A FORMER SOUL-MATE.
“But where can I go?” cried little Eva.
Her face was a picture of wistful joy when she was first told that the doctors considered her cured of her mental malady, and that she was free to leave the asylum whenever she chose.
She wept with relief, and murmured low some words of thanksgiving to God. Then her face clouded with perplexity as she cried:
“But where can I go for shelter, branded with a scandal, though innocent of any wrongdoing? I have no friends, no home.”
“You forget your rich father in New York,” suggested Doctor Merry, who had heard her story, and believed this would be her best refuge.
She shook her head.
“He was cruel to my mother, and he will never hear from me that she left him a daughter,” she said, with a little flash of spirit.
“Quite right, Miss Somerville,” said the superintendent, coming up to them where they lingered in the beautiful grounds talking, and he added, with his most genial smile:
“I shall be glad to make you one of the attendants here, if you wish to stay and earn your own living.”