"Merry, I--I don't know what--to say," stammered Bartley. "You've
completely upset me. It's the greatest honor----"

"There, there," smiled Frank, "don't splutter and mumble like that, old
fellow. You don't have to say a word. Just make a bow to the new-born
king."

Elsie was not one to gush, but, with clasped hands and flushed face, she
expressed her admiration for the child.

"You ought to feel proud, Bart," she said. "You ought to feel almost as
proud as Frank."

"Proud?" laughed Hodge. "Why, I--I---- My chest has expanded three
inches in the last thirty seconds. Proud? I'll bet my hat won't fit me!
He's a star, the little rascal!"

"He has ze star on his left shouldaire," said Lizette. "Shall I show it,
madame? Shall I show zem ze beautiful mark?"

"Please do," said Inza.

The nurse loosened the child's clothes and exposed the small, shapely
shoulder. There, at the very base of the arm, was a small, perfectly
formed pink, five-cornered star.

"I was right!" cried Hodge. "There's been a wonderful addition to the
universe! A new star has risen!"

"It's a birthmark," said Frank.

"Oh, isn't it very strange!" breathed Elsie. "It gives me a
superstitious feeling of awe. It seems to me that he is marked by fate
to be something grand and wonderful."

"It was so good of you, Elsie, to come to me when I wanted you,"
breathed Inza. "And Hodge--he traveled so far."

"Oh, everything is coming as smoothly as possible at the mines,"
declared Bart. "There's a first-class foreman at both the Queen Mystery
and the San Pablo. I could leave as well as not, and the old trains
couldn't run fast enough to bring me here after I received the wire from
Frank, saying that Elsie would be here. You bet I was glad to shake the
alkali dust out of my clothes."

"You've done great things for me at the mines, Bart," said Merry.
"Everything now seems to be going right for me everywhere in the world.
The Central Sonora Railroad is practically completed, and the San Pablo
is paying enormously. But these are not things to speak of on an
occasion like this."

After a few minutes Bart and Elsie retired, the nurse took the baby, and
Frank lingered a while longer at the side of his wife.

On returning to the library, Elsie stood at one of the large windows and
looked out upon the grounds and across the broad road toward the
handsome buildings of Farnham Hall. There was a strange expression of
mingled happiness and regret on her fair f