CHAPTER XXXI.A NOBLE RESOLUTION.

CHAPTER XXXI.A NOBLE RESOLUTION.

“You will remember that you have promised that I am still to be your friend; you will not avoid me and deny me the pleasure of your society because of what I have told you to-night?” Ralph pleaded, as he and Star drew near the entrance of the park, and knew that they would soon be rejoined by his sister and Mr. Rosevelt.

Star looked up at him with a grave face.

“You shall still be my friend. I will not avoid you if you will promise me that you will build no false hopes upon our friendship,” she said.

“How can I, when you tell me that there is no hope?” he asked, yet his voice trembled and was full of pain.

“May I continue to visit you when you return to New York?” he resumed, after a moment.

“Certainly, as one friend would visit another. You have made my stay here very pleasant, and I should be very sorry not to see you occasionally, while Grace has become almost like a sister to me.”

The young man thanked her with glistening eyes, and with a pang at his heart, as he thought how fondly he had hoped to make the two girls sisters, and how rudely his bright dream had been broken.

Then they passed out at the gate, where they found Mr. Rosevelt and Grace awaiting them.

Both saw at a glance that the interview had been a sorrowful one, and Miss Meredith was bitterly disappointed, for she had trusted that Ralph would be able to win the bright, beautiful girl for his wife.

Mr. Rosevelt surmised the cause of Star’s rejection of his suit, and sighed heavily, for the young man had been a favorite with him, and he would have been glad to give her to him.

But he would never try to influence her upon matters of such a delicate nature. She should always do exactly as she liked, and he knew that whoever her choice might be, it would never be an unworthy one.

They parted at the door of the hotel, Ralph bidding them good-by there, as he was to leave early in the morning, and Star knew by the way he wrung her hand that he was bidding farewell to hope as well.

When they reached their private parlor, she went directly to Mr. Rosevelt’s side and laid her hand upon his arm. Her face was flushed and sad, and he saw at once that she was very unhappy.

“What is it, my starling?” he asked, taking her hand in both of his, and speaking very tenderly.

“Uncle Jacob, I want to go home,” she said, wearily.

“Bless you, child! you shall go wherever you like,” he said, in surprise, and regarding her anxiously.

“I want to go where you and I can be by ourselves, and where I cannot do any mischief,” she said, with a sob of pain, and he knew beyond a doubt that Ralph Meredith had proposed and been rejected.

“Mischief! tut, tut, little one! What has made you so unhappy? Have you sent our young friend away in sorrow?”

Star nodded her head in reply; she could not find voice to answer him.

“He is a fine young man—he is aworthyyoung man,” Mr. Rosevelt said, gently.

“Oh, Iknowit, Uncle Jacob; but—my heart is dead, and it can never live again. Don’t blame me, please—youknow all about it, and you know that I could not help it and be true to him and myself,” she returned, in deep distress.

“You have done everything to make me happy,” she went on, a little more calmly, “and I thought I was beginning to be content and to enjoy life once more; but I cannot endure many scenes like what transpired to-night. Let us go home, where I can go to work again, and in my duties there forget, if possible, the misery of the past, which I have been made to live over again to-night.”

“We will leave Newport to-morrow, if you wish,” Mr. Rosevelt said, after a little thought; “but we will not go back to New York just yet—we will spend two or three weeks in sightseeing first. We will go to the White Mountains, from there to Montreal, then down the St. Lawrence and the lake to Niagara, and then home. That will give us a change and a nice little trip, besides a knowledge of something of the country. It is a long time since I went over that ground, and I think I should enjoy the journey, if the idea pleases you.”

He was not going to let her go back to New York and bury herself at home, where she would brood over her trouble and grow pale, thin, and hollow-eyed again; so he put it in the form of a favor to himself.

Star assented, thinking if the trip would give him pleasure she would not say “nay.” She only longed to get away from Newport; it would be a change, and a spirit of unrest had suddenly possessed her.

So it was arranged that they should leave the gay resort the next day but one.

“And, Uncle Jacob,” Star pleaded, as they were about to retire for the night, “let us not say much about it until to-morrow; let us get away as quietly as possible.”

“Very well; we will leave the announcement of our departure as long as we can, without appearing torunaway,” he answered, understanding her motive.

The next morning Star sought Miss Meredith, and confessed, with many tears, her rejection of her brother.

“I knew he would tell you,” she said, “but I cannot bear that you should blame me, Grace. I have not meant to wrong your brother, and I would give much to make him as happy and free from pain as he was before he knew me. Do not take your friendship from me on account of it, for I need it more than I ever did before.”

And Grace Meredith, not knowing all, kissed her tenderly, while she thought in her heart, “Perhaps I can help to win her for Ralph even yet, if I am patient.”

“Do not grieve,” she said, gently. “I know you have intended no wrong. You cannot help being beautiful and attractive; you cannot help it if peoplewilllove you. I do not blame you, dear, in the least, and I am sure I should not think of breaking our friendship, which has been so exceedingly pleasant. Ralph did tell me something of this last night, and of course I am sorry for him, for he is a very dear brother, and a noble fellow, too; but these affairs of the heart, you know,” she concluded, smiling and flushing, for she knew something about it herself, “are entirely beyond our control.”

“Thank you, Grace,” Star said, gratefully, although the trouble did not fade out of her azure eyes; “you have lightened my burden considerably. It would have been more than I could bear to make an enemy of you.”

“An enemy, you dear little goose!” Grace cried. “Do you suppose I would be so foolish as to wish to drive you to marry my brother if you could not love him? I love you both too well for that; and now don’t let me hear anything more about broken friendships, unless I do something to forfeit your respect,for it would cause me great sorrow to have anything mar our intimacy.”

Star drew a long breath of relief.

“You are very good to me,” she returned; “and now I have a little message to you from Uncle Jacob.”

“A message from Mr. Rosevelt! Do let me have it, then, for it must be something good,” Miss Meredith said, gayly. She longed to drive the clouds from her friend’s face.

“We are going to leave Newport.”

“Going to leave Newport! When?”

“To-morrow.”

“If that is your message, it is anything but a welcome one,” Miss Meredith said, looking very much disturbed.

“Oh, but it isn’t,” Star replied; “I was to tell you of our plans. We are going from here to the White Mountains, from there to Montreal, down the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario to Niagara, and then home; and Uncle Jacob commissioned me to ask you to be our guest during the trip. Will you go, Grace?”

Miss Meredith looked thoughtful.

It would be a sudden start, but the trip offered great attraction, to say nothing of the pleasure she would experience in Star’s and Mr. Rosevelt’s society.

Ralph was gone, and if these friends should go also, she would be very lonely, notwithstanding she had many acquaintances here.

“Iwantyou, Grace;pleasedo not refuse,” Star pleaded, as she hesitated, and she assented without further demur.

Accordingly, the next day they all left Newport, and many blank faces and wistful eyes watched their departure, for they had formed a nucleus around which a brilliant circle had collected, and they would be sadly missed.

The trip occupied three weeks, and proved a most delightful one also.

Star was a first-rate traveler, Miss Meredith a most pleasant companion, and they all regained much of their accustomed spirits before it was over, and Mr. Rosevelt congratulated himself that he had planned most wisely.

“I think it is charming to travel in this way,” Star said, one day while they were at Niagara; “just a few of us who enjoy each other, stopping when we choose, going on when we like, and having everything our own way. I think there is nothing so pleasant as traveling.”

“How would you like to go to California and the Yosemite Valley?” Mr. Rosevelt asked.

“IthinkI should like it,” she answered, enthusiastically.

“Will you go this fall?”

“Oh, Uncle Jacob, aren’t you tired? Do you not need to go home and rest after so much dissipation?” the young girl asked, but her eyes sparkled and her cheeks flushed with anticipation.

“Do you call it dissipation to travel?” he asked, smiling at her eagerness. “I enjoy it almost more than anything else.”

“‘Almostmore,’” Star repeated, quickly. “Whatwouldyou enjoy more?”

“To seeyouperfectly happy,” he replied, tenderly; “and,” he added, “I believe that traveling does you fully as much good as anything else. We will go home and rest a week, then we will start for the far West. What do you say to my plan?”

Miss Meredith’s face lighted.

“Say ‘yes’ to it, by all means, Star,” she said, “and—I will go with you, if you will have me.”

“Ifwe will have you,” Star returned, with dancing eyes. “Why, I think it would be the very nicest thing in all the world—we three, with Mrs. Blunt to look after us, do have such delightful, cozy times.”

“I have been wishing for just such an opportunity for a longtime,” Grace said, “and if you will take me along with you, I should esteem it a great favor.”

“I think with Star, that it would be the best arrangement in the world; and, Miss Meredith, we shall consider you a member of our party,” Mr. Rosevelt said, with a bow and a smile to that young lady.

Star looked up into the old gentleman’s face.

“Uncle Jacob, howgoodyou are to me!” she said; and her red lips trembled over the words, for she knew that he had planned all this expressly for her sake, to keep her thoughts pleasantly employed and from brooding over the past.

“My dear, do I not owe my life and all that I am at present enjoying to you?” he asked, gravely. “Remember,” he added, “that when you are happy I am happy also, andvice versa; whatever cloud darkens your sky is sure to bring sorrow to me also; so let us make the most of our lives while we have them.”

Star looked up brightly after Mr. Rosevelt’s last remark, and glancing archly from him to Miss Meredith, said:

“Well, if so much depends upon my decision—if I hold the fate of two such important people in my hands, I shall be obliged to say, we will go to California and be happy. But,” she added, laughing, “I warn you both beforehand that I shall not be easily satiated; I shall want to go everywhere and see everything. Yes; we will go home and rest a week, then turn our faces toward the ‘golden gate,’ and—‘westward, ho!’”

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