Doctor Bertrand shrugged her shapely shoulders when the attendant told her the tales of Eva’s violence she had heard at Stony Ledge. “They were invented for the purpose of getting rid of her by her heartless relations. They hated her for her beauty and sweetness!” she said, for Doctor Rupert had confessed to her that he knew more of little Eva than he seemed to at first. He had visited once in that neighborhood, he said, and people had told him how the young girl was domineered over by her selfish cousins, and debarred from all the pleasures of youth, because they were jealous of her beautiful face and winsome ways. He had seen her out riding sometimes on Firefly, her pony, and she had looked to him the prettiest thing alive. He knew that every young man in the country would have liked to court her if he had had the chance. “But she was never allowed to go with any of them, and as for Doctor Ludington, who was said to be her lover, I have heard that she had never spoken to him in her life,” he added. “Then you have seen the young doctor? Was he handsome?” asked Doctor Bertrand, quite as eagerly as any romantic young girl. “Oh, men never think each other handsome!” he replied carelessly, with an averted face that she might not notice the flush on his cheek. Rupert Ludington had always secretly worshiped the lovely girl from her childhood, without the slightest hope of ever dispelling the shadow that lay between them--a gulf that had opened before he was born, and continued to widen with the flight of years. It had wrung his manly heart to hear the tales of how her cousins treated her at Stony Ledge, and how barren of girlish pleasures they made her young life. There were times when he had fairly raged over it to himself, longing to bear her away to the love and happiness he felt sure he could give her if she had but loved him in return. But it was hopeless dreaming of such a thing, though for her sake he would have been willing to renounce every relative he had on earth, and go with her into exile forever. It was with such thoughts that he had set about brightening the dull monotony of Eva’s life. “She is old enough to have a lover, but those cruel women would not permit her to see a young man’s face if they could prevent it! Yet she shall know that one true heart is all her own, in spite of them!” he had vowed. It was not very easy to carry out his plans, but he made friends with Link in the very beginning, because no one had ever told that faithful animal of the family vendetta. If he had been aware of it he would most likely have devoured Doctor Ludington. Link placated, the doctor had followed out his little schemes to make Eva happy, finding their accomplishment simpler because his night practice in the neighborhood often took him past Stony Ledge in the “wee small hours,” when darkness covered his Romeo-like ascent to her window.