The Craze of Christina — page 149: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Craze of Christina. 145 stood by the fireplace expecting Miss Pratt’s entrance, she decided exactly what she was going to say to her. There should be no mercy shown to the culprit, no tampering with sin, no half measures. She would accuse her of her iniquity boldly, and straightforwardly, and then she would wither her with the blight of her condemnation. And she would not relent, no, not if Miss Pratt were to go down upon her bended knees before her and to cling with both her hands to the skirts of her Sunday shot silk —no, not even then should one grain of pity’ enter into her heart towards the groveling sinner! She would just wrench away the Sun- day shot-silk out of her contaminating hands— Miss Ashley here rehearsed this action, as she pictured the harrowing scene to herself—and in accents of mingled sorrow and anger she would address her. “Unhappy girl,’’ she would begin —perhaps ‘‘unhappy creature’ would be bet- ter, more contempt about it—‘'it is not from me you should sue for mercy, jbut from the Almighty whose laws you have broken.”’ That was good, decidedly good, she thought. At this juncture she caught the sound of light footsteps upon the staircase, and oddly enough Miss Ashley suddenly felt a little nerv- ous as she heard it, Still it was with a very Gomichooksnco