Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

"TWIXT LOVE AND DUTY. 13 ing torn aside, and his soul lay bare with all the venom of his fierce, and we may say, cowardly nature uppermost. We are glad to say that Captain Trafton was far — from representing any type of true Southern chivalry. ‘Those who knew him best respected him the least, for strive as he might, the polluted blood ever be- trayed itself. And he was conscious of his weakness, and the _ knowledge rankled in his heart, and added fuel to the passions of an unbridled nature. “Twill kill him!’ he exclaimed, at last, and turn- ing on his heel passed down the steps into the ex- tensive grounds about the house. It wanted but a few minutes of two o’clock. The great parlor that an hour before echoed to the strains of gay music and the rippling laughter of light-hearted women was almost deserted. The last of the guests were exchanging their final — morsels of small talk with Mrs. McVane and drop- . ping out in pairs. In the shadows of the curtain that draped one. of the French windows, Royal Chetwood stood holding Bertha McVane’s fair fingers in his tremulous grasp. The present was theirs, but the future—ah! Royal was, may we use the expression, miserably happy. And Bertha, swayed by her warm Southern patriot- ism on the one side, and her love for the handsome — Pennsylvanian on the other, stood trembling by his side. : Their very silence was a pathetic exhibition of the crisis that swayed men’s souls and—women’s. Poor Cupid had shot his arrows with unerring ac- curacy, and now his impalpable presence hovered over the pair in mute anxiety for the result. One—two! The silvery chimes of the Sevres clock on the m comicbooks. (ele)