At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 121: what you’re looking at

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

110 AT A GIRL’S MERCY. “Oh,” the girl’s voice was almost cheerful, *‘no bad news at all, Jim, thank you. Father will not be able to come up to-night, that is all.”’ But in her heart she knew it was not quite all. “Do not worry, Nan,’’the message ran; “*l will be up all right to-morrow if all goes well, as there is no doubt it will. At present there is considerable disturbance here, and I do not like to leave, as there might be need of my presence. You are not to worry.” Not to worry. It was all put in a quiet manner that she need not worry, but she knew better than he guessed of the need there was to worry. This ‘“‘disturbance’’ of which he wrote so mildly she knew meant much more than that—meant, no doubt, the very riot they had been dreading. Of course her fa- ther would not come up to the quiet of the country, and leave the city in such peril. She knew her fa- ther too well for that, and was proud of knowing it. Besides, did not the government trust him to aid. it, and would he disappoint it because there happened to be peril in the way? She folded the message, and then tore it into fragments, placing them in her pocket. Not an atom of this would there be left to tell any tale to observing eyes. CHAPTER XI. A DAY AND A NIGHT. Nan walked up. the drive with a firm step anda face that gave no hint of the tumult within. Dinner had been waiting for the master’s arrival, and now she ordered it brought in, and sat there alone at the long table as though she were not alone and lonely ‘comicbooks (E(@ 5 m 4 ’ N = >) . *¢ “¢