She went to sleep, with her pretty little nose under cover, so as not to be tempted by the delicious smell of the cake and candy, when she was so tantalizingly hungry from her long day of fasting.
“Will he indeed appear at my bedside and sup with me this Hallowe’en?” she murmured, with delicious thrills of commingled hope and fear, then slid softly into the land of dreams.
The moments and hours slipped away until it was midnight and past, and in the distance sounded the shrill whistle of the belated express train coming into the station half a mile away.
Terry Groves was coming, although too late for the hay ride. Ah, Terry, how much better had you stayed away!
Another was coming, too, before him. Lightly, stealthily, footsteps crept up the stairs, and along the broad hall to Eva’s door, that was always left slightly ajar, that she might more easily hear the least sounds of illness from gran’ther’s room.
The intruder slipped into the room with light, noiseless footsteps, and paused to watch the beautiful sleeper in her warm, white nest.
She had tossed one arm over her head, disturbing the covers, and her upturned face was rosy with health, and smiling as with happy dreams.
The daring intruder into this white bower of maidenhood was a tall, handsome young man, in a well-fitting business suit of dark gray. He stood like one fascinated, gazing on Eva, his dark-blue eyes sparkling with admiration.
“How beautiful! And the very picture of health! What a strange message! I do not understand it, but I will not arouse her! I will wait till she wakes!” and he was about to sink into a chair by the table when the floor creaked at his movement, and she opened her eyes.
For a moment they gazed speechlessly at each other, the man wondering, the young girl slightly dazed, believing her eyes must have played some trick on her brain.