"Senator Dalgleish!" cried Margaret with such genuine delight that the little man beamed, Senator though he was. It is very charming for rotund middle age to find itself a source of pleasure to youthful grace and beauty. "How glad I am to see you again!" "It has been a long, long time, has it not?--time for many things to happen." He sobered suddenly. "Your dear father--yes, yes! Well, it comes to us all." Then cheerfully, "You keep your girlish looks. Let me--see. You--are married?" "Yes," Margaret said slowly,--"and widowed." "Ah, very sad! very sad indeed!" The Senator shook his head several times, at a loss for appropriate words. These chance meetings after years develop such uncomfortable topics. "Is Mrs. Dalgleish with you?" Margaret made no bid for his sympathy. "No. She will be up after the holiday recess. In the meantime I am playing bachelor at the Raleigh. Don't like it either. There's nothing like home for an old fellow like me." "Come out and dine with me to-morrow night," suggested Margaret, with a sudden inspiration. "I will give you a home-dinner and an old-fashioned Varnum welcome." "Good! I'll do it. Seven, you say? All right. And the place?" Margaret handed him her card. As she left him he looked at it. "H--m ... De Jarnette. Queer name. Seems as if I had heard it before. De Jarnette.... Well, by George, she's a mighty handsome widow!" * * * * * "To the B. and O., ma'am?" Margaret glanced at her watch. "No,--home. It is too late now for Elmhurst." In the carriage she leaned back, thinking not so much of Philip and his disappointment as of this chance meeting and the opportunity it threw in her way. It was better to have found this man than to have seen Philip. She was launched now, actually launched, and that almost without intention. The Fates certainly had favored her. With Senator Dalgleish at her own fireside, anxious to hear the story of her life and how she had fared, it ought not to be hard to enlist his sympathies. He was always a warm-hearted little man. It was a distinct advantage to be able to tell that story in her own home when he had been a guest at her board.... And if this should prove advantageous with one--