what has scared you?" asked Laura in a very
low voice.

"Yes!"

"What a pitiful coward you are, then, to be a candidate for a
commission in the Army," laughed Laura Bentley softly.

"But you---you haven't answered me."

"Why, Dick, I've never had another thought, in six years, than that
I loved you!"

"Laura! You love me?"

"Why, of course, Dick. What has ailed your eyes and your reasoning
powers?"

With a glad cry, Prescott gathered his betrothed in his arms,
claiming a lover's privilege.

Then out of an inner pocket he drew a little box, drew out a circlet
of gold in which a solitaire glistened, and slipped the ring over
the finger set apart for the purpose of wearing such pledges.

"And how soon, Laura---sweetheart?" he demanded eagerly.

"Now, as to that, you must act like a creature of reason," Laura
laughingly insisted. "You are not yet in the Army. At first,
after you do receive your commission, you must be saving and careful.
It needs furniture and all those things, you see, Dick, dearest,
to form the background of a home. We must wait a little while---but
what sweet waiting it will be!"

"Won't it, though!" demanded Dick with fervor. "Laura, it seems
to me that I must be dreaming. I can scarcely realize my great
good fortune."

"Nor can I," replied Laura softly. "You have always been my boy
knight, Dick."

As they stepped inside and approached their nearest friends, Belle
murmured in Greg's ear:

"Look at the electric glow that comes from the third finger of
Laura's left hand. Now, do you comprehend, booby, what a fatal
mistake you would have made, had I allowed you to tag them around
to the cliff?"

"Well, I'm jiggered!" gasped Cadet Holmes. "Which means that
I'm petrified with delight."

"Get practical, then," chided Belle. "Take me forward to them,
and we'll have the happiness of being the first to congratulate
the newest arrivals in paradise!"

Two minutes later, the leader of the orchestra swung his baton.
As the music pealed forth, Dick Prescott knew, for the first
time in his life, the full meaning of the dance in Cullum Hall.

There were many other newly betrothed couples on the floor that
happy night of the graduation ball. The air was fragrant with
flowers, but there was more---the atmosphere of new-found happiness
on all sides.

Outside, in the shadow of the moonless night, a stoop-shouldered
figure prowled in the near vicinity of Cullum Hall. This was
Jord