Thus the fall and winter passed.
Meantime Gladys was winning golden opinions for herself at Vassar.
Study was a perfect delight to her, consequently excellence in every department was but a natural result.
The name of Gladys Huntress became the synonym for all that was learned and brilliant in her class, and there was not one who did not predict that the first honor should be conferred upon her at the end of the course.
No one appeared to be jealous of her, either, on account of it, for she was a general favorite with both teachers and scholars, always having a pleasant word and a kind smile for everybody.
During the recess, which occurred between the winter and spring terms of her second year at Vassar, she was in New York city for a few days with her chosen friend and roommate, Addie Loring.
There was considerable shopping to be done to prepare for the warm weather, dress-making to attend to, besides a gay round of social duties, and the two girls were all the time in a delightful flutter of business and pleasure.
One morning, after a long siege of shopping, feeling both weary and hungry, they entered an up-town cafe to obtain a lunch and rest a little before going home.
At the cashier’s desk near the door, as they stepped inside, there stood a tall, handsome young man in the act of paying for his dinner.
Gladys caught sight of him in an instant, and she started and flushed a vivid crimson.