it might be worse." And she remarked
aloud: "The fact that he is a nephew of General Waite means something."

"That's so," assented her husband. "Something like half a million.
Old Knight is determined to hand it all over." He smiled to himself,
then added: "He came to see me--the young man, I mean. I liked him.
He suggested Rob a little without resembling him. Very gentlemanly;
nice eyes."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

_In which the Fairy Godmother Society is again mentioned, among other
things_.

"But it is really embarrassing when I had made up my mind to marry a
poor Candy Man to have it turn out so. I rather liked defying common
sense," said Margaret Elizabeth.

The Candy Man had made a hurried journey to Chicago, and was back before
the rain was over, and while it was still cold enough for a fire, so
that his old dream of sometime sitting by the Little Red Chimney's
hearth was coming true. Margaret Elizabeth in the blue dress, by
request, though she declared it wasn't fit to be seen, occupied the
ottoman, her elbows on her knees, the firelight playing in her bright
hair.

"It is the way it happens in fairy-tales," urged the Candy Man. "And I
really couldn't help it."

"Of course you are right," she agreed. "As Virginia's story runs, 'He
turned into a prince, and because Violetta had been true to him through
thick and thin, he made her a princess.' Anyhow, Candy Man, I'm glad I
chose you before your good fortune came."

"It was an extremely venturesome thing to do, Girl of All Others, as
I have told you before, though immensely flattering to me. I have to
take the money, there is no way out of it. I believe it would break our
Miser's heart if I refused. Do you know what he was proposing to do
before he found the book?"

"What?" asked Margaret Elizabeth.

"To adopt me. You see we had come to be pretty good friends last
winter, and I think he suspected from the start that I had rather lofty
aspirations for a Candy Man. In a Little Red Chimney direction--you
understand?"

"Perfectly--go on."

"Well, he saw us in the park----"

"And his suspicions were confirmed, I suppose," put in Margaret
Elizabeth, coolly.

"Exactly. And knowing from what I had told him previously that I had
my fortune to seek, it occurred to him that as the channel he had been
hoping for had been closed, the next best thing would be to make it
possible for two young persons to----"

"The dear old Miser!" interrupted Margaret Eliza