"He is not at all the kind of boy you would think," said Edith. "I'll tell them to send him up."
A few minutes later Gus stood before the colonel. The boy had had a bath, and his face looked fresh and bright; but he still wore his ragged clothes. It was beyond the resources of the household to provide him with a better suit, since he was far too small to wear anything of the colonel's.
"Well, sir, what have you to say for yourself?" the colonel asked with sternness, as he raised his eyes and looked keenly at the boy. Then his stern look relaxed. A strange expression came over his face. Wonder was in it, and something not unlike fear. What was there in the innocent child's look that caused the old man's glance to fall, and his lips to tremble? The blue eyes, looking out from beneath the thick curly hair all tumbled over the brow, seemed so familiar. The face was just such another sweet, innocent child's face as had once made the brightness of his own home. It was as if he were looking upon a little ghost.
The ragged, threadbare clothes seemed odd and out of place; but the face was the very image of the face that so often haunted his mind, floating in the mists of old memories, stabbing his heart with a sense of its guileless, boyish charm—the face of the boy who had loved to climb his knee and listen to his stories of camp-life, the boy who had listened with such a thoughtful, intelligent look, and had always so many questions to ask. But that was long years ago. This child was some beggar's brat, brought to the house by burglars, and the other boy—
Ah, that boy, so clever, so engaging, so full of promise, where was that boy now?
Edith wondered that her grandfather looked down and studied the blotting-pad on his desk ere he addressed another word to the boy, who made no attempt to reply to his greeting.
After a minute, the colonel looked up, and said with his former incisiveness—
"What is your name?"
"Gus," the little fellow replied.
The colonel gave a start. The effect of that name on him was like an electric shock. For that other boy, whom this one so vividly recalled, had been familiarly known as "Gus."