“To-morrow,” the matron replied sadly.
“Very well. Good-night, Mrs. Friend,” the girl said so quietly that the matron thought that perhaps she did not mind going so much after all; but if she could have seen the lonely motherless girl a few moments later, she would have known how cruelly hard this new experience was for her.
Eva did not return to the garden, but, instead, she ran up to the dormitory, and throwing herself upon the bed, sobbed as though her heart would break. Then, slipping to her knees, she held her dear mother’s picture, and prayed for strength to bear this heavy cross bravely and cheerfully, as that dear mother had taught her.
After a time peace crept into the heart of the girl, and she seemed to know that in some way all was well. By the time that the other orphans came into the dormitory for the night, Eva was able to meet them smilingly; and since most of them believed that she had been greatly honored to have been the choice of the rich woman, they little dreamed of the hour of suffering which she had just passed through.
When Eva awoke the next morning, it was with the feeling that something unusual was going to happen. She looked out at the bare tree-tops in the orchard and at the gray autumn sky, and then she remembered, and for a moment her heart sank within her. But suddenly the sun burst through a rift in the clouds, and the world was bright again.
Eva sprang up to dress, as she thought bravely: “Maybe the sun will shine through my clouds. Anyway, if I pretend that going to Mrs. Green’s is something that I very much want to do, it will make it seem easier, and, as Adele says, every cloud has a sunny side, even if it is very hard to see just at first.”
Mrs. Friend glanced anxiously at Eva when she entered the dining-room that morning, her arm linked through Amanda’s, but the bright smile of greeting dispelled the matron’s fear that she might have cried all night.
“What a dear, brave girl she is!” Mrs. Friend thought, and she strengthened her resolve to leave no stone unturned in her effort to have Eva recalled.
After breakfast Eva went to the dormitory to pack her few belongings, and Amanda was with her.
“I feel just like crying,” Amanda said, “but when I see how brave you are, it makes me feel ashamed of myself, for even living here with orphans won’t be so bad as living with that dreadful woman. Do you suppose that you are to be sent to school with that prig of a girl?”