“I am glad, too, for I am delighted to see you again, Mr. Sherbrooke,” Star said, heartily and frankly, as she gave him her neatly gloved hand, and looking straight up into his handsome eyes in a way that testified to the sincerity of her words.
“I know it was imprudent to try to leap upon a moving train,” she continued; “but there is some one at home who is always disappointed if I do not return at a certain hour, and so I was anxious to catch it. However, another leaves in a half hour; and, indeed, I am very glad to have met you.”
How lady-like she was! With what perfect self-possession and grace she greeted him, notwithstanding her sparkling eyes and the flush which had leaped to her cheek told of inward excitement.
She was the same, and yet not the same; she had developed wonderfully since that morning when he had parted from her on the steamer.
Her hair was still of the same beautiful golden hue as the lock which she had severed for him, and which he still treasured; her eyes were the same heavenly blue, her smile as bright and sweet, but there was an added, indescribable charm about her that made her tenfold more lovely in his sight.
“Thank you,” he said, in reply to her hearty greeting; “and now, if you have only half an hour before another train goes, let us make the most of it, and find a seat in the waiting-room where we can compare notes on the last ten months.”
He led the way to the ladies’ room, found a comfortable chair in a corner for her where they could talk undisturbed, and the half hour slipped by before they had any idea that it was time for Star to go.
“There is my train,” she said, suddenly starting up as the first bell rang; “I must not miss this one, or Mr. Rosevelt will surely think something dreadful has happened to me.”
“Mr. Rosevelt!” repeated young Sherbrooke, in surprise.
“Yes; is it not singular? We met as strangers on board the steamer, and, after all, we were coming to be inmates of the same house and did not know it.”