Part 3 (1/2)

There was something special going on at the Country Club--the Candy Man had taken to reading the social column--and the people of leisure and semi-leisure were to be well represented there, to judge by the machines speeding up the avenue; among them quite probably Miss Bentley and Mr.

Augustus McAllister.

This not altogether pleasing reflection had scarcely taken shape in his mind, when, in the act of handing change to a customer, he beheld Miss Bentley coming toward him; without a doubt his Miss Bentley this time, for she wore the grey suit and the felt hat, jammed down any way on her bright hair and pinned with the pinkish quill. She was not alone. By her side walked a rather shabby, elderly man, with a rosy face, whose pockets bulged with newspapers, and who carried a large parcel. She was looking at him and he was looking at her, and they were both laughing.

Comrades.h.i.+p of the most delightful kind was indicated.

Without a glance in the direction of the Candy Wagon they pa.s.sed. Well, at any rate she wasn't at the Country Club. But how queer!

Earlier in the afternoon Virginia had gone by in dancing-school array, accompanied by an absurdly youthful mother. ”I've got something to tell you,” she called, and the Candy Man could see her being reproved for this unseemly familiarity.

His curiosity was but mildly stirred; indeed, having other things to think of, he had quite forgotten the incident, when on Monday she presented herself swinging her school bag.

”Say,” she began, ”I have found out about her Ladys.h.i.+p and the Little Red Chimney.”

”Oh, have you?” he answered vaguely.

Virginia, resting her bag on the carriage block, looked disappointed.

”I have been crazy to tell you, and now you don't care a bit.”

”Indeed I do,” the Candy Man protested. ”I'm a trifle absent-minded, that's all.”

Thus rea.s.sured she began: ”Don't you know I told you I could see that chimney from our dining-room, and that I was going to watch it?

Well, the other day at lunch I happened to look toward the window, and I jumped right out of my chair and clapped my hands and said, 'It's smoking, it's smoking!' There was company, and mother said, 'Good gracious, Virginia! what's smoking? You do make me so nervous!' Then I was sorry I'd said anything, because she wouldn't understand, you know. Well, after lunch I took one of Ted's b.a.l.l.s, and went over to Uncle Bob's, and I got a little darkey boy to throw it in the yard, and then I went in to look for it. You see if Uncle Bob wasn't there and anybody asked me what I was doing, I could say I was looking for my brother's ball.”

”I fear you are a deep one,” remarked the Candy Man.

”No, I'm not, but I'm rather good at thinking of things,” Virginia owned complacently. ”And then,” she continued, ”I poked around the rose bush, and peeped in at the window, and sure enough she was there, brus.h.i.+ng the hearth. She saw me and came to the window, and when I ran away, 'cause I thought maybe she was mad, she rapped, and then opened the window and called: 'Come in, little girl, and talk to me.' And now who do you think she turned out to be?”

A suspicion had been deepening in the Candy Man's breast for the last few moments. His heart actually thumped. ”Not--you don't mean----?”

Virginia nodded violently. ”Yes, the lady who fell and got muddy. And she's perfectly lovely, and I'm going there again. She asked me to.”

Why, oh, why should such luck fall to the lot of a long-legged, freckle-nosed little girl, and not to him, the Candy Man wondered.

He burned to ask innumerable questions, but compromised on one. Did Virginia know whether or not she had come to stay?

”Why, I guess so. She didn't have her hat on, and she was cleaning up--dusting, you know, and taking things out of a box.”

”What sort of things?”

”Books and sofa pillows and pictures. I helped her, and by and by Uncle Bob came in.”

”And what did he say?” asked the Candy Man, just to keep her going.

”Why, he said, didn't he tell me so? And wasn't it great to have her ladys.h.i.+p there?”

”And what did her ladys.h.i.+p say?”

”She said he was a dear, and I forget what else. Oh, but listen! I'll bet you can't guess what her name is.”