Ada threw down her novel, and, springing up, caught her friend to her heart.
“I wish you joy, Eva! You will have a splendid husband. I almost envy you,” she declared, with a stifled sigh.
“You need not envy a queen. You will have Doctor Ludington,” Eva cried, with bitter emphasis.
“Nonsense! He cares nothing about me, Eva.”
“It looks like it, Ada, when he has called on you and taken you out every day since you came.”
“That is only ten days, dear.”
“I know it; but if it were fifty it would have been the same. He is madly in love with you, Ada, and has forgotten that he ever loved poor little me!” cried Eva, in a voice that betrayed all the bitterness of a wounded heart.
And as Ada hesitated for an answer, she continued in a different tone:
“But I will show him that I do not care, that I can love another as well as he! Reggie is a better match, anyway. I will be married to him directly and go away to Europe on my bridal tour. We have planned it all out this evening, since I reconsidered my rejection and told him I would try to love him as dearly as he loves me. Oh, Ada, you cannot think how happy I have made the dear boy by my promise. After all, he is very lovable!”
“He is perfectly charming! Indeed, I envy you, darling,” exclaimed Ada frankly, while Eva responded with sudden recklessness: