Tall and straight and handsome he stood upon the platform as the train
rushed into the town, his cheeks glowing from excitement, his eyes
bright with anticipation, his cap in his hand, and the last rays of the
setting sun glowing in his golden hair, giving a touch like a halo
round his head. When Endicott saw him he exclaimed mentally over his
strength and manly beauty, and more than one weary tourist leaned from
the open car window and gazed, for there was ever something strange and
strong and compelling about Michael that reminded one of the beauty of
an angel.
Chapter V
Michael met Mr. Endicott unembarrassed. His early life in New York had
given him a self-poise that nothing seemed to disturb; but when the
father turned to introduce his young daughter, the boy caught his
breath and gazed at her with deepening color, and intense delight.
She was here then, his Starr! She had come to see him, and she looked
just as he would have her look. He had not realized before that she
would be grown up, but of course she would, and the change in her was
not so great as to shock his memory. The clear white of her skin with
its fresh coloring was the same. New York life had not made it sallow.
The roses were in her cheeks as much as when she was a little child.
Her eyes were the same, dark and merry and looked at him straightly,
unabashed, with the ease of a girl trained by a society mother. The
dark curls were there, only longer, hanging to the slender waist and
crowned with a fine wide Panama hat. She gave him a little gloved hand
and said: “I’m afraid I don’t remember you very well, but daddy has
been telling me about you and I’m very glad to see you.”
She was only a little over twelve, but she spoke with ease and
simplicity, and for the first time in his life Michael felt conscious
of himself. She was so perfect, so lovely, so finished in every
expression and movement. She looked at him intelligently, politely
curious, and no longer with the baby eyes that wondered at nothing. He
himself could not help wondering what she must think of him, and for a
few minutes he grew shy before her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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