Was he ever going to be a soldier, he wondered.
"I don't know that I'm really ready to be killed in battle," thought Dick grimly.

"It would be enough to know that my name is to be on the roll of graduates of the Military Academy, and afterwards on the rolls of the Army as an officer who had served with credit wherever he had been placed.

But the fates seem against even that much.

Hang it all, what was it that Lieutenant Denton said about faith and right, and faith being as much the soldier's duty as honor?
I guess he was never placed in just such a fix as mine!" For, slowly, all of Dick's iron-clad resolution to "stick it out" was wearing away.

It was becoming plainer to him, every day, that he could not stay in the Army if he were always to live in Coventry as far as his brother officers were concerned.
"I wonder what the fellows will do at the meeting next Monday night ?" Dick pondered, as he turned and strolled back by another road.