CHAPTER XV.
BART AND ELSIE.
In the suburbs of Charlottesville, sitting at the window of a handsome house, was a pretty, blue-eyed, fair-haired girl, whose sweet face told of the great beauty of her character.
The window at which the girl sat commanded a view of the distant highway and the winding walk that led up from the gate through the shrubbery of a beautiful garden lawn.
The girl was watching the road and the walk, her face expressing both eagerness and anxiety. She surveyed every pedestrian that passed along the street, and her heart fluttered, sending the pink flush of hope into her cheeks, when a swiftly driven carriage appeared coming rapidly along the street. The flush died when the carriage passed, and a sigh of disappointment escaped her.
The girl was Elsie Bellwood, looking fairer and sweeter than ever, if possible.
“Will he come?” she murmured.
Of whom was she thinking? Was it Frank Merriwell, or——
Two persons appeared, coming from another street, and soon turned in by the gate to the grounds of the handsome mansion.
One of them was a sturdy-looking boy with freckled face, who walked proudly, carrying his head high, while upon his outthrust chest might be seen what to him was far more precious than the medal of the Legion of Honor—a Yale baseball-badge.
The other was dark-eyed, dark-haired, finely formed, handsome, stern. Bart Hodge was coming, escorted and directed by King Jimmy the First.