And she sank into a strange, apathetic state, from which no one could rouse her, sitting all day with her small hands folded in her lap, her dark, solemn eyes fixed on vacancy, never a word to any one to hint at what was passing in her tortured mind. “Unless we can rouse her to some interest in life again we shall have her back in the asylum wards soon,” sighed Doctor Bertrand on the third day, as she left after making her daily visit. Ada Winton, who remained by her night and day, wept her bright eyes dim. “It fairly breaks my heart. Oh, why was Doctor Ludington ever found out? I am sure it was no sin for him to marry her, as he killed her cousin by an accident,” she said over and over, and some agreed with her, while others took Eva’s view that her cousin’s death was an impassable barrier between their hearts. That day, after Doctor Bertrand went away, as Eva sat drooping in the small parlor with her far-off, dreamy gaze, the kind Aunt Susan suddenly appeared at the door, ushering in a tall, gray-haired, distinguished-looking stranger. “A gentleman to see you, little Eva,” she said, rousing the dreamy girl with a gentle touch on her shoulder. Clyde Somerville, quivering with emotion, went and stood before his unhappy daughter, saying in a broken voice: “Little Eva!” With a little tremulous start she lifted up her heavy eyes and met his tender, compassionate glance. “Oh!” she cried, in swift, half-shamed recognition. “You remember me?” “Oh, yes--yes, sir. You were kind to me that day on the train when I ran away from the asylum to see poor gran’ther, who--who died, you know,” with a quick sob. “So--so there was no one to pay you when you went there, and--and you thought me a wretched little cheat. But you have seen that I advertised in the paper for you to send to Weston and get your money. But I am discharged, and I am penniless. Oh, I am ashamed to ask you to wait a little longer!” He let the torrent of words flow on; he thought they would ease her overburdened heart. Then, as she paused with a sob of distress, he knelt by her side and took her cold little hands in his own with such infinite tenderness that she let him hold them, gazing at him in mute wonder as he answered: “You owe me no money, little Eva, but you owe me years of love that I was defrauded of by your grandfather’s mistake. I am your forsaken father!” At that word she recoiled from him as though in fear, but he held the small hands tight, crying eagerly: “Do not shrink from me, my daughter, for when you have heard how your parents were deceived and forced apart by cruel schemes to separate them, that succeeded, alas, too well, you will pity both of us, and you will not withhold your love from one who has been already too deeply wronged.” “But they taught me to hate you,” Eva faltered, drawn to him against her will.