Bentley was coming back. To
the Miser alone, who from his study window had also noted the deadness
of the Little Red Chimney, was the privilege of a word with the
enchantress accorded. It came about through Mrs. Gerrard Pennington's
interest in the furnishing of the new quarters of the Colonial Dames.

Hearing of a desirable print owned by Mr. Knight, which it was
understood he might be induced to part with, she drove thither to
canvass the matter, accompanied by her niece. On the way they picked
up Augustus, who knew nothing of prints, but was pleased to join the
expedition.

The Miser, beneath his grave courtesy, seemed taken aback by this
invasion of his solitude. Mrs. Pennington's conventional suavity plainly
embarrassed him. He smiled indeed at Margaret Elizabeth, remarking as he
spread out his engravings that it had been long since he last saw her.

The impulse was strong upon her to follow him to his desk and ask if he
had any news of the Candy Man. There were moments when she thought it
strange she had had no word. These were but fleeting moments, however;
for the most part she succeeded, or thought she succeeded, in dismissing
him to the limbo of the past. So now she resisted the impulse to ask
news of him.

When it came to negotiations Margaret Elizabeth and Augustus, leaving
Mrs. Pennington to conduct them, moved about the room, viewing the
Miser's curios.

"Do you care for mezzotints?" she asked him.

"I don't know the first thing about them," Augustus owned. "In fact
never saw one."

She laughed. "Oh, yes, you have. Ever so many of the Reynolds and Romney
portraits were reproduced in mezzotint. If I am not mistaken there is
one hanging in your own hall."

Augustus gazed at her in undisguised admiration. "I don't see how you
learn so much, Miss Bentley. I have no doubt I have a lot of things you
could help me to appreciate."

From this dangerous ground she moved hastily, calling attention to the
portrait above the mantel. Mr. McAllister was more at home here.

"A rattling good picture. General Waite, by the way," he informed her,
"was own cousin to my grandmother on my mother's side. My great
grandfather and his father were brothers, don't you know."

"Indeed!" said Margaret Elizabeth, politely. The relationship did
not interest her, but she wondered, in annoyance, why the cousin of
Augustus, on his mother's side, should look down on her with the eyes of
the Candy Man. Stern eyes they were, wit