Stella Rosevelt — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

136 “LET ME DEPICT YOUR FUTURE.’ Yes, Star said she would do that; and the matter once decided, her face brightened and her eyes glowed with an- ticipation, She had not had a holiday that summer, as Mr. Rosevelt said; indeed, no one had planned a day’s pleasure for her before since she came to America, and the thought of this little excursion was very gratifying to her. A whole day spent in the company of Archibald Sherbrooke would be a ‘‘red letter day” to her; and so, with thrilling pulses and bounding heart, she took leave of him and went away with Mr. Rosevelt, to talk about it, to dream about it, and, girl-like, to plan how to make herself as charming as possible for the occasion, As for Archibald Sherbrooke himself, he sat down after his guests had departed, and allowed his thoughts to have their own way. ‘(She is as lovely as a dream,” he murmured, watching her from the window as she tripped lightly along by Mr, Rosevelt’s side. ‘‘I did not think when I started for America that I was coming to meet my fate; but so it proves. Unless I can win Star Gladstone's love, the remainder of my life will not centain much that will be worth living for. She is as pure asa lily, beautiful as a veritable star; and yet there is something that I cannot quite understand about her; there is a reserve, an occa- sional sadness, that seems strange in one so young, while once in awhile she lets fall a word which makes me fear her life is not as bright as it should be. ‘There is something of a mys- tery, too, about Mr. Rosevelt. How sort of ‘seedy’ and nevlected he looked to-day, and I judged, when I met him before, that he was a man of abundant means, and without a care, pecuniarily. ‘“How. startled my fair one looked when I showed her my. picture,” he went on, with a luminous smile; .‘‘and I really believe that she realized something of the tenderness that I have put into it.” Gomicbooks (e(e)