At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 230: what you’re looking at

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

AT A GIRL’S MERCY. 219 eager group—Nan and Charlie, and Helen and Ned, with their mother and sister—waiting for the sound of wheels that would herald the approach of the so long-missed boy from the old Hall. And Nan, her hand in her lover’s, whispered now and then a word that told of the sad watching of hers on those steps, so long ago the memory even was softened of the man whose harsh hand would have crushed out all the sweetness of life for the sake of his revenge, who would have cheated her as to the death of her lover in the hope of taking his place—who would have struck out with death the life of her father in order to gaina firmer hold upon her—but whom, now touched by the hand of death himself, she could think of with kindness anda trace of sadness for the bitterness that had marred a life God meant should be noble. And then the scented silence of the evening was broken by the rumble of wheels, and the sparrows in the tall elms each side the gateway arose in a flock, in their excitement, crying—and the girl laughed to remember—the cheery, ‘‘cheer, cheer, © cheer,’ she had listened to with such a different heart in the days when the world held so much of sadness she could gain cheer even from the calling of the birds. And the carriage turned in at the gateway, and the group were on the steps, and the old Hall, even to the garden, was ringing with the glad voices that had brought sorrow but not death to its in- mates. While out in the garden the carnations and the Canterbury bells were swinging softly in the gathering darkness, lulled to sleep with the sound of laughter and soft voices and happy hearts breaking in song now and then through the rooms where sad- ness had rested so long, the lifting of the vail had left the hearts light with new hope and new life and the promise of the peace that would come upon the ands And even in the midst of this gladness the girl, through whose hands the glad news had come to the aching hearts there, was not forgotten, and in her home farther toward the east were tokens of their EComicbooks.