Familiar as she was with English customs, she could understand readily enough how he had become possessed of them, and it was so strange that she had never thought of it before.
In all her suffering upon learning, as she had supposed, that she had been betrayed, she had never endured pain like this; and, with her sight failing, her senses reeling, without sound or warning, she slipped from her chair to the floor, where she lay white and still in a lifeless heap at Jacob Rosevelt’s feet.
CHAPTER XL.
STELLA’S MENTAL AGONY.
“Bless my soul! what does this mean?” Jacob Rosevelt cried, as, looking up from his own letters, in which he had been deeply absorbed, he saw the beautiful girl lying so white and still at his feet.
He rushed to the bell and rang it violently, then back again to Star, whom he lifted tenderly in his arms and laid her upon a sofa, where he began chafing her cold hands vigorously.
Mrs. Blunt soon made her appearance in answer to her master’s summons, and looked as alarmed as himself to find the girl she loved so devotedly in such a critical state.
But Star’s insensibility did not last long.
All too soon she awoke to a consciousness of this new misery.
“What is the matter?” she asked, as, opening her eyes, she found her fond friends bending anxiously over her.
“You had a fainting turn, dear; but you are better now,” Mrs. Blunt returned, holding a glass of wine to her lips.