A pitiful shadow crossed the girl's face. Evidently she knew what the man had to say to her.
Tears which she could not resist came to her eyes, and her lovely lips trembled.
Doctor Gardiner could not help but observe this.
"Bernardine," he cried, hoarsely, forgetting himself for the moment, "I should like to ask something of you. Will you promise to grant my request?"
"Yes," she murmured, faintly and unhesitatingly.
"Do not trust the man to whom your father is talking."
"There is little need to caution me in regard to him, Doctor Gardiner," she murmured. "My own heart has told me that already——"
She stopped short in great embarrassment, and Doctor Gardiner thought it best not to pursue the subject further, for his own peace of mind as well as hers.
He turned abruptly away, and was quickly lost to sight in the labyrinth of stair-ways.
With slow steps Bernardine had re-entered her apartments again. As she approached the door, she heard Jasper Wilde say to her father in an angry, excited voice: