“I am not mad. Oh, no, no! I wish you would let me tell you all.”
“Tell me what you choose, little Eva,” she replied, in her soothing way, and although she had believed the girl insane at first, she listened now in wonder to her pathetic story, smiling kindly at her vehement denial of the violent behavior Patty had laid at her door.
“Do you not see now that I am not crazy? That they are sending me away through malice, not fear of me?” she cried.
The kind attendant thought to herself:
“How pitiful she talks! These lunatics they are deep ones, and could fool many a one with their tale of woe.”
But aloud she only said:
“Yes, dear; you have been treated very bad, and we must lay the case before the superintendent as soon as we get back to the asylum.”
CHAPTER XV.
THE WORLD WELL LOST.
“Oh, how good you all have been to me, but I wish you had let me die and go to heaven with dear old gran’ther! There is no place for little Eva in all the wide, cruel world!” moaned the poor girl from among the pillows, where she had lain for a week following her return to Weston.