Stella Rosevelt — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

! 46 : MRS. RICHARDS. perity ; and now this woman—this cousin to her mother—this human being, whom she knew her mother once saved from a dreadful death—had received her, after her long and perilous voyage, her suffering and hardships, in this unfeeling, indif- ferent way. She had not even taken her hand at greeting; she had looked her over and inspected her with a critical stare, as if she were some beast of burden that she was buying to toil for her. She had not offered her the commonest hospitalities of her house, or given her one kind word or look. She had instead simply, and in the coolest manner possible, commented on her marvelous escape from death, and then z”- sulted her by speaking disparagingly of her parents; and now she had dismissed her from her presence as if she had been a menial, ordered fwo print dresses made for her, without a thought apparently of other clothing so necessary to her after being so long without a change of any kind. She took a step forward, her slight form drawn proudly erect, the hot, indignant blood surging over neck, face, and brow, and was about to demand the meaning of this strange treatment, when Mrs. Richards, seeing her intentions, said, haughtily, and in a tone not to be mistaken: “os ‘‘T told you that you could go, Stella. Did you under- stand me ?” With a heaving bosom and flashing eyes, Star bowed with a sort of stately grace, turned and followed Mrs. Blunt from the room with the step of a queen; but when the door was shut behind them, she stopped and confronted that good though eccentric woman with an aspect which, to say the least, aston- ished her. (ele) Gomichbooks