Stella Rosevelt — page 371: what you’re looking at

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

A CRUSHING BLOW. 365 company were sitting down to the morning meal, Minnie Shel- ton came dancing into the breakfast-room, her cheeks glowing, her eyes sparkling, and her lips parted in the brightest of smiles, while a paper fluttered in her small hands, ‘Such fun!” she exclaimed, merrily. ‘‘ Here isa descrip- tion of your ball, Lady Sherbrooke, in the Cheshire Gaze/fe— the mock marriage and all; and the best of the whole thing is, they have written up that event so that at a first glance any one would naturally suppose that a real wedding had occurred. Listen.” | She held up the paper and read: ‘¢MARRIED.—At the country residence of Lady Sherbrooke, on the 10th instant, Sir Archibald Sherbrooke and Lord Carrol, of Carrolton, to Miss Josephine Richards, formerly of New York, U.S. A., but recently reported to be the heiress presumptive to the Thornton estates in Devon- shire. The fair bride was lovely in her bridal robes, not the least notice- able of which was the exquisite point lace vail, which was also of great value.”’ ‘‘There—isn’t that too rich for anything?” the gay girl cried; ‘cand do look at the mock bride’s blushes!” pointing at Jo- sephine, whose face was crimson from varied emotions; ‘‘ what a pity it is that our handsome groom is not here to see them ; and one would almost imagine she was a real bride by her ccnfusion.” ‘“Then there follows a.long account of the ball, which ex- plains everything,” she added, laying down the paper; ‘‘but I'm so out of breath that I can’t read any more, and you'll have to peruse it for yourselves. ” There was an awkward silence fora moment after she had ceased speaking; then Lady Sherbrooke said, in tones of grave reproof : ‘“Minnie, my dear, what a wild child you are; but you must learn to be more thoughtful of the feelings of others.” ‘““Why, what have I done?” she asked, with great, round, innocent eyes, yet a guilty flush rose to her cheeks, =) (E€(0) (E(0) =)