rning. I did not at the time realise it, I was unpardonably dense,
but she took me for some one else. On the occasion of the accident that
foggy evening--you perhaps remember it--I overheard the name she gave to
the conductor. Well, it seems she had no idea she was talking to a Candy
Man that morning in the park, and I should have known it."

The Miser leaned his head on a thin hand, and certainly there was
nothing sordid, nothing mean, in the eyes which looked so kindly at his
companion. It was not perhaps a strong face, nor yet quite a weak one;
rather it indicated an over-sensitive, brooding nature. "You will not
always be a Candy Man," he said. "I have made Miss Bentley's
acquaintance recently. She is friendliness itself."

At this moment a grey slip of a woman, with a prayer-book in her hand,
entered, and was presented as Mrs. Sampson, the housekeeper. The Candy
Man rose to go, but Mr. Knight seemed now in no haste to release him.

"I should be glad to see you again, if some evening you have nothing
better to do," he said. "You may perhaps be interested in some of my
treasures." He glanced about the room. "You say you too are alone in
the world?"

"Quite," the Candy Man answered. "Everyone I know has some relative, or
at least an hereditary friend, but owing to the peculiar circumstances
of my life, I have none. I do not mean I am friendless, you understand.
I have some school and college friends, good ones. It is in background
I am particularly lacking," he concluded.

"I have allowed my friends to slip away from me," confessed the Miser.
"It was the force of circumstances in my case, too, though I brought it
upon myself. I have been justly misunderstood."

"'Justly misunderstood.'" The Candy Man repeated the words to himself as
he walked home in the frosty night. They were strange words, but he did
not believe them irrational.

CHAPTER NINE

_Shows how Miss Bentley and the Reporter take refuge in a cave, and
how in the course of the conversation which follows, she hears something
which disposes her to feel more kindly toward the Candy Man; shows also
how Uncle Bob proves faithless to his trust, and his niece finds herself
locked out in consequence._

"Let's pretend we are pursued by wild Indians and take refuge in this
cave."

The scene was one of those afternoon crushes which everybody attends and
few enjoy. Miss Bentley, struggling with an ice, which the state of the
atmosphere rendered emin