Even she, as the mother of a midshipman, felt her share
in the rivalry between the nation's two great service schools.
"You will bring Laura and Belle up to some of the hops this winter,
I hope, Mrs. Bentley," Dick begged.
"Oh, she's pledged to take us to West Point, and to Annapolis,"
broke in Belle Meade, smiling. "You don't think we are going
to lose the hops at either Academy while we have friends there,
do you?"
"I should hope not," Dick replied earnestly. Five minutes before
train time Leonard Cameron appeared. He greeted the two cadets
with great cordiality.
"I couldn't help coming to see you off, Prescott," Cameron found
chance to say in an undertone. "Laura is so deeply interested
in your success that I, too, am longing to hear every possible
good word as to your future career. Laura couldn't be more interested
in you if she were truly your sister."
That was the sting that made Dick's going away bitter. Cameron's
manner was so easy and assured that Dick saw the crumbling of one
of his more than half built castles in Spain.
The train carried the two cadets away. The parents of both young
men had seen to it that the cadets went away in a parlor car.
Dick and Greg, after leaving Gridley behind, swung their chairs
around so that, while they looked out of the window, their heads
were close together.
Pages:
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87