ach
other. I'm quite bent on it. Nothing could be better. I'd like to see
it come out the way I'd have it. You know how rich he is. And they say
he is going to be somebody. Mr. Leeds! Mr. Leeds!"

A tall young man looked and advanced. While his gait did not indicate
reluctance, there was nothing that seemed to reveal eagerness. He came
forward deliberately and stopped before the party.

"_I_ don't think, Mr. Leeds, that you know Miss Whiting," Mrs.
Gunnison announced. "A dear friend of mine--and a dear. Mrs. Brough
and you are old friends. You see her so often that I feel that I can
take her away. Come, I want to show you something."

With her customary smile of unconcerned intelligence, Mrs. Brough
allowed herself to be drawn off. The young man slowly settled himself
in the chair which Mrs. Gunnison had left.

"Oh, you shall not escape," declared Miriam. "Mr. Leeds, I am so glad
to be able to speak to you at last. I have so much to say to you. They
told me that you would be here this afternoon. I wondered if I should
see you."

Leeds had not spoken, but looked at the girl with a steadiness which
for a moment caused her to cast down her animated eyes.

"I missed you everywhere last winter," she went on, more slowly. "And,
of course, heard of you always."

Leeds continued to inspect the girl with amusement in his glance.

"Oh, how splendid accomplishing something must be--standing for
something!"

"Don't you think that you are rather overvaluing my modest
achievements?"

"Of course, you speak that way, but others do not," she hurried on.
"You are known from one end of the country to the other."

"Really----" he began.

"To be such an inspiring influence in local politics----"

"Because," he laughed, "having a minor public position--because, by a
fluke, having found myself in the place of a common councilman, I have
got some things done and kept others from being done."

"Public life has always been so absorbing for me. I can think of
nothing nobler for a man."

"Than being a common councilman," he interrupted.

"You laugh," she said. "But I grew so interested, I followed in the
newspapers, from day to day, what you were doing."

"You were very good," he answered, gravely. "Or you are very good to
say so."

"Don't you believe me?" she asked, suddenly arrested by his tone.

"I have heard a good deal of you, Miss Whiting."

Miriam flushed slightly, but she looked at him steadily.

"What have you