How beautiful those eyes were, deeply blue, now grave, now laughing. And the broad, white forehead, the arched, finely drawn, dark brows, the brown, curly hair, the regular features, the red lips, and beautiful white teeth—all were very much to Eva’s liking.
She further considered that his tall, straight figure was quite to her liking, and his hands and feet small and well-shaped.
“He would look younger with his hair short. Perhaps I shall mention that to him some day,” she reflected, adding: “Seems to me I have known some one like him, only with shorter hair, and very likely a small mustache. It puzzles me, that resemblance. It must be as he suggests, that we knew each other in a former period of existence. Heigho! were we indeed soul-mates?”
How beautiful it was out there in the balmy sunshine among the flowers! She wished that he could come back to her presently and talk again, or even sit silent by her side, so that she could shyly feast her eyes on his dear face—yes, dear already, she owned it to her heart.
Alas! he could not come. He must consult with the other doctors over the dangerous case in Ward H. Then he must go his rounds among the patients. The superintendent, too, stuck to him like a burr, determined to cut short, if possible, the incipient flirtation with Eva. He thought there was too much courting going on at the hospital among the marriageable men and maids. They should attend more strictly to their duties.
So Eva did not see her lover again that day, not even at meals, for she did not eat at the same table with the doctors and officers of the institution.
But the day slipped away very rapidly because of the thoughts nestling sweetly in her heart, and late that evening, just as she was retiring to the new room that had been assigned her, an attendant brought her a bunch of spicy white carnations, with a little note:
“The superintendent has sent me away on a business trip for a week or two. I shall think often of what we talked about last, and you must not forget me while I am gone, little Eva.
“Rupert.”
She shut her door and dropped into a chair, kissing the sweet white flowers and murmuring happily: