have called for an abundance of further explanation.

So he forced himself into a peal of laughter that sounded nearly
natural.

"If I were to tell you what a ridiculous thing I was thinking about,
Laura!" he chuckled.

Then his West Point training against all forms of deceit led him
to wondering, at once, whether Mr. Cameron could truthfully be
defined as "a ridiculous thing."

"Tell me," smiled the girl patiently.

"Not I," defied Prescott gayly. "Then you would find me more
ridiculous than the thing about which I was thinking."

"Oh!" she replied, and the cadet fancied that his companion spoke
in a tone of more or less hurt.

But, at least, Dick could look straight into her face now, as they
talked, and every instant he realized more and more keenly how
lovely Miss Bentley was growing to be.

They were driving down sweet-scented country lanes now. The whole
scene fitted romance. The cadet remembered Flirtation Walk, at
West Point, and it struck him that there was danger, at the present
moment, of Flirtation Drive.

"I wonder what the dear girl is thinking about at this present