friend, had run over to see him with a lot of papers for Dan to read and sign and closed with a smile, telling her that he guessed she “didn’t know much about business.” 

77

 “I only know the horrid things of business—debts, and loans, and bills, and fussing.” 

 “Those things are not business,” Dan answered wisely; “they are just common or garden carelessness.” 

 She asked him why he had not brought Ruggles out to Osdene, and he told her he couldn’t have done a stroke of work with the old boy down here at the Park. 

 Stirring his tea, he appreciated the duchess. The agreeable picture she made impressed him mightily. 

 “Do you know,” he asked suddenly, “what you make me think of?” 

 And she responded softly: “No, dear.” 

 “A box of candy. This room with its stuffed walls, and you in it are good enough—” 78 

78

 “To eat?” she laughed aloud. “Oh, you perfectly killing creature, what an idea!” 

 And as he met her eyes with his clear ones, with a simplicity she could never hope to reach, he put his tea-cup down; and as he did so the duchess observed his strong hands, their vigor, well-kept and muscular, but not the dandified hands of the man who goes often to the manicure. 

 “If it hadn’t been for one thing,” the boy went on, “I would have thought of nothing else but you, every minute I’ve been away.” 

 “Mr. Ruggles?” suggested the duchess. 

 “No, the Gaiety girl, Letty Lane. You know I told you in the box that she was from my town.” 

 The young man, who had flown back to Osdene Park in answer to a telegram, began to take his companion into his confidence. 

 “I knew that girl,” Dan said, “when she wasn’t more than fourteen. She sold me soda-water over the drug store counter. I always 79 thought she was bully, bright as a button and pretty as a peach. Once, I remember, I took six chocolate sodas in one day just to go in and see her. I had an awful time. I 

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