ur way of making up dance
cards at Crabtown."

"Where?"

"Crabtown. That's our local name for Annapolis."

"Gracious! Let me get out quickly and get that notebook!"

"At midshipmen's hops the fellow who drags the----"

"Gold brick," supplied Belle, resignedly.

"No--not for worlds! You're no gold brick, Belle, and you know it, even
though you do refuse to go to the mirror. But the fellow who drags any
femme--"

"Please--?"

"'Femme' stands for girl. The fellow who drags any femme makes up her
dance card for her."

"And she hasn't a word to say about it?"

"Not as a rule."

"Oh!" cried Belle, dramatically.

She moved toward the door. Dave, who could not take his eyes from her
pretty face, managed, somehow, to delay her.

"Belle, there's something--" he began.

"Good gracious! Where? What?" she cried, looking about her keenly.

"It's something I want to say--must say," Dave went on with more of an
effort than anyone but himself could guess.

"Tell me, as we're going down the street," invited Belle.

"_Wha-a-at?_" choked Dave. "Well, I guess not!"

He faced her, resting both hands lightly on her shoulders.

"Belle, we were pretty near sweethearts in the High School, I think," he
went on, huskily, but looking her straight in the eyes. "At least, that
was my hope, and I hope, most earnestly, that it's going to continue.
Belle, I am a long way from my real career, yet. It will be five years,
yet, before I have any right to marry. But I want to look forward, all
the time, to the sweet belief that my schoolgirl sweetheart is going to
become my wife one of these days. I want that as a goal to work for,
along with my commission in the Navy. But to this much I agree: if you
say 'yes' now, and find later that you have made a mistake, you will
tell me so frankly."

"Poor boy!" murmured Belle, looking at him fully. "You've been a plebe
until lately, and you haven't been allowed to see any girls. I'm not
going to take advantage of you as heartlessly as that."

Yet something in her eyes gave the midshipman hope.

"Belle," he continued eagerly, "don't trifle with me. Tell me--will you
marry me some day?"

Then there was a little more talk and--well, it's no one's business.

"But we're not so formally engaged," Belle warned him, "that you can't
write me and draw out of the snare if you wish when you're older. And
I'm not going to wear any ring until you've graduated from the Naval
Academy. Do you understan