He felt the yielding form droop more heavily against him, and looking down saw that she had fainted.
Fortunately, they were at her door, and springing out upon the snowy sidewalk he took the limp form tenderly into his arms and carried her up the steps.
And he could not resist the temptation of holding her very closely against his wildly beating heart, with the feeling that their mutual love gave him the right.
Yes, it seemed to him little short of sacrilege for Eva to give herself to any other man, she who had so nearly been his own fair bride, whom he loved still with desperate, hopeless despair.
He realized that he would rather see her dead than given in marriage to any other man than himself.
But while these passionate emotions surged through his heart he calmly rang the bell and was admitted with his helpless burden to the stately mansion by an astonished manservant.
“Your mistress has been hurt by an accident,” he began when Mrs. Hamilton, herself, coming down the stairs overheard the words and exclaimed:
“Will you kindly bring her upstairs, sir, to her room? Oh, I hope my dear girl is not badly hurt!”
“It is nothing serious—a flesh wound on the temple that must be closed at once,” he replied, as he followed her into Eva’s luxurious apartments.
He laid Eva down on the white couch Mrs. Hamilton indicated, putting the unconscious girl most reluctantly from his arms while he said: