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N the middle of the following week some of the young people of Darley gave a picnic at Morley's Spring, a beautiful and picturesque spot about a mile below Bishop's farm. Alan had received an urgent invitation to join the party, and he rode down after dinner.

It was a hot afternoon, and the party of a dozen couples had scattered in all directions in search of cool, shady nooks. Alan was by no means sure that Miss Barclay would be there, but, if the truth must be told, he went solely with the hope of at least getting another look at her. He was more than agreeably surprised, for, just as he had hitched his horse to a hanging bow of an oak near the spring, Frank Hillhouse came from the tangle of wild vines and underbrush on a little hill-side and approached him.

"You are just the fellow I'm looking for," said Frank. "Miss Dolly's over there in a hammock, and I want to leave somebody with her. Old man Morley promised me the biggest watermelon in his patch if I'd come over for it. I won't be long."

"Oh, I don't care how long you are," smiled Alan. "You can stay all day if you want to."

"I thought you wouldn't mind," grinned Frank. "I used to think you were the one man I had to fight, but I reckon I was mistaken. A feller in love imagines everybody in creation is against him."

Alan made no reply to this, but hurried away to where Dolly sat, a new magazine in her hands and a box of candies on the grass at her feet. "I saw you riding down the hill," she said, with a pretty flush and no little excitement. "To tell the truth, I sent Frank after the melon when I recognized you. He's been threatening to go all the afternoon, but I insisted on it. You may be surprised, but I have a business message for you, and I would have made Frank drive me past your house on the way home if you hadn't come."

"Business," Alan laughed, merrily; he felt very happy in her presence under all her assurances of welcome. "The idea of your having a business message! That's really funny."

"Well, that's what it is; sit down." She made room for him in the hammock, and he sat beside her, his foolish brain in a whirl. "Why, yes, it is business; and it concerns you. I fancy it is important; anyway, it may take you to town to-night."

"You don't mean it," he laughed. She looked very pretty, in her light organdie gown and big rustic hat, with its wide, flowing ribbons.

"Yes, it is a message from Rayburn Miller, about that railroad idea of yours."

"Really? Then he told you about that?"

"Yes; he was down to see me last week. He didn't seem to think much of it then—but"—she hesitated and smiled, as if over the memory of something amusing—"he's been thinking of it since. As Frank and I drove through the main street this morning—Frank had gone in a store to get a basket of fruit—he came to me on his way to the train for Atlanta. He hadn't time to say much, but he said if you were out here to-day to tell you to come in town to-night without fail, so as to meet him at his office early in the morning. He 'll be back on the midnight train. I asked him if it was about the railroad, and he said it was—that he had discovered something that looked encouraging."

"I'm glad of that," said Alan, a thrill of excitement passing over him. "Rayburn threw cold water on my ideas the other day, and—"

"I know he did, and it was a shame," said Dolly, warmly. "The idea of his thinking he is the only man in Georgia with originality! Anyway, I hope it will come to something."

"I certainly do," responded Alan. "It's the only thing I could think of to help my people, and I am willing to stake all I have on it—which is, after all, nothing but time and energy."

"Well, don't you let him nor any one else discourage you," said the girl, her eyes flashing. "A man who listens to other people and puts his own ideas aside is unworthy of the brain God gave him. There is another thing"—her voice sank lower and her eyes sought the ground. "Rayburn Miller is a fine, allround man, but he is not perfect by any means. He talks freely to me, you know; he's known me since I was knee-high. Well, he told me—he told me of the talk he had with you at the dance that night. Oh, that hurt me—hurt me!"

"He told you that!" exclaimed Alan, in surprise. "Yes, and it actually disgusted me. Does he think all men ought to act on that sort of advice? He might, for he has made an unnatural man of himself, with all his fancies for new faces; but you are not that kind, Alan, and I'm sorry you and he are so intimate—not that he can influence you much, but he has already, in a way, and that has pained me deeply."

"He has influenced me?" cried Alan, in surprise. "I think you are mistaken."

"You may not realize it, but he has," said Dolly, with gentle and yet unyielding earnestness. "You see, you are so very sensitive that it would not be hard to make you believe tha............