Another blissful half hour slipped unheeded by, and then he said:
“Come, dear; people will begin to wonder what has become of us, and besides, I want to introduce you to my mother and sister.”
He arose as he spoke, and drew her toward the conservatory, through which they must pass in order to regain the drawing-room.
“I have already seen your sister,” Star answered, with a bright smile, “and I began to love her immediately, and to mourn what I had lost in not having her for my sister, too.”
“She is a dear girl, but I begin to think we shall not keep her with us very much longer,” Archie returned, with a regretful sigh.
“I thought so, too, when Mr. Meredith introduced her to me to-night,” Star said, archly.
“Ah! then you read the signs of the times,” he answered, smiling. “But here comes my mother, and she is looking for me, I know, by the expression of her face.”
They were just entering the drawing-room as he spoke, and Lady Sherbrooke was coming toward them, looking right and left for her son.
Her handsome face lighted as she saw him, and she quickened her steps, while she wondered at that new light in his eyes, at the bright and youthful expression on his face.
“Mother,” Archibald Sherbrooke said, and there was a proud ring in his tone, “I want to introduce to you Miss Gladstone, a friend whom I met while I was in America.”