We'll have such a good old talk with the girls as we never could have at a hop." "Everything in life would be easy, Greg, if you could explain it away," laughed Dick Prescott, but his tone was bitter.
"Well, as you can't take the girls to the hop, with any regard for their comfort, my plan is best of all, isn't it ?" "I---I suppose so." "So make the best of it, old ramrod.

There's nothing so bad that it couldn't be a lot worse." There was a long tour of work with the field battery guns that afternoon.

For once Prescott found his mind entirely off his work.

Nor could he rally his senses to his work.

He got a low marking, indeed, in the instructor's record for that afternoon's work.
Then, hot, dusty and tired, this detachment of cadets came in from work.
In the visitors' seats, near headquarters, Dick and Greg espied Mrs.Bentley and the girls.