"
"You're not afraid of failing?" asked Laura anxiously.
"I'm not going to allow myself to fail. Yet, even if I win, I
shall be tired out after the ordeal. Wish the ball could come
a couple of days alter the ordeal. I wanted to go to it and to
dance with you, Laura."
"I'm sorry you can't go," sighed the girl.
Darrin, too, had given up all thoughts of attending the senior
ball, and this was the first time that either lad had "skipped"
the class ball.
"It seems too bad to be away," grumbled Dave. "But I know how
I'll feel on that night. If I carry off the honors for Annapolis,
no mere ball could hold me! I'll need air and space. I'll be
lucky if I don't get arrested on that night for building bonfires
in the streets."
Dave next sighed dismally and continued:
"If I don't carry off the Annapolis prize, I'll feel so disappointed
that I won't look anybody in the face! Dick, Dick! It's fearful,
this waiting---and wanting!"
"It won't seem like the class ball a bit without you two boys,"
declared Belle Meade, pouting, the next afternoon.
"But if we get through," muttered Dave, "think of the gay, splendid
times to which we can invite you at Annapolis and West Point."
"Indianapolis and Blue Point are far away," murmured Belle, purposely
misnaming both famous places.
"_Ann_-apolis!" flared Dave
"_West_ Point!" protested Dick hotly.
"Don't mind Belle," begged Laura quietly.
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