Suddenly the woman struggled to her feet.
"I did not know who you were talking about until you mentioned that name!" she cried, excitedly and almost incoherently; "for it was not Jasper Wilde who brought you here. It never occurred to me that Jasper Wilde had a hand in it—that he had anything to do with it. I am Jasper Wilde's wife, girl, and the story you have told is a revelation to me. He must have got the other man to bring you here, and he means to fly with you and desert me! Ha, ha, ha! I always find out everything he attempts to do in some way!"
"He went off on his horse just as you were brought in. Before he comes, I will set you free."
"Oh, I thank you more than words can express!" said Bernardine, fervently.
"You can take the horse and buggy that they always have hitched and ready for an emergency. If they took you from Gardiner mansion, you will find it a good hour's drive; but if you start at once you will get there by sunrise. You may meet some of them on the road; but you seem to be a brave girl. You have a horse that not one of them could overtake in a five-mile race, if you lay on the whip. Now go!"
"But you?" cried Bernardine. "I can not go and leave you suffering here. You are very ill—I see it in your face. You are white as death. Let me take you to the nearest doctor—there are several hereabouts——"
But the woman shook her head sadly.
"I feel that it is of no use," she whispered, hoarsely. "I feel that I am doomed—that my hour has come. Your startling news has done it," she gasped. "Jasper once dealt me a terrible blow over the heart. I—I did not die then, but my heart has been weak ever since. Go—go, girl, while the opportunity is yours. You can not escape him, if he returns and finds you here! Leave me to my fate. It is better so."
As she uttered the last word, she fell back with a dull thud, and Bernardine saw—ah, she knew—that the patient heart of this poor creature who had loved faithless, cruel Jasper Wilde to the bitter end had slowly broken at last.
Reverently covering the white, staring face with her apron, and breathing a sobbing prayer for her, Bernardine fled from the room.