Star’s wardrobe and pretty things were all ready at last, and Mr. Rosevelt, who had taken a strange interest in it, for a bachelor, was perfectly satisfied.
He had made her elegant presents in the way of jewelry and laces, until she felt almost overwhelmed.
“Diamonds!” she had exclaimed, her face flushing all over with delight, when, the day before they were to leave, he came into her sitting-room and laid a case in her lap, telling her to open it. He had already purchased her several other sets, but this was the crowning gift of all.
She had thought when he had given her some beautiful point-laces, that if she only had some diamonds to go with them she should like it; they were the two things for which she had an especial passion—rich laces and those pellucid stones, like drops of dew which send back the light in gorgeous tints. She would have been content with just a pair of ear-pendants and a solitaire ring—she was content, indeed, without them, but she thought how nicely they would go with her laces; but there, dazzling her eyes upon their velvet bed, were ear-pendants, a cross attached to a beautiful chain, a solitaire ring, and a star for her hair.
“Oh, Uncle Jacob,” she faltered, “I am afraid you are spending too much money for me.”
“Don’t you like them?” he questioned, although her glowing face should have told him all he wished to know.
“Like them? They are perfectly lovely; and I do particularly love diamonds.”
“Then don’t trouble your pretty head about the money. You know I have been denied all my life the pleasure of spending it for either wife or child, and now that I have found some one who appreciates and is worthy of it, let me get all the comfort I can in this way. You forget,” he continued, with a smile, “that there are two years’ income to be disposed of in some way, and I am only making up lost time. I like to go about the world, and I like to go in style, as I told you once before, and so my heiress must help me keep up appearances.”
“Are you sure you are doing just right, Uncle Jacob, in giving me all your money?” Star asked, hesitatingly, after a few minutes of thoughtful silence, while she watched the sunlight play among her new treasures.
“To whom should I give it, I should like to know?” he questioned, bluntly.