He did not wait to hear her thanks, but turned abruptly away, feeling very tenderly toward this sweet young maiden, who had lived such an isolated, neglected life in the midst of that household of luxury.
Star looked after him with a glorified face.
“Oh, what a birthday!” she said, as she went up stairs and shut herself into her room.
She folded that precious bill—more money than she had ever possessed before at one time—for “pretty things,” and laid it safely away in a drawer; then she took up a handsomely bound book that lay on her table.
“A red letter day!” she murmured. “My success—my promotion—his kindness, and, above all, this beautiful book—it all seems to be too lovely to be real.”
She raised the volume and softly touched her lips to it; then bowing her golden head, her heart overcharged with its unaccustomed weight of happiness, found relief in a shower of tears.
“The book” was the package, devoid of its wrapper, which the strange gentleman had given her in the presence of Mr. Richards.
The next morning’s papers contained an interesting account of the commencement exercises of —— Seminary, together with a copy in full of Miss Stella Gladstone’s essay, and speaking in very flattering terms of its excellence as a literary production.
Another important event occurred that morning.