At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

AT A GIRL’S MERCY. o7 instead of the promised freedom her life was ruined —her life and her soul. And when the father came home from a voyage and found a babe in his daugh- ter’s arms, and no ring on her finger, his proud spirit arose, and he swore to kill her for the evil she had brought upon him and his name; but his anger was cooled by the soft words of his wife and the beauty of the child—his first grandchild—and the baby lived and thrived, and here she was also grown to womanhood, standing on the brink of freedom with a lover waiting her word, and the mother who. had toiled early and late for monev to hire herself, her mother and her child from their master—the mother who would gladly give her life for hers, who would think no torture too hard to endure if her daughter would so escape it—the mother, bound with the cruel chains that had galled her proud spirit and eaten at her heart—the mother was far away, and if she accepted this chance of freedom she must take it without her. : Could she leave her? Could she go away know- ing to what her mother was left? But, after all, what good could she do her by remaining? She would only be an added burden, an added expense, and if she got away from the South free, with a home of her own, could she not in some way then secure her mother’s freedom also? The thoughts came and went like flashes of light, so swift that her lover still stood waiting, his hand on her shoulder, for her decision. He could not ask her to decide too quickly; he knew what he was asking, and how much sweet there was with the bitter. And there was his love, and there was her freedom, and he waited patiently for her answer, quite sure what it would be. (ele) mn Gcomicbooks