Bernardine was very much surprised to hear this; but before she couldreply, the lady threw open a door to the right, and Bernardine wasushered into a plain but scrupulously neat apartment in which sat ayoung girl of apparently her own age.
"Sleep here in peace, comfort and security," said the lady. "I will havea talk with you on the morrow," and she closed the door softly, leavingBernardine alone with the young girl at the window, who had faced aboutand was regarding her eagerly.
"I am awfully glad you are come," she broke in quickly; "it was terriblyslow occupying this room all alone, as I told the matron awhile ago. Itseems she took pity on me and sent you here. But why don't you sit down,girl? You look at me as though you were not particularly struck with myface, and took a dislike to me at first sight, as most people do."
She was correct in her surmise. Bernardine _had_ taken a dislike to her,she scarcely knew why.
Bernardine forgot her own trials and anxiety in listening to thesorrowful story of this hapless creature.
"Why don't you try to find work in some other factory or some shop?"asked Bernardine, earnestly.
"My clothes are so shabby, my appearance is against me. No one wants toemploy a girl whose dress is all tatters."
A sudden thought came to Bernardine, and she acted on the impulse.
"Here," she said, pulling out her pocket-book--"here is ten dollars. Geta dress, and try to find work. The money is not a loan; it is a gift."
The girl had hardly heard the words, ere a cry of amazement fell fromher lips. She was eyeing the well-filled pocket-book with a burninggaze.
CHAPTER XXXII.
The girl took the money which Bernardine handed to her, her eyesfollowing every movement of the white hand that placed the wallet backin her pocket.
"You must be rich to have so much money about you," she said, slowly,with a laugh that grated harshly on Bernardine's sensitive ears.
"It is not mine," said Bernardine, simply; "it is my husband's, andrepresents all the years of toil he has worked, and all the rigideconomy he has practiced."
The girl looked at her keenly. Could it be that she was simple enough tobelieve that the man who had deserted her so cruelly had _married_ her?Well, let her believe what she chose, it was no business of hers.
The bowl of bread and milk and the cup of tea were sent up toBernardine, and she disposed of them with a heartiness that amused hercompanion.
"I am afraid you will not sleep well after eating so late," she said,with a great deal of anxiety in her voice.
"I shall rest all the better for taking the hot milk. I fall asleepgenerally as soon as my head touches the pillow, and I do not wake untilthe next morning. Why, if the house tumbled down around me, I believethat I would not know it. I will remove my jacket, to keep it fromwrinkling."
This information seemed to please her companion. She breathed a sigh ofrelief, and an ominous glitter crept into her small black eyes.
"But I do not want to go to sleep to-night," added Bernardine in thenext breath. "I shall sit by the window, with my face pressed againstthe pane, watching for my--my husband."
Her companion, who had introduced herself as Margery Brown, cried outhastily:
"Don't do that. You will look like a washed-out, wilted flower byto-morrow, if you do, and your--your husband won't like that. Men onlycare for women when they are fresh and fair. Go to bed, and I will situp and watch for you, and wake you when he comes; though it's myopinion he won't come until to-morrow, for fear of disturbing you."
But Bernardine was firm in her resolve.
"He may come any minute," she persisted, drawing her chair close to thewindow, and peering wistfully out into the storm.
But a tired feeling, caused by the great excitement She had undergonethat day, at length began to tell upon her, and her eyes drooped wearilyin spite of her every effort to keep them open, and at last, little bylittle, they closed, and the long, dark, curling lashes, heavy withunshed tears, lay still upon the delicately rounded cheeks.
Margery Brown bent forward, watching her eagerly.
"Asleep at last," she muttered, rising from her seat and crossing theroom with a stealthy, cat-like movement, until she reached Bernardine'sside.
Bending over her, she laid her hand lightly on her shoulder.
Bernardine stirred uneasily, muttering something in her, sleep about"loving him so fondly," the last of the sentence ending in a troubledsigh.
"They used to tell me that I had the strange gift of being able tomesmerize people," she muttered. "We will see if I can do it _now_. I'lltry it."
Standing before Bernardine, she made several passes with her handsbefore the closed eyelids. They trembled slightly, but did not open.Again and again those hands waved to and fro before Bernardine with theslowness and regularity of a pendulum.
"Ah, ha!" she muttered at length under her breath, "she sleeps soundenough now."
She laid her hand heavily on Bernardine's breast. The gentle breathingdid not abate, and with a slow movement the hand slid down to the pocketof her dress, fumbled about the folds for a moment, then reappeared,tightly clutching the well-filled wallet.
"You can sleep on as comfortably as you like now, my innocent littlefool!" she muttered. "Good-night, and good-bye to you."
Hastily donning Bernardine's jacket and hat, the girl stole noiselesslyfrom the room, closing the door softly after her.
So exhausted was Bernardine, she did not awaken until the sunshine,drifting into her face in a flood of golden light, forced the long blacklashes to open.
For an instant she was bewildered as she sat up in her chair, lookingabout the small white room; but in a moment she remembered all that hadtranspired.
She saw that she was the sole occupant of the apartment, and concludedher room-mate must have gone to breakfast; but simultaneously with thisdiscovery, she saw that her jacket and hat were missing.
She was mystified at first, loath to believe that her companion couldhave appropriated them, and left the torn and ragged articles she sawhanging in their place.
As she arose from her chair, she discovered that her pocket was hanginginside out, and that the pocket-book was gone!
For an instant she was fairly paralyzed. Then the white lips broke intoa scream that brought the matron, who was just passing the door, quicklyto her side.
In a hysterical voice, quite as soon as she could command herself toarticulate the words, she told the good woman what had happened.
The matron listened attentively.
"I never dreamed that you had money about you my poor child," she said,"or I would have suggested your leaving it with me. I worried afterwardabout putting you in this room with Margaret Brown; but we were full,and there was no help for it. That is her great fault. She is nothonest. We knew that, but when she appealed to me for a night's lodging,I could not turn her away. The front door is never locked, and those whocome here can leave when they like. We found it standing open thismorning, and we felt something was wrong."
But Bernardine did not hear the last of the sentence. With a cry shefell to the floor at the matron's feet in a death-like swoon.
Kind hands raised her, placed her on the couch, and administered to her;but when at length the dark eyes opened, there was no glance ofrecognition in them, and the matron knew, even before she called thedoctor, that she had a case of brain fever before her.
This indeed proved to be a fact, and it was many a long week ere aknowledge of events transpiring around her came to Bernardine.
* * * * *
During the interim, dear reader, we will follow the fortunes of JayGardiner, the young husband for whom Bernardine had watched and waitedin vain.
When he was picked up unconscious after the collision, he was recognizedby some of the passengers and conveyed to his own office.
It seemed that he had sustained a serious scalp-wound and the doctorswho had been called in consultation looked anxiously into each other'sfaces.
"A delicate operation will be necessary," said the most experiencedphysician, "and whether it will result in life or death, I can not say."
They recommended that his relatives, if he had any, be sent for. It wassoon ascertained that his mother and sister were in Europe, travelingabout the Continent. The next person equally, if indeed not moreinterested, was the young lady he was betrothed to marry--MissPendleton. Accordingly, she was sent for with all possible haste.
A servant bearing a message for Sally entered the room.
The girl's hands trembled. She tore the envelope open quickly, and asher eyes traveled over the contents of the note, she gave a loud scream.
"Jay Gardiner has met with an accident, and I am sent for. Ah! that iswhy I have not heard from him for a week, mamma!" she exclaimed,excitedly.
"I will go with you, my dear," declared her mother. "It wouldn't beproper for you to go alone. Make your toilet at once."
To the messenger's annoyance, the young lady he was sent for kept himwaiting nearly an hour, and he was startled, a little later, to see thevision of blonde loveliness that came hurrying down the broad stonesteps in the wake of her mother.
"Beautiful, but she has no heart," was his mental opinion. "Very fewgirls would have waited an hour, knowing their lover lay at the point ofdeath. But it's none of my business, though I _do_ wish noble youngDoctor Gardiner had made a better selection for a wife."
The cab whirled rapidly on, and soon reached Doctor Gardiner's office.
Sally looked a little frightened, and turned pale under her rouge whenshe saw the group of grave-faced physicians evidently awaiting herarrival.
"Our patient has recovered consciousness," said one of them, taking herby the hand and leading her forward. "He is begging pitifully to seesome one--of course, it must be yourself--some one who is waiting forhim."
"Of course," repeated Sally. "There is no one he would be so interestedin seeing as myself."
And quite alone, she entered the inner apartment where Jay Gardiner layhovering between life and death.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The room into which Sally Pendleton was ushered was so dimly lightedthat she was obliged to take the second glance about ere she coulddistinguish where the couch was on which Jay Gardiner lay. The nextmoment she was bending over him, crying and lamenting so loudly that thedoctors waiting outside were obliged to go to her and tell her that thisoutburst might prove fatal to their patient in that critical hour.
Jay Gardiner was looking up at her with dazed eyes. He recognized her,uttered her name.
"Was it to-night that I left your house, after settling when themarriage was to take place?" he asked.
Miss Pendleton humored the idea by answering "Yes," instead of tellinghim that the visit he referred to had taken place several weeks before.
"To-day was to have been our wedding-day," she sobbed, "and now you areill--very ill. But, Jay," she whispered, bending down and uttering thewords rapidly in his ear, "it could take place just the same, here andnow, if you are willing. I sent a note to a minister to come here, andhe may arrive at any moment. When he comes, shall I speak to him aboutit?"
He did not answer; he was trying to remember something, trying, oh, sohard, to remember something that lay like a weight on his mind.
Heaven help him! the past was entirely blotted out of his memory!
He recollected leaving Miss Pendleton's house after setting the date forhis marriage with her, but beyond that evening the world was a blank tohim.
He never remembered that there were such people as David Moore, thebasket-maker, and a beautiful girl, his daughter Bernardine, to whom hehad lost his heart, and whom he had wedded, and that she was now waitingfor him. His mind was to be a blank upon all that for many a day tocome.
"What do you say, Jay?" repeated Miss Pendleton; "will not the ceremonytake place to-day, as we had intended?"
"They tell me I am very ill, Sally," he whispered. "I--I may be dying.Do you wish the ceremony to take place in the face of that fact?"
"Yes," she persisted. "I want you to keep your solemn vow that you wouldmake me your wife; and--and delays are dangerous."
"Then it shall be as you wish," he murmured, faintly, in an almostinaudible voice, the effort to speak being so great as to cause him toalmost lose consciousness.
Sally stepped quickly from Jay's beside out into the adjoining room.
"Mr. Gardiner wishes our marriage to take place here and now," sheannounced. "A minister will be here directly. When he arrives, pleaseshow him to Doctor Gardiner's bedside."
Mamma Pendleton smiled and nodded her approval in a magnificent way asshe caught her daughter's eye for a second. The doctors looked at oneanother in alarm.
"I do not see how it can take place just now, Miss Pendleton," said one,quietly. "We have a very dangerous and difficult operation to performupon your betrothed, and each moment it is delayed reduces his chance ofrecovery. We must put him under chloroform without an instant's delay."
"And I say that it shall not be done until after the marriage ceremonyhas been performed," declared Sally, furiously; adding, spitefully: "Youwant to cheat me out of becoming Jay Gardiner's wife. But I defy you!you can not do it! He _shall_ marry me, in spite of you all!"
At that moment there was a commotion outside. The minister had arrived.
Sally herself rushed forward to meet him ere the doctors could have anopportunity to exchange a word with him, and conducted him at once tothe sick man's bedside, explaining that her lover had met with anaccident, and that he wished to be married to her without a moment'sdelay.
"I shall be only too pleased to serve you both," replied the good man.
"You must make haste, sir," urged Miss Pendleton sharply. "See, he isbeginning to sink."
The minister did make haste. Never before were those solemn words sorapidly uttered.
How strange it was that fate should have let that ceremony go on to theend which would spread ruin and desolation before it!
The last words were uttered. The minister of God slowly but solemnlypronounced Sally Pendleton Jay Gardiner's lawfully wedded wife.
The doctors did not congratulate the bride, but sprung to the assistanceof the young physician, who had fallen back upon his pillow gasping forbreath.
One held a sponge saturated with a strong liquid to his nostrils, whileanother escorted the minister, the bride, and her mother from theapartment.
"Remain in this room as quietly as possible," urged the doctor, in awhisper, "and I will let you know at the earliest possible momentwhether it will be life or death with your husband, Mrs. Gardiner."
At last the door quickly opened, and two of the doctors stood on thethreshold.
"Well, doctor," she cried, looking from one to the other, "what tidingsdo you bring me? Am I a wife or a widow?"
"Five minutes' time will decide that question, madame," said one,impressively. "We have performed the operation. It rests with a HigherPower whether it will be life or death."
And the doctor who had spoken took out his watch, and stood motionlessas a statue while it ticked off the fatal minutes.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Sally Pendleton and her mother watched their faces keenly.
The time is up. They open the inner door reluctantly. The two doctors,bending over their patient, look up with a smile.
"The heart still beats," they whisper. "He will live."
And this is the intelligence that is carried out to the young bride, thewords breaking in upon her in the midst of her selfish calculations.
She did not love Jay Gardiner. Any genuine passion in her breast hadbeen coolly nipped in the bud by his indifference, which had stung herto the quick.
She could not make him jealous. She knew that he would have been onlytoo relieved if she had fallen in love with some one else, and had beentaken off his hands.
He always treated her in a cool, lordly manner--a manner that alwaysimpressed her with his superiority. She was obliged to acknowledg
e himher master; she could never make him her slave.
And now he was to live, and she was his wife. She would share hismagnificent home, all the grandeur that his position would bring to her.She had been brought up to regard money as the one aim of existence.Money she must have. She coveted power, and she was girl of the worldenough to know that money meant power.
"Yes, he will live; but whether he will gain his full reasoning powersis a matter the future alone can decide," the doctors declare.
Two long months, and Doctor Gardiner is slowly convalescing. His youngwife flits about the room, a veritable dream in her dainty lace-trimmedhouse-gowns, baby pink ribbons tying back her yellow curls. But he looksaway from her toward the window with a weary sigh.
He has married her, and he tells himself over and over again, that hemust make the best of it. But "making the best of it" is indeed a bitterpill, for she is not his style of woman.
During the time he has been convalescing, he has been studying her, andas one trait after another unfolds itself, he wonders how it will allend.
He sees she has a passionate craving for the admiration of men. Shemakes careful toilets in which to receive his friends when they call toinquire after his health; and last, but not least, she has taken to thewheel, and actually appears before him in bloomers.
What would his haughty old mother and his austere sister say when theylearned this?