Stella Rosevelt — page 248: what you’re looking at

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

242 AN INTERESTING STORY. they knew nothing of my connection with Miss Winthrop, and accordingly did not communicate with her. _ I kept writing at intervals to my beloved, but never heard anything in return. At last, in despair, I wrote to the firm, telling them of my en- gagement, and asking them to notify her of my safety and give her my address in case she should have happened to lose the one I had given her. In teply, they said that the Winthrop family had gone abroad for an indefinite stay. Of course this was a great trial to me, and I was exceedingly impatient; but -my two years were over at last, and I turned my face toward England once more. I had succeeded in my business beyond my most sanguine expectations, and I looked forward to the immediate fulfillment of my hopes when I should return. ‘‘My first duty on reaching London was to acquaint my em- ployers with the result of my transactions, and my next thought was for Stella—my bright Star. Never for an instant had I doubted her fidelity; I believed she would be as true to me as I was to her, and my heart beat high with hope as I bounded up the familiar steps leading to her home and rang the bell. I asked for Miss Winthrop of the maid who answered my sum- mons, and she stared at me as if she thought me demented. ‘© *Miss Winthrop?’ she repeated. ‘There is no Miss Win- throp, sir; she was married and went away nearly a year ago.’ ‘ «*Married!’ The word was like a thunderbolt to me, and in an instant all the light went out of my life—my heart was paralyzed. I staggered from the place, and hid myself from every one fora week. Then I gained something of calmness and courage to go out among my friends and try to learn how it happened that Stella Winthrop had married. As I told you before, it was reported that every passenger on the vessel in which I sailed was lost. Those of the crew who were saved _ affirmed that such was the case, and my betrathes had believed that I was dead. 3 ‘‘She grieved herself almost to death over my loss, and her comicbooks (E(0)