“I don’t get many chances,” Dan insisted.  “Miss Atterly, all the hops that I’ve attended could be counted on your fingers, without using the thumbs?”

“Oh, really?”

“It is the truth, I assure you.  Some of the midshipmen attend many hops.  Most of us are too busy over our studies as a rule.”

“Then you prefer books to the society of girls?”

“It isn’t that,” replied Dan, growing somewhat red under Miss Atterly’s amused scrutiny.  “The fact is that a fellow comes here to the Naval Academy for the purpose of becoming an officer in the Navy.”

“To be sure.”

“And, unless the average fellow hugs his books tightly he doesn’t have any show to get through and become an officer.  There are some fellows, of course, to whom the studies come easily.  With most of us it’s a terrible grind.  Even with the grind about forty per cent. of the fellows who enter the Naval Academy are found deficient and are dropped.  If you are interested in knowing, I had a fearful time in keeping up with the requirements.”

“Oh, you poor boy!” cried Miss Atterly half tenderly.

“I never felt that I wanted any sympathy,” Dan declared stoutly.  “If I couldn’t keep up, then the only thing to do was to go back to civil life and find my own level among my own kind.”

“Now, that was truly brave in you!” declared Miss Atterly, admiration shining in her eyes.

“There’s the music starting,” Dan hastily reminded her.  “Our dance.”

“Would it seem disagreeable in me if I asked you to sit out this number with me?” inquired the girl.  “The truth is, I can dance any evening, but you and your brave fight here, Mr. Dalzell, interest me—–­oh, more than I can tell you!”

Under this line of conversation Midshipman Dalzell soon began to feel highly uncomfortable.  Miss Atterly, however, in getting Dan to talk of the midshipman and the Naval life, soon had him feeling at his ease.  Nor could Dalzell escape noticing the fact that Miss Atterly appeared to enjoy his company hugely.

Then Dan was led on into talking of the life of the Naval officer at sea, and he spoke eloquently.

“A life of bravery and daring,” commented Miss Atterly thoughtfully.  “Yet, after all, I would call it rather a lonely life.”

“Perhaps it will prove so,” Dalzell assented.  “Yet it is all the life that I look forward to.  It’s all the life that I care about.”

“Despite the loneliness—–­or rather, because of it—–­it will seem all the finer and more beautiful to come home to wife and children,” said Miss Atterly after a pause.  “Nearly all Naval officers marry, don’t they?”

“I—–­I believe they do,” Dalzell stammered.  “I—–­I never asked any Naval officers for statistics.”

“Now, you are becoming droll,” cried Miss Atterly, her laughter ringing out.

“I didn’t mean to be,” Dan protested.  “I beg your pardon.”