"Yes; didn't you know Miss Preston was engaged to be married?"
"I---I certainly did not," Dan stammered.
"Why, she spoke to you much of 'Oscar'-----"
"Her brother?"
"No; the man who will be her husband on Monday," went on Mr. Preston
blandly. Being quite near-sighted the elder man had not discovered
Dan's sudden emotion. "That is what occupies us to-night. We
leave on the first car for Baltimore in the morning. Mrs. Preston
is now engaged over our trunks."
"I---I am very certain, then, that I have come at an unseasonable
time," Dan answered hastily. "I did not know---which fact, I
trust, will constitute my best apology for having intruded at
such a busy season, Mr. Preston."
"There has been no intrusion, and therefore no apology is needed,
sir," replied Mr. Preston courteously.
Dan got out, somehow, without staggering, or without having his
voice quiver.
Once in the street he started along blindly, his fists clenched.
"So that's the way she uses me, is it?" he demanded of himself
savagely. "Plays with me, while all the time the day for her
wedding draws near. She must be laughing heartily over---my greenness!
Oh, confound all girls, anyway!"
It was seldom that Midshipman Dalzell allowed himself to get in
a temper. He had been through many a midshipman fight without
having had his ugliness aroused. But just now Dan felt humiliated,
sore in spirit and angry all over---especially with all members
of the gentler sex.
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