g furlough, midway in the four years' course,
many of us might go mad with the incessant grind."

"Oh, you poor Dick!" cried Laura Bentley, in quick, genuine sympathy.
"Yes; I think I can quite understand what you say."

And then a new light came into her eyes, as she added, very softly:

"We in Gridley, who hope for you with your own intensity of longings,
must take every pains to make this furlough of yours restful enough
and full enough of happiness to send you back to West Point with
redoubled strength for the grind."

"The same Laura as of yesterday!" cried Dick with sincere enthusiasm.
"Always wondering how to make life a little sweeter for others!"

"Thank you," she half bowed quietly. "Yes; I want to see your
strength proven among strong men."

Again she looked frankly into Prescott's eyes, and he, at the
same moment, into hers. His pulses were bounding. What was to
become, now, of his resolution to hold back the surging words for
at least two more years?

Yet resolutely he stifled the feelings that surged within him.
He was a boy, though the training at West Point was swiftly making
him over into a man.

"I may lose her," groaned Cadet Prescott. "I may have lost her
already---if I ever had any chance. But a soldier has at least
his honor to think of, and no honorable man can ask a woman to
give herself to him, and to wait for years, when he isn't reasonably
certain he is going to be able to meet the responsibility that
he seeks."

Never had Prescott been more earnest, more serious, nor more attentive
than during the remainder of that drive. Yet he studiously refrained
from giving the girl any hint of the thoughts that were surging
within him.

Was he foolish?

Dick felt, anyway, that he was not, for he was waging a mighty fight
to stand by his best sense of honor.

CHAPTER VI

THE SURPRISE THE LAWYER HAD IN STORE

The days went by swiftly, merrily.

Dick continued to see all that was possible of Laura Bentley,
without seeming to try to monopolize her time.

As for careless, good-humored, nearly heart-free Greg, that young
man divided his time almost impartially among several very pretty
girls. Cadet Holmes had no thought of arousing baseless hopes in
any young woman's mind. He simply had not yet reached the age when
he was likely to be tied closely by any girl's bright-hued ribbons.

Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton were much with the young West Pointers.
Had Dave Darrin and