Stella Rosevelt — page 241: what you’re looking at

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

~ AN INTERESTING STORY. 235 When she was shown into his office and made known her errand there, he looked at her in wonder, astonished at the temerity of one so young and simple as she appeared to be in_ bringing her manuscript to him and asking him to publish it. But the deferential yet winning way in which she made her appeal, and the influence of her loveliness, won a reluctant promise on his part ‘‘to look it over.” He did so, opening the neatly folded package with an amused smile, and expecting after a casual glance at its contents to be nauseated with some sickly sentimental love-story. But he became strangely interested in it at once, and read on and on, now with smiles, then melting into tears, until it was finished, and pronounced a ‘‘little gem;” while he was convinced that a sensitive, refined, and talented girl had thrown her heart, and perhaps something of her own life, into those toucning pages. He sent a note to her at once, asking her to come and see him again, and when she obeyed the summons, he questioned her about herself, how she had come to write her book, and what incidents had suggested It. She told him that the scene of her little romance was laid in Derbyshire, England, and that many of the incidents were con- nected with her childhood; and the tears sprang to his eyes as she related to him something of the misfortune which overtook her in the death of her mother, the subsequent loss of her father, and how she was obliged to come, a stranger, to this country; of the tempestuous voyage across the ocean, with its thrilling events, and that as soon as she could complete her education she intended to become a teacher. He was greatly interested in her, and told her that he should publish her book, and if the first edition sold well, she should have a thousand dollars, and a certain per cent. on all other editions. It seemed like a fortune to Star, who had not thought of Gomicbooks.Go