ffect of tallness, so perfect was his
carriage, so handsome his address. And he was as clever as charming;
cultured as the world knows culture; literary as the term goes; nor was
there any one who made a happier speech than he, whether in the forum or
around the festal board. Detractors, of course, he had--as which of
those who raise their heads above the dead level have not?--but they
usually contented themselves with saying, as Buck Klinker had once said,
that his manners were a little too good to be true. To most he seemed a
fine type of the young American of the modern South; a brave gentleman;
a true Democrat with all his honors; and, though he had not yet been
tested in any position of responsibility, a rising man who held the
future in his hand.

They took their seats, and at last he freed himself from the unsteadying
embarrassment which had shaken him at the first sight of her under the
brilliant lights of the ballroom.

"Two things have happened to make this seventh of March a memorable day
for me," said he. "Two great honors have come to me. They are both for
your ear alone."

She flung upon him the masked battery of her eyes. They were
extraordinary eyes, gray and emerald, not large, but singularly long. He
looked fully into them, and she slowly smiled.

"The other honor," said Charles Gardiner West, "is of a commoner kind.
They want to make me president of Blaines College."

"Oh--really!" said Miss Avery, and paused. "And shall you let them do
it?"

He nodded, suddenly thoughtful and serious. "Long before snow flies,
Semple & West will be Semple and Something else. They'll elect me in
June. I needn't say that no one must know of this now--but you."

"Of course. It is a great honor," she said, with faint enthusiasm. "But
why are you giving up your business? Doesn't it interest you?"

He made a large gesture. "Oh, it interests me.... But what does it all
come to, at the last? A man aspires to find some better use for his
abilities than dollar-baiting, don't you think?"

Miss Avery privately thought not, though she certainly did not like his
choice of terms.

"If a man became the greatest stock-jobber in the world, who would
remember him after he was gone? Miss Avery, I earnestly want to serve.
My deepest ambition is to leave some mark for the better upon my
environment, my city, and my State. I am baring my small dream for you
to look at, you see. Now this little college ..."

But a daring youth