But she had not once imagined that she would dare question her right to do with her whatever she saw fit, and she was amazed as well as angry at the quiet dignity and independence with which she made these statements, and called her to an account of her duty to her.

61“I don’t know what your father intended, or what you expect,” she returned, in cold, precise tones. “I know that he wrote me you would soon be an orphan; that you had hardly a friend in the world, and he would leave you almost a pauper. He asked me to superintend your education, so that you would be able to earn your own living by and by. I intend to do so; and as you have nothing save your own hands to depend upon in the future, I am going to begin by making you useful at once. Did you suppose you were going to drop into the lap of luxury, and be reared in idleness?” she concluded, with biting sarcasm.

61

“No, marm,” Star returned, respectfully, yet not one whit abashed by the way Mrs. Richards had perverted the letter which her father had written. “I am willing to be useful—I wish to be useful—I should be unhappy to be idle; but I am very unwilling to be made a common drudge, with no time nor opportunity to pursue my education. You say I have nothing save my hands with which to earn my living. You are mistaken; I have brains, and I intend they shall serve that purpose.”

“It seems to me that you are making a saucy tongue serve its purpose pretty early in the day,” retorted Mrs. Richards, an angry red leaping into her face.

“I do not mean the least disrespect in what I have said, Mrs. Richards; but I cannot give up all the hopes and aspirations which my father has fostered all my life without making an effort to accomplish them. I am frank to confess,” Star continued, coloring, while her lips quivered slightly, “that from your reply to my father’s letter, I inferred that I should be received into your family as an equal, and that you would give me a mother’s care and counsel during the next three or four years of my life. Papa, I know, also understood it so, and died content, feeling that I should be well and kindly provided for.”

62Mrs. Richards felt very uncomfortable, for she knew that every word Star uttered was truth. She knew, too, that she was doing a mean and cowardly thing in making the bright and talented girl a servant; but she must have a house-maid. If she must curtail, she must do it in this way rather than in her own or Josephine’s wardrobe.

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