Her Faithful Knight — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

Dorothy Visits Her Aunt. 81 on the very day he died, telling him not to hope for any help from you for himself or for us? I believe that letter, coming as it did just when he was half mad with worry over his losses and his mistakes——” She stopped abruptly. Mrs. Knight stood before her, her dark eyes ablaze with anger. “So!” she exclaimed, “you are come here to-day, my dutiful niece, to tell me that I killed your father ?—that I am a murderess ?” “T came to say nothing of the kind,” rang from Doro- thy, half-distracted. ‘I came to ask for help for my sis- ter, who is half-starved and dying!” The words “half-starved” impressed Mrs. Knight more strongly than any others Dorothy could have chosen. “Not half-starved!” she exclaimed, in a low, shocked voice; “do not say that, my niece!” “Yes, itis true! Half-starved and dying on Richmond Bridge only two nights ago. Desperately ill, and de- serted by her husband. Think of it, Aunt Dorothea. I would never have come to you for help for myself. I am quite well, and I can work. But the doctor has seen Phyllis to-day, and he tells me that she will be very, very ill for many weeks yet; that her life and her reason are both in danger, and that she must have good wine and soups, and nourishing food, and expensive medicines, and a trained nurse to be with her night and day. And I— I haven’t three pounds in the world!” She broke down at last, and, covering her face with her hands, wept bitterly. Mrs. Knight looked at her, fidgeted about the room, and then, coming up behind her, shook her roughly but not unkindly by the shoulders. “Do not cry—do not cry!” she said. “Of course I will help you. I will send you some good wine and good EOmMmIGcdoo S (E@)