At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 206: what you’re looking at

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

AT A GIRL’S MERCY. 195 Or was it the turning of the great wheel of fortune that crushed so many in order to bear aloft the few? Or was itajust God that ruled the lives and the changes of the brave old world, and brought the straight from the crooked, and made all things proved? She smiled stonily as she thought of this, and faced the two standing before her waiting for the solving of this strange message tothe gentle . nurse in one of the war hospitals. At last she spoke, and her voice was as cold and set as her face. She even smiled again in that. strange fashion, and met with her steady blue eyes the waiting ones opposite. ‘“‘T need not go into details regarding this,’’ she said, quietly. ‘“‘It could not interest you. But this be certain of, the man you are to shoot down to-morrow morning as a spy and worse.is to have the justice meted to him that I have longed for. He robbed my home not only of its money value, but he laid my mother on a bed of illness from which she has not even yet recovered, and set more trouble upon my father and the whole house than I could tell you should I attempt it. The sentence is just, and lI would not lift my finger to save him were it in my power.”’ Sor Her voice was perfectly distinct and sweet, but with that strange iciness in it that was new to the man beside her. Her lifted face was as coldly proud - as the sternest of the old Courtlands could have boasted. She had drawn herself to her full height, and looked, in the fading light of the clear October evening, under the shadow of the trees, like a veri- table avenging angel, turning her pure face from the contact of such a totally depraved human soul as the one she was judging. “T agree with you there,” said the young officer, quietly, his face grave as the face of the lady be- . fore him. Her commanding presence, in spite of her tiny stature, allowed no other than the gravest respect. ‘“‘But you have not yet read the note that accompanies the box, madam.”’ er “T did not see it,’’ she said, quietly, lifting the | torn bit of dirty paper from inside the lid of the box, ~ no curiosity to learn its contents visible on her cold Gomicbooks.co =|