the next morning rose beautiful and bright and fair. the town was gay as gay could be; flags were hung from almost every window, and the hum of a great content seemed to fill the air.
in violet's room all was still. the carriage had been pushed back into the corner of the room, and the little girl was asleep. she had been sleeping nearly all the morning; indeed so profound was her repose that evelina had grown nervous and summoned the doctor, whose carriage she had seen outside the toy-shop door.
he came in quietly and stood beside the bed. the child's breathing was quick and regular, and her hand lay softly open upon the counterpane. "how long has she slept like this?" he asked in a low voice of evelina, who stood with tearful eyes near the window.
"ever since last night when i put her to bed. it[pg 233] was the news of the victory, sir, which i think upset her."
"who told her of it?"
"little ella, sir, madam adler's daughter."
"ah, of course, of course, children will talk; and she must have heard it some time or other. has she spoken at all since morning?"
"a few words, sir, but not much sense in them; about larks and flowers, and about wings—she is always rambling on to me about having wings."
"she will soon have them," said the doctor shortly.
"what!" said violet, opening her eyes suddenly and looking up; "is that true? will violet soon have wings?"
"yes, my poor little child, very soon."
"oh, how beautiful! how lovely!" she said with a sigh of the utmost content. then turning her head suddenly, she said quickly, "fritz, dost thou hear what the doctor says? violet will soon have wings." then she closed her eyes again and fell asleep.
"we can do nothing for her," said the doctor, as he moved aside from the bed. "this stupor that she has fallen into is the result of the shock she received yesterday; for in her state good news is almost as disturbing in its results as bad. i think she may awake out of this sleep and be perhaps none the[pg 234] worse, but we cannot tell. god is very merciful, and the thread of her life is in his hands."
"yes, sir," said evelina faintly.
"has she spoken at all to-day of her father?"
"no, sir, not exactly; only once she said something about a great victory, and smiled a little."
the doctor turned back and looked again at the quiet face on the pillow, and repeated in a low voice several times the words, "a great victory." "yes, poor violet! thy victory too is close at hand; and then cometh the peace which passeth all understanding."
"i shall come again to-night," he said, as he turned away towards the door; "and meanwhile no one must enter this room to disturb her, nor must she be left alone for a moment. remember, she has been intrusted to your care by her father, and to mine, and we are responsible for her."
"yes, sir; i shall watch her very carefully," replied evelina humbly.
when the doctor was gone, evelina sat down on the chair by the stove and cried bitterly, for a miserable feeling of guilt was over her. the smile on violet's face was more difficult for her to look at now than the wakeful restlessness of pain and weariness; indeed everything in the room seemed to reproach her[pg 235] this morning: the carriage standing in the corner; the little brown hat with its wreath of buttercups, which something in evelina's heart told her would never be asked for again; the cake, which had not been tasted; the window-sill littered with the fallen animals which had been shaken from their usual resting-place by the firing of the cannon; and a kind of dull consciousness resting over all that the end was close at hand, and that the child lying so quietly on the bed yonder was, oh so near heaven;—and she—where was she? and what did she know of that peace which the doctor said passed all understanding?
she stood up presently, and going over to the bed, opened the dead mother's bible. between the leaves lay the picture which violet loved so much to look at. evelina's eye fell on the centre plate, where the little girl was represented seated all alone in the garret-room, looking out over the roofs and the chimneys towards the far-off sky.
"all alone," she murmured, reading the print beneath it; then turned on hastily, for it seemed to remind her painfully of her conduct yesterday. presently she came on the lock of golden hair which violet prized so highly, the long, glistening curl tied up with a knot of black ribbon, and she lifted it up carefully and looked at it with interest; then [pg 236]walking softly across to a little mirror which hung against the wall, she laid it against her own golden curls, and said under her breath, "just the same colour." she put back the hair into the bible; and then some other thought following quickly on the comparison, she went over to the trunk which stood beside violet's bed, and, lifting the lid noiselessly, drew out once more from the corner the hat trimmed with the blue forget-me-nots, which she carried into her own room and presently closed the door.
meanwhile violet, quite unconscious that her most precious possessions were being ruthlessly trifled with in the adjoining chamber, slept on quietly. she did not rouse up until quite late in the afternoon, when she saw evelina sitting in the window-seat as usual, and knitting stockings for the gützberg children.
"i am going soon to see father," she said softly; but at the words, evelina, who was in a reverie, started violently, and almost let the knitting slip from her fingers.
"aunt lizzie will be glad when father comes home; will she not, evelina?"
"yes, of course; every one will be glad."
"and the children, the little cousins at gützberg,—will not they too be delighted?"
"oh, they are too young to know such things."
[pg 237]
"but they will be watching all this time for thee to go back."
"so thou art thinking already of sending me back to gützberg?"
"no, no," cried violet, blushing hotly; "i do not want to send thee away, only aunt lizzie said she could spare thee a little while, and now it is so long since father went; and when he comes home he will take care of me all day long, and never be the least bit tired; and i will tell father how good thou hast been to me all this long time."
"i had a letter from thy aunt this morning," said evelina, turning away her face towards the window; "only a few lines. she is coming over here in a few days to see thee; and probably if thy father returns i shall go back with her. she sent thee her love, and she is making thee a little cloak to wear when thou goest out in thy carriage."
"ah, how good. i will wear it when father takes me out; that will not be long to wait."
when the doctor came again in the evening, he was quite delighted with the brightness of the little face, and with the rare happy smile which was lighting up all its features.
violet chatted to him more naturally than she had done for many a long day. she showed him her [pg 238]carriage; and told him of the cloak aunt lizzie was making for her; and laughed when she said how the cannon-shot had thrown down noah's wife and all the animals.
"i may see ella to-morrow, may i not?" she asked wistfully, as he moved towards the door.
"certainly; if she is not too noisy."
"oh, ella is always good," she cried joyously; "and i am never lonely when she is here."
madam adler, too, came across in the evening. her heart was full of anger against evelina for having deserted her charge the day before; but when she entered the room and found violet sitting on evelina's knee by the stove, with her arms round the girl's neck, who was singing to her, she thought the reprimand would be ill-timed, and she determined to wait for a better opportunity.
