Michael lingered for a moment by the door, watching her as she went
with the matron, her sweet face wreathed in smiles, the matron’s thin
arm around her and a new and gentle look upon her severe countenance;
watched until they mounted the stairs out of sight; then he went out of
doors.
Taking off his cap he stood reverently looking up at the star,
communing with it perhaps about the human Starr that had come back to
him out of the shadows of the past.
And she was a star. No one who saw her but acknowledged it. He
marvelled as he recalled the change wrought in the face of the matron
and because of her gentleness to the little girl forgave her all that
she had not been to his motherless boyhood.
Starr came down to dinner in a few minutes radiant in a little rosy
frock of soft Eastern silk, girdled with a fringed scarf of the same
and a knot of coral velvet in her hair. From the string of pearls about
her white neck to the dainty point of her slipper she was exquisite and
Michael watched her with open admiration; whereat the long lashes
drooped shyly over the girl’s rosy cheeks and she was mightily pleased.
She sat at her father’s side to the right of the president, with
Michael across the table. Well he bore the scrutiny of Endicott’s keen
eyes which through all the conversation kept searching the intelligent
face of the boy.
The evening passed like a dream, and Michael lay awake again that night
thinking of all the pleasure in anticipation for the next day. At last,
at last he had some people who in a way he might call his own. They had
cared to come and see him after all the years! His heart swelled with
joy and gratitude.
The guests attended chapel exercises with the students the next
morning, and Michael saw with pride the eyes of his companions turn
toward the beautiful young girl, and look at him almost with envy. The
color mounted into his strong young face, but he sat quietly in his
place and no one would have guessed to look at him, the tumult that was
running riot in his veins. He felt it was the very happiest day of his
life.
After chapel the guests were shown about the college buildings and
campus. The president and Endicott walked ahead, Michael behind with
Starr, answering her interested questions.
They had been through all the classrooms, the gymnasium, the dining
hall, servants’ quarters and dormitories. They had visited the athletic
ground, the tennis courts, and gone down by the little lake, where
Michael had taken them out for a short row. Returning they were met by
one of the professors who suggested their going to hear some of the
classes recite, and as Mr. Endicott seemed interested they turned their
steps toward the recitation hall.
“I think,” said Starr as they walked slowly across the campus together,
“that you must be a very brave boy. To think of you saving my life that
way when you were just a little fellow!”
She looked up, her pretty face full of childish feeling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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