Bernardine looked up at him gravely.
"This dress will do for the present," she declared. "The good, kind old nurse dried and pressed it out so nicely for me that it looks almost as good as new. And as for going to a hotel, I am sure it is too expensive. We could go to a boarding-house where the charges would be moderate."
Jay Gardiner threw back his handsome head, and laughed so loud and so heartily that Bernardine looked at him anxiously.
"Now that I come to think the matter over, I don't think I ever told you much concerning my financial affairs," he said, smiling.
"No; but papa guessed about them," replied Bernardine.
"Tell me what he guessed?" queried Jay. "He thought I was poor?"
"Yes," replied Bernardine, frankly. "He said that all doctors had a very hard time of it when they started in to build up a practice, and that you must be having a very trying experience to make both ends meet."
"Was that why he did not want me for a son-in-law?"
"Yes, I think so," admitted Bernardine, blushing.
"Tell me this, my darling," he said, eagerly catching at the pretty little hands lying folded in her lap; "why is it that you have waived all that, that you have married me, not knowing whether I had enough to pay for a day's lodging?"