Vashti's Fate — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

: 7 2 WARNED. 89 s They were talking in a light strain at first, but soon the 4 conversation took a deeper tone. Nora, with her hand on a Leon’s knee, her arch face uplifted, and her wide-open, a brown eyes drinking in and reflecting every expression of her friend’s. He was telling her how he came to bea soldier. | - During the war, under the impulse of a hasty zeal, he had run away from home and enlisted, though only seventeen at the time. Sorry enough he had been after the first—the more when he found that both his parents were seriously displeased at his taking such a course. ‘“Tt was a very foolish proceeding,” he said to Nora; ‘‘foolish for a great many reasons; but it helped me in conquering a fault I have—that of judging and acting too He harshly. Mother would have had me claimed from service, being under age, but father objected, though at the same 4 time he left it at my option. He preferred that, having acted so hastily, I should suffer the penalty of so doing ; and secretly I could see that he would be rather ashamed of me if I turned back from the soldier’s life I had chosen.” ‘“Was it such a hard life?” said Nora. ““Yes, it was a hard life. <A boy of seventeen has not the maturity necessary for a campaign, either morally or physically. I have seen and heard a great many things I had far rather never have seen or heard. J ama man be- ae OE Ss TB ys ghive oC. a ae ee Pom, “ i Pi ‘ a3 <4 & . - “a a 4 << =. bd ee: hry S tice Ey ts s A , iy aY¥ te arts Nhe © Nel as z a's Ph Mr ee ee ae ee fore my time, Nora; three years, in which I might have. iS gladdened my mother’s heart, and cultivated the holiest 4 affections of my own, have gone to eternity, and I, a sad- der, a wiser man, perhaps, but not, no, not a happier : one,” % He sat in grave thought, and Nora made him no reply. : “I gained in some things,” he continued, musingly. v Eomicbooks.com — .<* y. | Paty) nd: : * o \ . ep