Explore "On Time" by Oliver Optic on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
My mother had the reputation of being a skilful person in sickness, or in any emergency. She devoted herself earnestly to the restoration of Grace. I could not help looking at her, alarmed as I was, while she lay pale and beautiful on the sofa. Captain Portman manifested a deep interest in the sufferer, though he knew that she belonged to the family of my persecutor, for the male members of which he had strongly expressed his contempt and disgust.
I tried again to devise some explanation of the singular visit of Grace at our house, and of the violent emotion which agitated her. Although I knew that her father was indulgent to her, I was afraid that everything was not pleasant at home. I had seen her brother strike her a severe blow, and had heard him talk to her in the most violent manner. If he would behave thus brutally to her in the presence of others, what would he not do in the privacy of his own home? Grace was conscientious, and with the highest views of truth and duty.