At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

50 AT A GIRLD’S MERCY. cause you shut it from us, just as you know nothing about the frigid zone because of the ice-barred pas- sage. You men should be just to us as well as gener- ous.”’ “Phew!” exclaimed the squire, with renewed ani- mation at this totally unexpected development of his daughter’s character. ‘‘What’s this, what’s this that I hear! Miss Courtland, the pretty belle, giving us a lecture on our business life and our manners. Heigho, but Travers should hear that, Helen. And I’m sure Mr. Blake would learn something to his advantage from such an eloquent discourse. ”’ Well,’ Nan maintained, stoutly, though a flush crept to her cheeks at mention of Captain Travers, “vou may laugh at me all you wish, papa, it’s the truth, and you know it—every single word. Nell knows it, too, though she would never show her knowledge save by going down in camp and nurs- ing the wounded and dying, with a patience and a sweetness beyond the power of any man who laughs at the weakness of women. ‘Frailty’ forsooth! What would men do without us, I’d like to know?”’ “Don’t call up such a horrible condition,” her fa- ther rejoined, laughing in his quiet, hearty way. Then a sudden remembrance of the woman up stairs —the dearest woman in the world to him during the years of their married life, and they had been many —who, at any moment, nay, at that very moment, might be taken from him, and his mood changed, and he was again very still behind the columns of the paper. ‘*Poor papa!’’ Nan whispered, lifting her wet eyes to her friend, as they stood together in the hall be- fore parting, and the woman:who had accompanied Helen was donning her hatin the servants’ hall. Gomicbooks.co mi