"Few persons do. Yes; I am seventeen."
"Why, you are quite a man," she said, with a laugh.
He blushed—proving his boyhood—and shook his head.
"Stella," came the old man's voice, "will you play something?"
She rose instantly, and glided to the organ and began to play.
She had been playing some little time; then she commenced to sing.
Suddenly she heard a sound suspiciously like a sob close to her side, and looking round saw that the boy had stolen to a low seat near her, and was leaning his face upon his hands. She stopped, but with a sudden gesture and a look toward her, the silent, seated figure motioned her to go on.
She finished—it was the "Ave Maria,"—and then bent down to him.
"You are tired!" she whispered.
The voice was so sweet, so kind, so sisterly, that it went straight to the bottom of the lad's heart.