"Bernardine—— Ah! I should not tell you that," he responded, recollecting himself. But he had uttered, alas! the one fatal word—Bernardine.
CHAPTER XXIII.
"I can never rest night or day until I have seen this Bernardine and swept her from my path!" she cried.
She made up her mind that she would not tell her mother or Louisa just yet. It would worry her mother to discover that she had a rival, while Louisa—well, she was so envious of her, as it was, she might exult in the knowledge.
But how should she discover who this beautiful Bernardine was of whom he spoke with so much feeling?
Suddenly she stopped short and brought her two hands together, crying, excitedly:
"Eureka! I have found a way. I will follow up this scheme, and see what I can find out. Jay Gardiner will be out of the city for a few days. I will see his office attendant—he does not know me—and will never be able to recognize me again the way I shall disguise myself, and I will learn from him what young lady the doctor knows whose name begins with Bernardine. It is not an ordinary name, and he will be sure to remember it, I am confident, if he ever heard it mentioned."
It was an easy matter for Sally to slip out of the house early the next day without attracting attention, although she was dressed in her gayest, most stunning gown.
Calling a passing cab, she entered it, and soon found herself standing before Jay Gardiner's office, which she lost no time in entering.