The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 224: what you’re looking at

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

THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. 221 young girl who appeared here some few days since, and geve the name of Mabel Morton.” *“Oh, you are Captain Morton, sir ?” “T am.” ‘‘She is an impostor, sir, and——” ‘‘ She is not,” interrupted Captain Morton; ‘‘ you know not of whom you speak; she is no imposter. Itis impossible that any- thing she could say or do should be otherwise than full of truth and excellence.” ‘‘Then, sir, you have come for her ?” ‘“‘T have. Half an hour has not elapsed since I first heard of her situation. | was from home and did not get the magis- trate’s letter, which accounts for its having met no answer as ‘And that circumstance, sir, of course, is the very thing which induced us to think that it was a made-up story. I beg your pardon for saying so, but we can only take things as we find them.” ‘¢‘ Certainly, certainly, and you will excuse me for showing so much warmth in the accusation, when I tell you that she is as dear to me as if she were a child of my own.” ‘‘No doubt of that, sir,” said the officer, and then he added to himself, ‘‘and that’s I suppose just what she is, if the truth were known.” ‘“‘Now where is she?” added Captain Morton—“ you can tell me where she is, although the magistrate is not here.” ‘‘That, indeed, sir, I cannot; she was placed in the care of an officer who has not yet come, and if he had he could not give her up to you without the magistrate’s sanction; because I know that, since it was found that no answer came to the letter sent to you, sir, and your name was not found in the army list, con- siderable suspicion was excited as to the truth of her story.” ‘‘My name is not in the army list, for I left the army years ago, although people will still politely call me Captain Morton, and from the force of habit I answer to the title, and indeed often call myself so. I presume then I must wait.” He was admitted into the office, where he waited for half an hour with an amount of impatience that was sufficient to make that lapse of time, short as it was, appear to him half a day. Then one of the officers came to him and said that the magis- trate had come and desired to see him in his private room. Captain Morton gladly obeyed the summons and was ushered, with Henry, into the presence of the police potentate. He, the magistrate, happened to be not only a clever man, but a gentlemanly one besides, and he received the Mortons with great courtesy. ‘*T cannot express to you, gentlemen,” he said, “ how glad T am that you have come forward and verified the story of the young lady who came before me. There was so much of the very essence of truthfulness about her manner that I was my- self strongly impressed in her favor, and I must own that it would have been a very great disappointment to me to hai comicbooks. com