Eva lifted her white, tearful face wistfully, answering with a strong shudder:
“It—it is not simply the old prejudice, Cousin Tabby, but my Cousin Terry’s blood, flowing like a crimson river between our hearts!”
“Oh, it’s that way?” and a strange gleam came into the old woman’s eyes as she added:
“Well, little Eva, s’posen the man he accidentally killed hadn’t a-been your cousin a-tall, what then? Could you marry him then?”
Eva, with a furtive glance at the young doctor, faltered “Yes.”
Miss Tabby’s eyes beamed with triumphant joy. She beckoned the doctor to her side, exclaiming:
“Good news for you, doctor! She’s yours! Terry Groves warn’t never no kin to Eva!”
Every one cried out in wonder, and Patty fumed in impotent rage, but the spinster went on joyfully:
“After gran’ther’s death, when the twins an’ me went over his papers and the ones o’ their father’s, that they brung with ’em from Kansas, we found out something they never dreamed, nor I don’t think gran’ther ever suspected, either, by not reading over the papers in the little black trunk. Well, Terry Groves was John Groves’ adopted son. His mother and father both died of the fever, and the Groveses took the leettle baby to raise for their own. Terry O’Kelly was his real name. He had Irish blood—’twas that made him so quick an’ fiery. Now, Eva!”
She had put the girl’s hand into Doctor Ludington’s. She looked up at him, whispering: