Under the clear starlight she saw them in each other’s arms. There was one very bright star, that seemed to hang lower in the sky than winter stars are wont to hang. Surely it was the star of love, though doubtless no astronomer had ever named it so. She did not know exactly where she was going when she left them there, but she was very happy. And then halfway down the stairs she sat down because her happiness was overflowing from her eyes in tears and she couldn’t see, and suddenly she felt very tired. It was there that Terry, ascending, found her. “I say—what’s wrong? You’re crying. I saw you with Pendragon—has he done anything to hurt you? I’ll—” “No-it’s not that—I’m crying because I’m so happy—” “Oh!” He looked at her half-disappointed, half-relieved and wholly bewildered. “It’s Gloria and Pendragon—they’ve made up.” She reverted to the vernacular of childhood. “I’m so happy because they’re happy.” “But I thought—I thought you cared for Pendragon,” stumbled Terry. “That’s funny—what made you think that? I do like him but mostly for Gloria’s sake.” “Look here,” said Terry. “If you don’t love Pendragon who do you love?” She was smiling through her tears now. “Is it absolutely necessary that I should love some one? You know I always thought that you loved Gloria. If you don’t love Gloria, whom do you love?” For a moment he looked down into her upturned face, struggling against the provocation of her lips. “I love the most charming, youngest, most mature, most unselfish, most winsome—oh, there aren’t adjectives enough. Who do you love?” “The nicest—the very nicest and cleverest man in the world,” she answered demurely. “Nicest—I’m not quite sure that I like that adjective applied to a man.” “I can’t help it—we can’t all have playwright’s vocabularies, you know. I could draw him better.” He bent over very near to her while her clever fingers made rapid strokes. When it was finished she looked up at him with shy daring in her eyes. “Is my nose really like that?” he asked. “How did you guess who it was meant for?” she teased, and turned her head quickly, because she was not quite sure even now that she was ready for that wonderful first kiss. “I’ve always wanted to kiss you just below that little curl anyway,” whispered Terry. “And now your lips, please.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES 1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Stars Incline, by Jeanne Judson