e Reporter.
Perceiving the Candy Wagon at the curb he paused, scrutinising it
jauntily, through a monocle formed by a thumb and finger.

The wagon, freshly emblazoned in legends of red, yellow and blue which
advertised the character and merits of its wares, stood with its
horseless shafts turned back and upward, in something of a prayerful
attitude. The Reporter, advancing, lifted his arms in imitation, and
recited: "Confident that upon investigation you will find everything as
represented, we remain Yours to command, in fresh warpaint." He seated
himself upon the adjacent carriage block and grinned widely at the
Candy Man.

In spite of a former determination to confine his intercourse with the
Reporter to strictly business lines, the Candy Man could not help a
responsive grin.

The representative of the press demanded chewing gum, and receiving it,
proceeded to remove its threefold wrappings and allow them to slip
through his fingers to the street. "Women," he said, with seeming
irrelevance and in a tone of defiance, "used to be at the bottom of
everything; now they're on top."

The Candy Man was quick at putting two and two together. "I infer you
are not in sympathy with the efforts of the Woman's Club and the Outdoor
League to promote order and cleanliness in our home city," he observed,
his eye on the debris so carelessly deposited upon the public
thoroughfare.

"Right you are. Your inference is absolutely correct. The foundations of
this American Commonwealth are threatened, and the _Evening Record_
don't stand for it. Life's made a burden, liberty curtailed, happiness
pursued at the point of the dust-pan. Here is the Democratic party of
the State pledged to School Suffrage. The Equal Rights Association is to
meet here next month, and--the mischief is, the pretty ones are taking
it up! The first thing you know the Girl of All Others will be saying,
'Embrace me, embrace my cause.' Why, my Cousin Augustus met a regular
peach of a girl at the country club,--visiting at the Gerrard
Penningtons', don't you know, and almost the first question she asked
him was did he believe in equal rights?" The Reporter paused for breath,
pushing his hat back to the farthest limit and regarding the Candy Man
curiously. "It is funny," he added, "how much you look like my Cousin
Augustus. I wonder now if he could have been twins, and one stolen by
the gypsies? You don't chance to have been stolen in infancy?"

This innocent quest