and talk about print dresses, and assigning me duties as if I were a mere servant?” Mrs. Blunt’s breath was fairly taken away by these swift, indignant sentences and questions, and she could only gaze at the young girl in speechless surprise for a few moments. Star was wondrously beautiful then, in spite of her soiled and disordered attire, with her flashing eyes, her blazing cheeks, her delicate, dilating nostrils, her scornful, curling lips, and proudly poised head. “What does it mean, I say?” repeated Star, impatient at the woman’s silence. Mrs. Blunt found her tongue at last. “Mercy on us, child!” she ejaculated, her astonishment extending to her tones. “You’ve a temper of your own, or I’m much mistaken; and you’ll need it, too, if you’re going to live in this house.” Then she added, more thoughtfully: “I’m afraid, miss, you’ve come over here with a wrong impression—I really am.” “What do you mean?” Star asked. “How have I come with a wrong impression?” “What did you expect when you started to come to America to live with Mrs. Richards?” the housekeeper asked, evading her questions by putting another. 48“I expected that my mother’s cousin, who papa said, was very wealthy, and able to take care of me, and had promised him to do so, would give me a place in her home as a member of her family, and give me an opportunity to perfect my education, so that I might be able, by and by, to take care of myself. This was what my father understood her promise to me to mean—this was what I expected. But from the reception she has given me—cold and heartless—and as I would not have received the meanest beggar who came to my door—from disrespectful and insulting remarks about my parents, and what she said about my ‘duties’, I am afraid that my position here will not be a pleasant one.” 48 Mrs. Blunt’s homely face was full of pity as she listened to what Star said. “Poor child,” she began, “you have expected entirely too much, and perhaps it would be a mercy to tell you at once how mistaken you are if you think you are going to find a pleasant home and a chance to get much of an education here. When madam got your father’s letter and knew that you
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