhaps it will prove so," Dalzell assented.