What happens when PerlSvc calls exit()?

I'm seeing something odd when a PerlSvc .exe tries to exit().

I put a cluck() in some initialization code. The stack trace shows that initialization is being triggered... by exit. Somehow the call to exit has become a block eval that recycles the program. The PID does not change.

The heavily abridged stack trace:

_load_config at (obfuscated) line 677.
  _load_config() called at (obfuscated) line 68
  start() called at (obfuscated) line 163
  mainFcn() called at (obfuscated) line 396
  PerlSvc::Interactive() called at PerlSvc.pm line 99
  PerlSvc::_interactive() called at (obfuscated) line 2049
  eval {...} called at (obfuscated) line 2049

obfuscated line 2049 is the exit call in question.