"You shall never say that again, beautiful Bernardine! I love you—yes, I love you with all my heart and soul! Oh, darling! answer me—do you care for me?"
The girl recoiled from him with a low, wailing sob. The words of the fashionably attired young girl who had called upon her so mysteriously on that never-to-be-forgotten day, and taunted her with—"He is deceiving you, girl! Doctor Gardiner may talk to you of love, but he will never—never speak to you of marriage. Mark my words!"—were ringing like a death-knell in her ears.
"Oh, Bernardine!" he cried, throwing prudence to the winds, forgetting in that moment everything save his mad love for her—"oh, my darling! you are not alone in the world! I love you! Marry me, Bernardine, and save me from the future spreading out darkly before me—marry me within the hour—now! Don't refuse me. We are near a church now. The rector lives next door. We will alight here, and in five minutes you will be all my own to comfort, to care for, to protect and idolize, to worship as I would an angel from Heaven!"
He scarcely waited for her to consent. He stopped the coach, and fairly lifted her from the vehicle in his strong arms.
"Oh, Doctor Gardiner, is it for the best?" she cried, clinging to him with death-cold hands. "Are you sure you want me?"
The answer that he gave her, as he bent his fair, handsome head, must have satisfied her. Loving him as she did, how could she say him nay?
They entered the parsonage, and when they emerged from it, ten minutes later, Bernardine was Jay Gardiner's wedded wife.
And that was the beginning of the tragedy.
"I shall not take you to the scene of the fire just now, my darling," he decided. "The sight would be too much for you. In a day or two, when you have become more reconciled to your great loss, I will take you there."
"You know best, Doctor Gardiner," she sobbed, as they re-entered the vehicle. "I will do whatever you think is best."