And he could not resist the temptation of holding her very closely against his wildly beating heart, with the feeling that their mutual love gave him the right. Yes, it seemed to him little short of sacrilege for Eva to give herself to any other man, she who had so nearly been his own fair bride, whom he loved still with desperate, hopeless despair. He realized that he would rather see her dead than given in marriage to any other man than himself. But while these passionate emotions surged through his heart he calmly rang the bell and was admitted with his helpless burden to the stately mansion by an astonished manservant. “Your mistress has been hurt by an accident,” he began when Mrs. Hamilton, herself, coming down the stairs overheard the words and exclaimed: “Will you kindly bring her upstairs, sir, to her room? Oh, I hope my dear girl is not badly hurt!” “It is nothing serious--a flesh wound on the temple that must be closed at once,” he replied, as he followed her into Eva’s luxurious apartments. He laid Eva down on the white couch Mrs. Hamilton indicated, putting the unconscious girl most reluctantly from his arms while he said: “I am a physician, madam, and by your leave I will close the wound before Miss Somerville recovers consciousness.” “Pray do, doctor----” she paused, and he supplied the hiatus. “Ludington, of the ---- Hospital, madam.” She called Eva’s maid, and rendering him every necessary assistance, they watched with interest as he unbound the handkerchief, and, bathing the blood from Eva’s brow, closed the little jagged cut from the stone with a few skillful stitches done with exquisite skill and tenderness. Then, looking up with a pale face and twitching lips at Eva’s aunt, he hurriedly described the accident, adding the courteous hope that Reginald Hamilton would escape injury. “I must go now. She will revive directly, and you must keep her quiet for a day or so, then she will very likely get well by Christmas,” he said, turning to go, with a pang of bitterness in his tortured heart. “You will call again to-morrow, Doctor Ludington!” she exclaimed. “No, I cannot come again. My--my duties at the hospital are too urgent, madam. But it is not likely she will need another physician. I have done all that is necessary. If--if she does not get on all right you must call in your family doctor!” he answered, with a mixture of coldness and excitement, bowing himself out with a brusqueness that made her exclaim: “Dear me, how very busy he must be.” CHAPTER XXVIII. HER DUTY TO THE DEAD. Doctor Ludington was obliged to speak to Mrs. Hamilton coldly, and hurry away, for the sight of Eva in her pallor and unconsciousness, with the touch of her thrilling every nerve, unmanned him so that he could scarcely refrain from taking the young girl in his arms and kissing her pale, cold lips and shut eye-lids with the passion that surged in his heart.