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BOUT a week after this transaction Rayburn Miller went to Atlanta on business for one of his clients, and while there he incidentally called at the offices of the Southern Land and Timber Company, hoping to meet Wilson and learn something about his immediate plans in regard to the new railroad. But he was informed that the president of the company had just gone to New York, and would not be back for a week.

Rayburn was waiting in the rotunda of the Kimball House for his train, which left at ten o' clock, when he ran across his friend, Captain Ralph Burton, of the Gate City Guards, a local military company.

"Glad to see you," said the young officer. "Did you run up for the ball?"

"What ball is that?" asked Miller. "I am at the first of it."

"Oh, we are giving one here in this house tonight," answered Burton, who was a handsome man of thirty-five, tall and erect, and appeared at his best in his close-fitting evening-suit and light overcoat. "Come up-stairs and I 'll introduce you to a lot of strangers."

"Can't," Rayburn told him. "I've got to leave at ten o' clock."

"Well, you've got a good hour yet," insisted the officer. "Come up on the next floor, where the orchestra is, anyway, and we can sit down and watch the crowd come in."

Miller complied, and they found seats on the spacious floor overlooking the thronged office. From where they sat they could look through several large drawing-rooms into the ballroom beyond. Already a considerable number of people had assembled, and many couples were walking about, even quite near to the two young men.

"By George!" suddenly exclaimed Miller, as a couple passed them, "who is that stunning-looking blonde; she walks like a queen."

"Where?" asked Burton, looking in the wrong direction.

"Why, there, with Charlie Penrose."

"Oh, that one," said Burton, trying to think, "I know as well as I know anything, but her name has slipped my memory. Why, she's visiting the Bishops on Peachtree Street—a Miss Bishop, that's it."

"Adele, little Adele? Impossible!" cried Rayburn, "and I've been thinking of her as a child all these years."

"So you know her?" said Captain Burton.

"Her brother is a chum of mine," explained Miller. "I haven't seen her since she went to Virginia to school, five years ago. I never would have recognized her in the world. My Lord! she's simply regal."

"I haven't had the pleasure of meeting her," said the Captain; "but I've heard lots about her from the boys who go to Bishop's. They say she's remarkably clever—recites, you know, and takes off the plantation negro to perfection. She's a great favorite with Major Middleton, who doesn't often take to the frying size. She has been a big drawing card out at Bishop's ever since she came. The boys say the house overflows every evening. Are you going to speak to her?"

"If I get a good chance," said Rayburn, his eyes on the couple as they disappeared in the ballroom. "I don't like to go in looking like this, but she'd want to hear from home."

"Oh, I see," said Burton. "Well, you'd better try it before the grand march sweeps everything before it."

As Miller entered the ballroom, Penrose was giving Adele a seat behind a cluster of palms, near the grand piano, around which the German orchestra was grouped. He went straight to her.

"You won't remember me, Miss Adele," he said, with a smile, "but I'm going to risk speaking to you, anyway."

She looked up from the bunch of flowers in her lap, and, in a startled, eager sort of way, began to study his face.

"No, I do not," she said, flushing a little, and yet smiling agreeably.

"Well, I call that a good joke," Penrose broke in, with a laugh, as he greeted Miller with a familiar slap on the shoulder. "Why, Rayburn, on my word, she hasn't talked of anybody else for the last week, and here she—"

"You are not Rayburn Miller!" Adele exclaimed, and she stood up to give him her hand. "Yes, I have been talking of you, and it seems to me I have a thousand things to say, and oh, so many thanks!"

There was something in this impulsive greeting that gave Miller a delectable thrill all over.

"You were such a little thing the last time I saw you," he said, almost tenderly. "I declare, you have changed—so, so remarkably."

She nodded to Penrose, who was excusing himself, and then she said to Miller, "Are you going to dance to-night?"

He explained that he was obliged to take the train which left in a few minutes.

He saw her face actually fall with disappointment. The very genuineness of the expression pleased him inexplicably. "Then I must hurry," she said. "Would you mind talking to me a little while?"

"Nothing could possibly please me so much," said he. "Suppose we stroll around?"

She took his arm and he led her back to the rotunda overlooking the office.

"So you are Rayburn Miller!" she said, looking at him wonderingly. "Do you know, I have pictured you in my mind many times since mother wrote me all about how you rescued us from ruin. Oh, Mr. Miller, I could not in a thousand years tell you how my heart filled with gratitude to you. My mother goes into the smallest details in her letters, and she described your every word and action during that transaction in your office. I could tell just where her eyes filled and her throat choked up by her quivering handwriting. I declare, I looked on you as a sort of king with unlimited power. If I were a man I'd rather use my brain to help suffering people than to be made President of the United States and be a mere figure-head. You must not think I am spoiled by all this glitter and parade down here. The truth is, I heartily despise it. I wanted to be at home so bad when I got that letter that I cried myself to sleep."

"You must not forget that your brother conceived the plan," Miller protested, "and that I only—"

"Oh yes; I know Alan thought of it," she interrupted, "but without your experience and firmness it would have remained in his dear old brain till the Lord knows when. The idea of their being in debt was slowly killing my father and mother, and you came to their relief just when they were unable to bear it any longer. I'm so glad you thought of borrowing that money."

Just then a young man, half a head shorter than Adele, came up hurriedly. "Oh, here you are," he exclaimed, in a gasp of relief. "I've been looking for you everywhere. This is mine, you know—the grand march. They are all ready."

Adele smiled pleasantly. "I hope you 'll excuse me from it, Mr. Tedcastle," she said. "I've just met a friend from home; I want to talk with him, and—"

"But, Miss Bishop, I—"

"I asked you to please excuse me, Mr. Tedcastle." Miller saw her face harden, as if from the sneer of contempt that passed over it. "I hope it will not be necessary for me to explain my reasons in detail until I have a little more time at my disposal."

"Oh, certainly not, Miss Bishop," said the young man, red with anger, as he bowed himself away.

"What's society coming to?" Adele asked Miller, with a nervous little laugh. "Does a lady have to get down on her knees and beg men, little jumping-jacks, like that one, to excuse her, and pet them into a good-humor when she has good reason to change her mind about an engagement? That's a sort of slavery I don't intend to enter."

"You served him right," said Miller, who had himself resented the young man's childish impetuosity, and felt like slapping him for his impertinence.

Adele shrugged her fine shoulders. "Let's not waste any more time talking about him," she said. "I was going to tell you how happy you made ............