With reverent fingers she broke the seals, a sob rising to her lips as she thought whose hand had fastened them there, and how tenderly it used to stroke her hair and call her “My bright little Star.”
The package contained several papers, and it took her more than an hour to examine them; but when she had read them through, there was a look of wonder in her large blue eyes and an almost blank expression on her white face.
CHAPTER XXIV.
WHAT NEXT?
Star Gladstone’s eighteenth birthday dawned as bright and charming as it was possible for a morning to be. At eight o’clock she and Mr. Rosevelt sat down to their breakfast, and a merry meal they made of it, for both appeared in the best of spirits, in spite of the sad and exciting events of the previous evening upon which they had conversed.
About nine a handsome carriage drove to their humble abode, and the driver rang and asked for the “gentleman and lady who were going for a drive in the park.”
Star looked surprised as she peered from the window and saw a pair of sleek, coal-black horses, with their silver-mounted harnesses, and the shining, velvet-lined coach.
“Uncle Jacob, did you order that carriage to come for us?” she asked.
“Yes, my dear,” he said, with an expression of satisfaction, as he, too, looked out and saw the team. “It is not often that I ride, as you well know, but when I do, I like to go in style. One ride a year in ‘ship-shape’ would satisfy me, where a half-dozen in some broken-down hack wouldn’t give me a bit of pleasure. Now, put on your hat, and tuck some roses in your belt, as you did yesterday, for this is to be a gala day, and I want you as fine as possible.”
Star laughed and tripped away to obey, coming back after a few moments with such a bright and happy face that Mr. Rosevelt thought she had never looked so lovely before.
All the morning they drove, four long, delightful hours-hours that were always a pleasant memory afterward to both of them; and many who saw the nicely dressed old gentleman, with the fair, bright, golden-haired girl beside him in their elegant carriage, thought what a green old age must be his, with so much to make life pleasant.