“Ladybird’s flying figure”
“And she was brought up in India.”
“Yes; that might account for many of her peculiarities; or perhaps the truth is that she grew up in India without having been brought up at all.”
“That’s more like it,” assented Humphreys. “But she is not here now, and you are, so I wish you would tell me something about yourself; won’t you?”
“Oh, there’s nothing interesting about me,” said Stella, laughing: “I’m not eccentric, I didn’t grow up in India, and I’m really very much like all the other young women you’ve ever met.”
“Not exactly,” said Humphreys; “for none of them ever received me in a tree before.”
“Oh, that’s mere force of circumstance—I had no intention of doing so; and it’s really only through one of Ladybird’s crazy pranks that you are here now.”
“That is true,” said Humphreys, with more meaning than she knew.
If Stella Russell had seemed to him beautiful the night before, she seemed a thousand times more so now. Her type is often at its best in the morning.
Her youth and wonderful color, with the accessories of fresh, crisp, pink muslin, and the green leaves of the apple-tree, made a picture which Chester Humphreys never forgot.