"Fritz, you have saved Eva's life! She rallied from the time she saw
you."
"Yes," he replied, very gently, but with a strange impassiveness in his
face; "I think that may be true. I have saved her."
But he did not go in her room again; and the next day, to our surprise
and disappointment, he said suddenly that he must leave us.
He said few words of farewell to any of us, and would not see Eva to
take leave of her. He said it might disturb her.
But when he kissed me before he went, his hands and his lips were as
cold as death. Yet as I watched him go down the street, he did not once
turn to wave a last good-bye, as he always used to do; but slowly and
steadily he went on till he was out of sight.
I turned back into the house with a very heavy heart; but when I went to
tell Eva Fritz was gone, and tried to account for his not coming to take
leave of her, because I thought it would give her pain (and it does seem
to me rather strange of Fritz), she looked up with her quiet, trustful,
contented smile, and said,--
"I am not at all pained, Cousin Else. I know Fritz had good reasons for
it--some good, kind reasons--because he always has; and we shall see him
again as soon as he feels it right to come."