Mr. Richards listened with quiet gravity to the tirade, and when she had concluded, he quietly remarked:
“Well, Ellen, now that you are through, we’ll say that it’s my turn. You might just as well make up your mind to be reasonable first as last, for mine is settled upon one thing—Star Gladstone has done the last day’s work in this house that she ever will do! She is to have her time entirely to herself until she graduates, a year hence. I shall offer to allow her to pursue music, and painting if she desires, during the long vacation just at hand, giving her the best of masters which New York affords, and spare no reasonable expense to make her the accomplished woman that I think she is capable of becoming. You promised all this to her father; he sent her to you with the belief that she would enjoy these advantages until she was fitted to become a teacher, and she shall have them. Now, one thing more—and you know that when I get aroused to this pitch I mean what I say—if I find that you or Jo are making her unhappy at any time, I’ll put her into the most genteel boarding-house in the city, out of your reach. As for ‘domestic peace,’ about which you twit me, I believe I love my family better than the average of men, and am not in the habit of stirring up strife; so it will rest with you to keep the peace.”
Mr. Richards did not wait for any rejoinder to this plain speaking, but left the room, and finding Star out upon the balcony leading from the dining-room, he told her that he had decided to let her take up music and painting during the vacation if she wished.
He felt amply repaid for his efforts on her behalf on seeing the look of joy which flashed over her face, while her voice thrilled with earnestness as she replied:
“Oh, sir, I ought to be the happiest girl in Brooklyn to have so much of good come to me on this, my seventeenth birthday!”
“Is this your birthday?” he asked, with a feeling of selfreproach that it should have come and nearly gone with no token of remembrance, while he glanced over her meager attire and marked the absence of all jewelry or trinkets such as young girls love, for she wore nothing of the kind save a dainty cameo head fastened to the knot of ribbon at her throat.
“Yes, sir; and it is one which I shall always remember with great pleasure,” she said, with a tremulous smile that he did not then understand. “I thank you,” she added, “for allowing me to go on with my music, and I will be very faithful in improving my opportunity; but—I think, if you please, I will not mind about the painting at present. I am very fond of it, but—I——”
“Very well; do as you choose,” he said, as he saw she was somewhat embarrassed. “You are to have all the advantages you desire during the next year, and you are to do no more work of any kind in this house——”
“Oh, but I like to work about the house,” she began, eagerly; but he stopped her authoritatively.
“No; I will not have it. You need all the time you can get for study and practice. Maggie Flynn, or some other Maggie, shall come back as chamber and waiting-maid, and you are to remember it is my command that you do nothing of the kind. If you have any spare time, use it in making the pretty things which young ladies of your age like so much. Here is something to begin upon, and I will allow you the same amount every month;” and he tucked a bill of no mean denomination into her hand as he concluded.