Page:Conflict (1927).pdf/125

 Sheilah said brightly, 'Hello, Felix.'

Felix murmured, 'I'd about given you up.'

He was leaning against his desk for support, staring at Sheilah with the sunset shining on her. She had on a little round black velvet hat that totally eclipsed her crown of shining hair except for a fluff of gold that escaped from beneath the close brim, like a corona. Her eyes were like two stars shining in the twilight of the room.

This wasn't the first time Felix had seen Sheilah since she had arrived in the college town. He had been lurking behind a pile of trunks at the station when she first stepped off the train. On the night of the Prom itself he had watched her for an hour through one of the windows. Her matured loveliness had frightened him at first. Her radiance and self-confidence and popularity had made her seem remote and inaccessible. He had wished, for a miserable hour or so after the Prom, that he had never asked this stranger to come and see his room. But now, when she stood before him alone, and he heard her voice, he discovered she hadn't really changed at all. She came up to him, laughing a little nervously, for he stared so.

'Well, aren't you going to say you're glad to see me?'

'I guess I don't need to.'

'And aren't you going to ask me to sit down?