Stella Rosevelt — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

86 RETRENCHMENT. Mr. Richards listened with quiet gravity to the tirade, and when she had concluded, he quietly remarked: ‘Well, Ellen, now that you are through, we'll say that it’s my turn. You might just as well make up your mind to be reasonable first as last, for mine is settled upon one thing— Star Gladsione has done the last day's work in this house that she ever will do/ She is to have her time entirely to herself until she graduates, a year hence. I shall offer to‘allow her to pur- sue music, and painting if she desires, during the long vaca- tion just at hand, giving her the best of masters which New. York affords, and spare no reasonable expense to make her the accomplished woman that I think she is capable of becoming. You promised all this to her father; he sent her to you with the belief that she would enjoy these advantages until she was fitted to become a teacher, and she shall have them. Now, one thing more—and you know that when I get aroused to this pitch I mean what I say—if I find that you or Jo are making her unhappy at any time, I'll put her into the most genteel boarding-house in the city, out of your reach. As for ‘domestic peace,’ about which you twit me, I believe I love my family better than the average of men, and am not in the habit of stirring up strife; so it will rest with you to keep the peace.” Mr. Richards did not wait for any rejoinder to this plain speaking, but left the room, and finding Star out upon the bal- cony leading from the dining-room, he told her that he had decided to let her take up music and painting during the vaca- tion if she wished. He felt amply repaid for his efforts on her behalf on seeing the look of joy which flashed over her face, while her voice thrilled with earnestness as she replied: | “Oh, sir, I ought to-be the happiest girl in Brooklyn to have so much of good come to me on this, my seventeenth birthday !” ‘‘Is this your birthday?” he asked, with a feeling of sac. Gomicbooks (E(e)