“O Morning Star that smilest in the blue, O star, my morning dream hath proven true, Smile sweetly, thou! my love hath smiled on me.”
The lines were from “Gareth and Lynette.” The universe turned into song. It was getting altogether too much for Hinpoha to hold and that afternoon before the fire in the Open Door Lodge she revealed the progress of her romance to the other Winnebagos.
“Did you really give him a lock of your hair?” asked Gladys.
Hinpoha nodded. “Just a tiny curl. It doesn’t show much at all where I cut it out.”
“Collecting locks of hair doesn’t mean so terribly much,” said Katherine dryly. “I read about a boy once who begged a lock of hair from every girl he met and then had his sister embroider a sofa cushion with them. And another one used them for paint brushes.”
“Oh, but this is—different,” said Hinpoha with lofty pity. It had just dawned on her that Katherine was jealous. The same miracle that had dropped the scales from her eyes and revealed to her the fact that she was beautiful had also made her realize that Katherine was hopelessly plain.
“And then the verse he wrote afterward,” said Gladys, hastening to uphold Hinpoha. “That proves he is in earnest. And, anyway, it must be true. Didn’t all the fortunes say he was fair and his initials were D. K., and he was a great scholar, and would be president, and he would fall in love with Hinpoha’s hair?” And Katherine had to admit that whatsoever was written in the stars was written.
It mattered little to any of them, Hinpoha least of all, that Professor Knoblock had thus far said nothing openly upon the subject to Hinpoha.
“Isn’t his bashfulness adorable?” cooed Gladys. “He’s too shy to express himself face to face with her; he puts all his—his passion into writing.”
“Won’t those notes be lovely to read over together when you’re old?” said Sahwah, also stricken with a sentimental fit. But at the mere mention of such a thing Hinpoha fled with burning cheeks.
“Hello, Red,” said a cheerful voice in her ear, as she went dreaming down the street one day. “Where have you been keeping yourself for the last few weeks? You haven’t been down in the gym once.”
“Hello, Captain,” she said sweetly. (How young he was, she was thinking. How hopelessly kiddish beside the manly form of Professor Knoblock!)