CHAPTER XVII.
EVA DISCOVERS HER LOVER.
Eva sat smiling in the sunshine with a warm, pink glow on her dimpled cheek and a dreamy light of joy in her large, dark eyes, while she clasped her little white hands to her side as if to still its wild throbbings, murmuring:
“Oh, my foolish heart!”
From vague, sweet pondering over her treasured poems and their unknown sender, there had come upon her, so gently it was almost unawares, woman’s heritage of joy and sorrow—love!
The thrill of a tender voice, the magnetic glance of a pair of beautiful dark eyes, had touched an electric chord in her heart that answered instantly with love awakened from a dreamy sleep.
Before she realized it she was singing softly to herself a little ballad of love and joy known to her earlier, happier days, forgotten in her days of sorrow.
It bubbled up from her heart now to her rosy lips, and before she knew it, she was singing it through like a happy child—singing, although the shadow of a tragedy hung over her golden head, although gran’ther was gone from her forever, though she was homeless and almost friendless, poor, and despised.
Doctor Rupert’s eyes had told her without wordsthat he loved her, and her heart had leaped in her breast with a sudden joy so sweet it was almost pain.
How beautiful those eyes were, deeply blue, now grave, now laughing. And the broad, white forehead, the arched, finely drawn, dark brows, the brown, curly hair, the regular features, the red lips, and beautiful white teeth—all were very much to Eva’s liking.
She further considered that his tall, straight figure was quite to her liking, and his hands and feet small and well-shaped.
“He would look younger with his hair short. Perhaps I shall mention that to him some day,” she reflected, adding: “Seems to me I have known some one like him, only with shorter hair, and very likely a small mustache. It puzzles me, that resemblance. It must be as he suggests, that we knew each other in a former period of existence. Heigho! were we indeed soul-mates?”
How beautiful it was out there in the balmy sunshine among the flowers! She wished that he could come back to her presently and talk again, or even sit silent by her side, so that she could shyly feast her eyes on his dear face—yes, dear already, she owned it to her heart.
Alas! he could not come. He must consult with the other doctors over the dangerous case in Ward H. Then he must go his rounds among the patients. The superintendent, too, stuck to him like a burr, determined to cut short, if possible, the incipient flirtation with Eva. He thought there was too much courtinggoing on at the hospital among the marriageable men and maids. They should attend more strictly to their duties.
So Eva did not see her lover again that day, not even at meals, for she did not eat at the same table with the doctors and officers of the institution.
But the day slipped away very rapidly because of the thoughts nestling sweetly in her heart, and late that evening, just as she was retiring to the new room that had been assigned her, an attendant brought her a bunch of spicy white carnations, with a little note:
“The superintendent has sent me away on a business trip for a week or two. I shall think often of what we talked about last, and you must not forget me while I am gone, little Eva.“Rupert.”
“The superintendent has sent me away on a business trip for a week or two. I shall think often of what we talked about last, and you must not forget me while I am gone, little Eva.
“Rupert.”
She shut her door and dropped into a chair, kissing the sweet white flowers and murmuring happily:
“As if I could forget!”
She kept reading the words over and over till she knew them all with her eyes shut, then a sudden remorseful memory pierced her heart.
Was she untrue to her first love?
Just so had she read and dreamed over the anonymous verses that had given her such deep pleasure, vowing in a girl’s romantic rashness that she loved him and would marry no one else.
The memory of him was still dear, the verses were written on her heart; but here she was dwelling onanother with her mind full of his blue eyes, and soft words, and ringing laughter. She was indeed fickle, untrue!
For a moment little Eva began to despise herself, then came a lightning thought, a hope:
“If they should prove to be the same?”
Trembling with excitement, she unlocked a drawer and took out the treasured poems and read them again.
“Oh, how sweet they are—sweeter every time I read them over!” she exclaimed, then started, with a wild tremor, adding:
“The note! Why, the writing is the same—surely the very same! Oh, my silly heart! Are you going to jump out of my breast with rapture?”
Her cheeks burned, her eyes shone, her hands trembled, as she compared the note with the verses, finding the writing identical in both. Apparently Doctor Rupert intended to throw off his disguise and permit her to identify him as her mysterious lover.
The truth flashed over her mind, thrilling her with perfect joy.
“Oh, I am the happiest girl in the world!” she cried, clasping the flowers and the poems to her breast with adoration.
She had not heard her door open and close noiselessly a moment ago, the sound was drowned in the rustle of the papers she held; but suddenly the sense of an alien presence thrilled her with alarm, and, looking up, Eva saw a tall form standing at her side.
Eva gave a gasp of surprise and sprang up, remembering that in the excitement of receiving the flowers and note she had forgotten to lock her door.
“Do not be frightened. I only wish to ask you how you like your new room?” said a bland voice that somehow made her shiver.
“Oh, Doctor St. Clair, how you frightened me! I—I like my room very well, but I thought my door was locked,” she cried nervously, moving a little back from him as he reached out to pat her hand in his familiar way.
“It did not matter—no one will disturb you. I only looked in to see if you liked your new room. I like all my girls to be comfortable,” he answered, in the fatherly tone that always impressed all the new girls with his kindness.
“I—oh—yes, it’s very comfortable,” Eva faltered, keeping her hands out of his reach and retreating as he approached, saying suavely:
“What sweet flowers you have—love letters, also, perhaps!”
“Yes—they are, and I was busy reading them,” she said a little defiantly; then, with returning self-possession:
“Please go, doctor. You are very kind, but this is my private apartment. You should have knocked.”
“I mean no harm, little Eva, but I must speak to you privately. You are so beautiful no one can see you without loving you!”
“Hush—go!” she cried, in sudden consternation.
“Not yet,” he answered calmly, and went on: “I came to make you an offer of my friendship. This position as an attendant is not worthy of you, my dear, and if you will permit me, I will send you away to school and educate you to take a better place—as my little friend and darling pet. What do you say, pretty one?”
She was so young and so innocent she could not comprehend his villainy, or that his words meant all they did; but she trembled at the passion in his eyes and waved him back as he tried to embrace her, saying curtly:
“I must decline your offer, and I do not wish to be your pet. Please go now, for I do not like to have you in my room.”
“This is a poor return for my kindness to you,” he exclaimed, overmastered with sudden anger at her coldness.
“I am sorry to seem ungrateful—but please go,” she answered entreatingly.
“Are you aware that I can discharge you and thrust you penniless into the cold world?” he demanded harshly.
“Yes, yes, I realize your power for good and evil in this place, and I entreat you as you are strong be merciful!” she faltered, pointing steadfastly at the door.
He laughed softly.
“I was only jesting with you! I love you too well, sweet little Eva, to harm you. Forget what I said,since you scorn my proffered kindness, and let us be friends again. Will you shake hands and forgive?”
“No, no—but I shall scream unless you leave the room instantly!” she exclaimed, with rising anger at his obstinacy, every maidenly instinct taking alarm at his presence there in her private room at night.
“Do not scream, I am going,” he started across the room, then smiled back at her:
“Just one kiss, little Eva. I am a lonely man with no one to love me.”
“You have a wife and children,” she reminded him, so cuttingly that he withdrew with a muttered imprecation, and Eva flew at the door, slammed and locked it in a fury, and sank sobbing into a chair.
“The wretch! Surely he meant to insult me! There was more than fatherly kindness in his eyes. There was wickedness! Oh, I hate him—I will not stay here! I will go away to-morrow!” she sobbed in a passion of anger and misery, wondering where under heaven she could go unless it were back to kind old Goody Brown.
She wondered what Doctor Rupert would say when he came and found her gone.
“He will wonder if I ran away from his love,” she sobbed, and just then came a low tapping on the door, and she sprang upright, shivering.
“The wretch! Has he dared to return?” she exclaimed angrily.
A low voice called through the keyhole:
“It is only Ada, my dear. May I come in and speak to you?”
Little Eva unlocked the door and drew her friend inside, quickly turning the key again.
Ada Winton was the attendant Eva loved best of all, a pretty, sparkling brunette whose bright black eyes instantly saw the agitation of the unhappy girl.
“You have been crying, and I saw old St. Clair dodging out of your room. What did he want?” she asked pointblank.
“I—I hardly know,” the poor girl answered, so forlornly that Ada exclaimed brusquely:
“Up to his meanness again, eh, under the mask of fatherly kindness? Wanted to have you for his darling little pet, and send you off to school to fit you for the place, didn’t he?”
“Oh, Ada, were you listening at the keyhole?”
“Oh, no, dear; but the kind, fatherly old man has talked the same way to me—you aren’t the only pebble on the beach, my darling!” returned the vivacious Ada, a little slangily.
Thereupon Eva fell upon her neck and told all, reiterating her intention to leave the asylum to-morrow.
To her amazement she was told that some others of the girls had met the same treatment from the old superintendent, but being poor and compelled to earn a living, they had contented themselves with snubbing their elderly admirer and remaining in their places.
“I should not leave, if I were you,” said Ada.“Keep your door locked hereafter and snub him if he attempts any familiarity, and he will not trouble you again. All the girls hate him but that frisky Matty Blue, and she is always going on with him, making lots of gossip. She says she does it to keep her place, and it’s true that we have to bear much insolence to keep from being discharged,” sighed Ada from the depths of her heart.