At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

AT A GIRLS MERCY. 39 “Oh,”’ she said, vehemently, “how could it be worse, Ned? A clear twenty-five thousand dollars out of his own, to say nothing of the fifty thousand dollars of Mr. Blake’s. And all our silver, save the heaviest pieces, that are in the safety vaults, and every bit of jewelry I had here—which wasn’t much—excepting the diamond ring Aunt Amelia left me when she died. Not that I care for the jewelry itself, Ned, only all together you can judge of the loss. and if the worst came, you know, one could easily dispose of jewelry. Father is so worried over it, coming as it does with this dreadful illness of mamma. You would hardly have known him had you seen him this morning, he seemed to have grown so old.”’ “But Blake wouldn’t think of demanding his money,’ the young man broke in, indignantly, his brown eyes flashing. ‘‘He’s mean enough for al- most anything, but he could not think of such a thing as that. He took the risk. It isn’t your fa- ther’s fault.’’ ‘““No,’’ Nan said, gravely; ‘‘it isn’t father’s fault, Ned, but you now what Mr. Blake is, and we feared he might claim his loss, and father said it would cripple him so in business if he had to make that good with his own loss that he intended to forward for the use of the government in raising forces, for we shall need extra forces soon if the war doesn’t end. But Mr. Blake came over ——’’ “Of course,’’ interrupted the young captain, with an emphatic gesture of the arm that had caused his absence from the army fora month. “‘It’s just like the impudent fellow.’’ | ‘““He came over,’’ Nan continued, impressively, “and has made arrangements with father to wait Eomicbooks (E(@) m -