The Temptation

So the letter ended. Mercy laid it down with a heavy heart. What a
chance the poor girl had lost! A woman of rank and fortune waiting to
receive her--a woman so merciful and so generous that the father's mind
had been easy about the daughter on his deathbed--and there the daughter
lay, beyond the reach of Lady Janet's kindness, beyond the need of Lady
Janet's help!

The French captain's writing-materials were left on the table. Mercy
turned the letter over so that she might write the news of Miss
Roseberry's death on the blank page at the end. She was still
considering what expressions she should use, when the sound of
complaining voices from the next room caught her ear. The wounded men
left behind were moaning for help--the deserted soldiers were losing
their fortitude at last.

She entered the kitchen. A cry of delight welcomed her appearance--the
mere sight of her composed the men. From one straw bed to another she
passed with comforting words that gave them hope, with skilled and
tender hands that soothed their pain. They kissed the hem of her black
dress, they called her their guardian angel, as the beautiful creature
moved among them, and bent over their hard pillows her gentle,
compassionate face. "I will be with you when the Germans come," she
said, as she left them to return to her unwritten letter. "Courage, my
poor fellows! you are not deserted by your nurse."

"Courage, madam!" the men replied; "and God bless you!"

If the firing had been resumed at that moment--if a shell had struck
her dead in the act of succoring the afflicted, what Christian judgment
would have hesitated to declare that there was a place for this woman
in heaven? But if the war ended and left her still living, where was the
place for her on earth? Where were her prospects? Where was her home?