“Let us pray Heaven that you will not be called upon to endure any further trials,” her friend said encouragingly. “Now that you have won such a handsome, noble lover, your future life must be bright and sunny. You are weary and unnerved by what has occurred to-night. Now, try to forget the last unpleasant hour, and remember only that you have won a noble lover who will fill your whole future life with happiness. Try to get some sleep now, and in the morning I will take you over to my aunt in town, where you will be sure of a safe retreat until you are married.” “Oh, Ada, how good you are to me! May Heaven grant me the power to repay you some day. I will pray that God will send you a lover as noble and handsome as mine,” cried Eva, embracing her with girlish fervor in a fond good night. She locked her door carefully and sat down to think, too nervous and excited to retire. Putting from her the indignation and disgust evoked by her middle-aged adorer’s loathed advances and cruel revenge, she tried to think only of her lover and of the happy two hours spent out in the silvery moonlight by his side. She recalled every look, every word, every tone, with trembling ecstasy. There was none like him; none, in all the wide world, she told herself. To her joy he had admitted his identity with her unknown lover. He was the author of the poems, the donor of the candy, the books, the flowers. Yes, he had climbed to her casement to lay these tokens of love on her window sill, choosing this method of wooing because he had been told her cousins did not allow her any acquaintance with young men. Then he had adroitly let her do some guessing, and admitted that he had seen her at the church in the woods when she asked him. “You see, I was visiting a college chum of mine in that neighborhood,” he said truthfully. His bonnie sweetheart had gazed at him in innocent rapture, crying: “To think that you came from Ohio, leaving so many pretty girls behind you, and fell in love with little rustic me!” “None was half so beautiful as you, my darling,” he replied truthfully, though she hardly knew how to credit such an extravagant compliment. She did not know how peerlessly lovely she was; she thought the whole world was full of women as fair as herself. And she felt grateful to Heaven for fixing his dear love on her alone. The thought came to her that if he had not loved her now she would be so terribly alone in life she could hardly bear her existence. So thinking, she fell asleep in her chair and rested thus till daylight, dreaming of the handsome lover God had sent to bless her loneliness. Very soon Ada Winton came to conduct her to her aunt, saying that it was better to go early, without facing the wonder that would be excited at the hospital when it became known that she had been so abruptly discharged.