“These are not nearly all my work,” he said, as she turned to look at some others; “they are the united work of an old artist, ‘our master,’ we call him, and of three of my friends—companion artists. We have been traveling together during the last ten months, and these pictures are some of the results of our pilgrimage. We are to return now in a couple of months, having spent our year in America both pleasantly and profitably, I trust. We had to make our headquarters somewhere, so we took this room as a sort of studio, and thus putting our work all together, we manage to make quite a respectable display.” “I am glad to have seen these pictures,” Star said, “and to know they are all the work of my countrymen. I wish, however, that _I_ was going back to England in a month or two,” she concluded, with a sigh, and a tear springing to her eye. “Do you?” her companion asked, eagerly. “Then you have not become weaned from your native land?” “No, indeed,” she said, earnestly. “I love it as dearly as ever, and if I live I shall go back some day to my home.” The young man bent toward her, an eager light in his eye; his lips parted as if he were about to speak, but Mr. Rosevelt, from the opposite side of the room, suddenly addressed some remark to him, and he was obliged to turn his attention to him. CHAPTER XIV. “LET ME DEPICT YOUR FUTURE.” Before Mr. Rosevelt and Star left him, Mr. Sherbrooke arranged a little pleasure trip to Coney Island for the following day. “I suppose, to-morrow being Saturday, you will have no school, Miss Gladstone,” he said, with an appealing look at her. “No; but I have a music lesson at nine,” she answered, doubtfully. “Could you not arrange to postpone it for once?” “I think not; the hour is engaged for me, and if I am not there I lose it. I should hardly like to do that, for I must make the most of my time this year.” Star said this last more to herself than in reply to him. She wanted to go—oh, so much!—and yet felt that she ought not to lose her lesson. “Well, an hour will not make much difference; you will be through by ten. It will not be too late for our excursion then, and that will give us the best part of the day. The sail will be delightful, and we will come home by moonlight. I speak for to-morrow, as I am to leave New York next week for awhile. I think you will go, Miss Star?” Mr. Sherbrooke concluded, questioningly. “I think I should enjoy the trip very much,” Mr. Rosevelt here interposed. “We’ll say ‘go,’ little girl, for we have had no holiday this summer. Yes, yes, Sherbrooke, thank you, we will accept your invitation, and Star will, I think, be willing to shorten her lesson a trifle, so that we shall be able to leave the city by half-past ten.” Yes, Star said she would do that; and the matter once decided, her face brightened and her eyes glowed with anticipation.