I-----" With a little cry Laura Bentley drew back.
"I'm going right through to the end," cried Dick desperately.

"Then you can throw cold water over me---if you must.

Laura, I love you, and that love is nearly all of my life! I ask you to become a soldier's bride---mine!" "And---and---is that what has scared you ?" asked Laura in a very low voice.
"Yes!" "What a pitiful coward you are, then, to be a candidate for a commission in the Army," laughed Laura Bentley softly.
"But you---you haven't answered me." "Why, Dick, I've never had another thought, in six years, than that I loved you!" "Laura! You love me ?" "Why, of course, Dick.

What has ailed your eyes and your reasoning powers ?" With a glad cry, Prescott gathered his betrothed in his arms, claiming a lover's privilege.
Then out of an inner pocket he drew a little box, drew out a circlet of gold in which a solitaire glistened, and slipped the ring over the finger set apart for the purpose of wearing such pledges.
"And how soon, Laura---sweetheart ?" he demanded eagerly.
"Now, as to that, you must act like a creature of reason," Laura laughingly insisted.

"You are not yet in the Army.