But Mrs. Hamilton frowned slightly, and answered:
“I should not fancy such a match. I wanted him to marry you, my dear little niece, and no other.”
“I told you, auntie, I had refused his offer,” protested Eva.
“You were hasty, my dear. Perhaps you may come to reconsider the case.”
“But I told you, also, that I loved another.”
Mrs. Hamilton wondered suddenly if that “other” could be the handsome Doctor Ludington, and she quickly decided that this was the case. It explained things that were otherwise inexplicable. But aloud she said, in her calm, gentle way:
“But you told me your love was hopeless, Eva!”
“Yes, quite hopeless!” sighed the girl, stifling a sob that seemed to rend her very heart in twain.
“Then you will have to put that love away from you, and try to forget. The easiest way to do it would be to become interested in another and marry him. A happy marriage is, to my mind, the only remedy for your pain.”
Her father had used the same words to her, and they recurred to her again. Was it true? Would a marriage with Reggie, who adored her, teach her to forget?