At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 207: what you’re looking at

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

(196 | AT A GIRL’S MERCY. - face. ‘‘Pardon me for detaining vou so long, sir. I will read it at once, though there can be no answer ~ to any note from him.”’ 7 The scorn in her voice gave her listeners a hint of the anger she was capable of showing should there be cause, and proved her not the weak, tender woman the surgeon had called her in his pity. She unfolded the paper with careful fingers, and turned so that the light from the west should touch its rather indistinct characters, written, as it evi- dently had been, upon the knee of the writer. She read it through once, twice, thrice, the watchers marveling greatly at the changes upon her face. The stony coldness gave place to deeper scorn, softened instantly by a dawning hope and flushing with the gladness of some news that must cheer the sore heart of its reader. Surgeon McAllister touched her arm lightly, his face reflecting the gladness of her own. ‘“You have news,’’ he said, ‘‘worth having, Miss Nan? Jamso glad for you. There isn’t a man in the hospital yonder who would not give his life for. you, as. you know, and if itis good news, may we not know of it?”’ She lifted her eager face to his, the eyes afire with hope, and the.red mouth quivering with its glad- ness. : “You know of what we were talking just now, surgeon? Here has come mv answer without know- ing! This man who is to be shot to-morrow at dawn holds it in his. power to save my father if I will save — him. That is the only alternative. Here is his note, you can read it for yourself. He will save my fa- ther if I willsave him. You are to tell me now how - I can save him.”’’ She laughed in the sudden revulsion of feeling from the depth of despair to the glimmer of hope. — She held up the torn note with eager hands for her _ friend to read. She seemed unable to daunt with her new heart and her new hope. "eae In the terms of set courtesy they had used toward — each other that strange night when he entered her room like a shadow of evil, the note ran thus: Sa Comic