In Sight of St. Paul's — page 200: what you’re looking at

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

THE PANTHER’S BIRTHDAY. 195 ter, and scintillating with wit. To have seen her, a stranger would have said that she was the happiest woman in the world, one who did not know what care was. Upon a large table at one end of the room was piled a heterogeneous, glittering mass, the birthday gifts offered by the women to their acknowledged leader, the one who was pre-eminent among them all for beauty and intellect. Cynthia paused near the table and cast a half- contemptuous, half-gratified glance at its contents. She cared little for the worth of the gifts, which was not inconsiderable, and still less for the motive that prompted their bestowal, which she reckoned at its just worth. But the homage implied in the recognition of her claims as Queen of Bohemia, pleased her. She was not a woman to brook a rival. She faced the company, and raised one white hand, blazing with gems, to command silence. Gradually the voices and laughter died away. ‘(My dear friends,’’ said the Panther, in that pecu- liarly rich, sensuous voice of hers, as she glanced from one to the other with a brilliant smile, ‘‘really I hardly know how to thank you. Your presents are exquisite, your generosity is overwhelming. ”’ ‘Bah,’ laughed a girl with hair of such a vivid and pronounced yellow that it was clear to the most casual observer that the hue was due to art rather Gcomicbooks (E(0) m