"Are you hurt?" cried Doctor Gardiner, springing from his seat and bending over the prostrate figure of the girl.
"No, no!" cried the girl, in the saddest, sweetest voice he had ever heard. "They must not find me here when they come to the door; they will be so angry!" she said, springing to her feet.
At that moment there was a commotion in the wine-room, the door of which had just been opened.
As the girl turned to look in that direction, she saw a man pushed violently into the street.
"Oh, it is father—it is father!" cried the young girl, wildly, shaking herself free from the doctor's detaining hand. "Oh, they have killed my father! See! he is lying on the pavement dead, motionless! Oh, God, pity me! I am left alone in the wide, wide world!"
CHAPTER VII.
BERNARDINE.
Doctor Gardiner sprung forward quickly.
"You are unnecessarily alarmed, my dear young lady," he said. "The gentleman is only stunned."