Thus Miss Bentley went her triumphant way that afternoon, all unconscious that there was any triumph about it.  Not that she was wholly unaware of her own charm.  As she confessed to Uncle Bob, she knew people liked her, and the knowledge was pleasing.  She was now on her way to be gracious to the Candy Man, and in this connection she had rehearsed a neat little scene in which she stood by and allowed the children to make their purchases, and then at the right moment asked easily if there had been any more accidents on the corner of late, adding something about his kindness in helping her up, and so on.  The Candy Man would of course touch his cap, for from Virginia’s account he was rather a nice Candy Man, and reply, “Not at all, Miss,” or “That’s all right”; then she would smile upon him and the incident would be closed.

The first half of the scene went off perfectly.  The Candy Man was selling taffy to a nurse-maid when they approached, and if he saw who was coming, and if his heart was in his mouth, and if he felt a wild longing to escape from the Candy Wagon, he gave no sign.  To Margaret Elizabeth, as they waited, he was a Candy Man in white jacket and cap, and nothing more.

The pigeons fluttered joyously.  Miss Bentley uttered an impersonal good afternoon, Virginia advanced, a silver quarter in her palm, and demanded chestnuts for the squirrel.  The bag was filled and held out to her, and as she handed over the quarter in exchange she explained, gratuitously, “We’ll perhaps eat some of them ourselves.”

At this the Candy Man looked up with a smile in his eyes, and met the glance of Miss Bentley, who immediately forgot all she had intended to say, for these were the eyes that were not the eyes of Augustus.  There was no excuse for arguing the question.  She knew it.

The point was, after all, Margaret Elizabeth concluded in the solitude of her own hearth-stone, not whether she had been equal to the occasion to-day—­and she hadn’t—­but that he on a former occasion had been guilty of base behaviour.  If this were a real Candy Man, one might excuse him, but he plainly was not.  There was a mystery, and she loathed mysteries.  She was annoyed to the point of exasperation.  She would dismiss him from her mind now and forever.

Uncle Bob, reading the evening paper in the dining-room while Nancy set the table, admitting as she passed back and forth an occasional savoury odor from the kitchen region, became aware of sounds in the hall which betokened some one descending the stairs in haste.  The next moment Margaret Elizabeth stood in the doorway.

“Uncle Bob,” she said, as she drew a long white glove over her elbow, her face shadowed by her plumy hat, “you remember you said it might be worse, and I insisted it couldn’t be?  You were right, it is infinitely worse.”

With this she was gone, and a premonitory buzz of great dignity and reserve from the street presently indicated that she was being borne away in the Pennington car.