At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 167: what you’re looking at

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

156 AT A GIRLI’S MERCY. the blue eyes were wet, and the smiling mouth was trembling, ‘‘that I am sure I shall never do you dis- credit by my cowardice, for very shame of so doing, - though I am afraid many times I shall be tempted to run when the worst shall come. Itis so hard to face the cruel side of life and to see suffering that one cannot help.’’ And the squire stooped to kiss the smooth brow, brushing back the truant yellow curls with tender hand, as he said tenderly, the glimmer of his old smile on his lips: “My Nan will ever wear her brave spirit through whatever life shall bring her. I have no fear. Only may the good Lord give her at such times as sweet and tender a comforter as she has been to me.”’ And Nan’s heart was warm with the memory of these words as she bent above the suffering bed of one of her soldier patients many a time, and she could never forget either the words or the voice that uttered them, should she have heavier burdens of suffering to bear than now were on her tender shoul- ders. But when Howard Blake again strode down the slope of clover toward the gate in the Hall garden, he found no Nan at the old summer-house, with her lap full of the flowers and the sunshine and bird songs around her, but found instead the brave soul that had carried the girl through many trials even in the heart of her home, had won her to the field where the suffering lay, doing what she could to relieve the world’s sorrows, as she must do, being the woman she was, and he comprehended that even such a frail thing as a woman’s hand is sometimes able to thwart the plans of a scheming man, and set his threats at defiance. For he had never dreamed of E€omicbooks.com —