So thinking, she fell asleep in her chair and rested thus till daylight, dreaming of the handsome lover God had sent to bless her loneliness.
Very soon Ada Winton came to conduct her to her aunt, saying that it was better to go early, without facing the wonder that would be excited at the hospital when it became known that she had been so abruptly discharged.
“I will tell Doctor Rupert all about it myself and send him over to see you,” the kind young girl said when she had safely established Eva in her aunt’s simple cottage home and was leaving to return to her work.
Aunt Susan was a dear, kind, pious old lady, so fond of Ada Winton that she would do anything to please her, so she made Eva as welcome as a daughter to her homelike little house, with the neatness of a place inhabited by one woman alone.
There, when the day was a few hours older, came Doctor Rupert to see his exiled lady love, taking to himself all the blame of her discharge.
“I kept you out too late, forgetting that the rules are very strict, but I think I should have rated Doctor St. Clair this morning for his severity had he not gone away on a trip to Charleston before I heard of it,” he said.
“He told me he was going to Washington,” Eva cried inadvertently.
“He must have changed his mind, but it does not matter,” Doctor Rupert said carelessly, adding:
“After all, I’m glad you have left that place, for now I can persuade you to an immediate wedding. Will you marry me this day week, Eva?”
“So soon?”