"'Would you not rather wait a day or two for the other eye to be operated upon?' said the kind physician. 'A week hence, or a month, will answer.'
"'Oh! no,' answered Eva, with quiet self-possession, 'let it be done to-day; let it be done now. I do not think I could bear the suspense, and it would please my father to know that it was over.'
"Love sustained her. Another sigh—another groan, and it was finished.
"Then came the bandages, the darkened room, the stillness, the repose, for one whose nerves had been so shaken; but often those little cousinly hands were clasped together in a pressure which spoke more love than many words.
"Her father hardly ever left the house, and her mother wept often, for she loved her child in her blindness as much as a mother could love, and had never wished her to go through so much suffering—suffering which might be fruitless; and she waited for the result with trembling anxiety.
"A look from a physician has often more weight than many words spoken; and Ruth, who read the good doctor's face with the keenness of a child's perception, was the first to see an expression of hope shining upon it. When the day came for the bandages to be removed, Eva's father and mother were so dreadfully agitated, that they had to leave the room. Trembling, they stood outside in the hall, waiting for the happy or wretched tidings.
"But Ruth—brave little Ruth—held Eva's hand as before. Those little clasped hands gave each other courage, for Ruth needed it as much as Eva, and her heartbeats could almost be heard in the silence. What a study her sweet little face was, as the emotions of love, pity, fear, and hope, crossed it, as shadowy clouds flit across the sky!
"Slowly, cautiously, the bandages were removed, and at last the end came, and the little girl saw upon the physician's face a broad, cheerful, happy smile. Ruth was a heroine, and had great self-control; but now control became impossible. She thought not of consequences—she only thought of the unceasing prayer which had been breathed by that household for many weeks—she only saw that that prayer had been granted.
"'She will see! she will see!!' she almost screamed. 'Eva! Eva! love! darling! do you hear?'
"The physician gave her a stern look of rebuke, but it was too late; Little Eva had fainted.