At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

18 AT A GIRL’'S MERCY. as, reeling for a moment where she stood, she sud- denly fell insensible to the floor. CHAPTER II. NAN, How long she was unconscious she never knew, but presently she opened her eyes and sat up, run- ning her fingers through her hair in bewilderment. Nothing was clear to her at first, but by and by, though her head was throbbing furiously, and the room reeling and swimming before her eyes, all that had passed came back with renewed vividness, and then the horror of the thought seemed to turn her brain, and she began to sink with the lights reeling around her—down and down into a horrible gulf-of blackness. All power of thought or action seemed to have left her; she was reeling and swaying with terrible velocity through a darkness that had no light, a darkness so dense and terrible she wondered if it were to last forever, yet wondered in such a __-vague, apathetic fashion that she smiled dully, thinking she was dead. Then the darkness parted, the formless mass of Shadows surrounding her began to flash and vibrate with lightning gleams, and a dead sort of thunder, a deadly sickness, possessed her, a desire to go back to the utter blackness, with its dulled sense, rather than fight with the new agonizing struggle for life. Then the reeling lights and flashes resolved them- - selves into the brilliant glare of the gas jet over her dressing-case, and with a deep sigh of utter weari- ness she again sat up, brushing the curls from her death-white face. : ~~ .