“I don’t think I understood you rightly, Eva! Did you say yes?”
She gathered all her reluctant strength for the answer and said gently:
“No, no; I cannot marry you, because I do not love you!”
He had no more looked to be refused than he had expected the blue heavens to fall and blot him out of existence.
His brain went dizzy with the shock, his senses seemed to reel, a fury of indignation shook him so that he was obliged to wreak vengeance instantly on something or other.
Eva, shrinking by his side, heard a stifled imprecation from his blanched lips as he caught the horse-whip in a shaking hand and struck the grays sharply over the back.
The spirited animals had never brooked the lash. They bolted instantly, tearing the sleigh along like mad, to the horror of every beholder.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THROWN TOGETHER AGAIN.
Ada Winton had indeed kept Eva accurately informed as far as she knew relative to Doctor Ludington’s movements.