Stella Rosevelt — page 377: what you’re looking at

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

STELLA’S MENTAL AGONY. 371 CHAPTER XL. STELLA’S MENTAL AGONY. ‘‘Bless my soul! what does this mean?” Jacob Rosevelt cried, as, looking up from his own letters, in which he had been deeply absorbed, he saw the beautiful girl lying so white and still at his feet. He rushed to the bell and rang it violently, thie -back again to Star, whom he lifted tenderly in his arms and laid her upon a sofa, where he began chafing her cold hands vigorously. Mrs. Blunt soon made her appearance in answer to her mas- ters summons, and looked as alarmed as himself to find the girl she loved so devotedly in such a critical state. But Star’s insensibility did not last long. All too soon she awoke to a consciousness of this new misery. ‘‘What is the matter?” she asked, as, opening her eyes, she found her fond friends bending anxiously over her. ‘“You had a fainting turn, dear; but you are better now,” Mrs. Blunt returned, holding a glass of wine to her lips. Star passed her hand across her forehead and sighed heavily, as she began slowly to gather up the broken threads of memory again, ‘What was it, Starling?” Mr. Rosevelt questioned, with a troubled look at her white face; ‘‘did you have bad news in your letters?” ‘‘No, there were no ill-tidings in my letters,” she answered, avoiding his eye, and wishing to conceal, if possible, the cause of her swoon from him. ‘‘I read them through,” she added, Gomilechboo <S (EO)