"However, to go back, I think you owe me an explanation, Mr. Reynolds,
considering how you allowed me to talk to you under a false impression.
I am not absolutely lacking in grey matter," she added, while a smile
curled her lips, "and I think you owe it to me to tell me why you became
a Candy Man."

"In return for the Fairy Godmother idea?" he asked mischievously.

Miss Bentley's brows drew together. "If you knew how bitterly I have
regretted all the foolish things I said that day, you would not laugh,"
she cried.

"Do not say that, please, Miss Bentley. I beg your pardon, and I am not
laughing. I could not. If you only knew what it all meant to me. How
I----"

His distress was so genuine that Margaret Elizabeth was touched. "Well,
never mind now. It can't be helped, and I am willing to have it in
return for the Fairy Godmother nonsense, if you choose to put it so."

And now perforce the Candy Man must explain himself.

"You see," he began, "I had been knocked out of everything through
a bad accident that occurred at my home near Chicago--a runaway.
Speaking of grey matter, there was some doubt for a time whether mine
was not permanently injured. However, I gradually recovered, but I was
still forbidden for another six months at least to do any brain work,
and ordered by my doctor to loaf in the fresh air. Doing nothing when
you are longing to get to work is no easy job. I left home with the