Sally Gardiner was taken so entirely by surprise for an instant that she did not stoop to recover the gleaming knife which had fallen between her a.s.sailant and herself.
In that instant, the doctor, who had witnessed the scene which had taken place with such lightning-like rapidity, sprung forward and grasped the furious woman, pinioning her hands behind her, and called loudly upon the servants to come to his aid and remove her from Jay Gardiner"s bedside.
But there was little need of their a.s.sistance. Sally Gardiner stood regarding Bernardine, her hands hanging by her sides, her eyes staring eagerly at the intruder.
"_You_ here!" she muttered, in an almost inaudible voice. "What are _you_ doing in his sick-room, _you_ whom he always loved instead of me?
He married _me_ from a sense of honor, but he loved you, and never ceased to let me understand that to be the case. What are you doing here now--_you_ of all other women?"
"Come with me quietly into the other room and I will tell you how it happens that I am here--in _his_ home," whispered Bernardine, huskily.
"No," she shrieked, laughing a hard, jeering, terrible laugh in Bernardine"s white, pain-drawn face as she battled fiercely to shake off the doctor"s hold of her pinioned arms. "I shall not go--I shall not leave my post until he is _dead_! Do you hear?--until he is dead! I shall not save him for you! I"d rather be his widow than his unloved wife!"
"Come!" whispered Bernardine, sternly. "A human life is at stake--he is dying. You _must_ come with me and let the doctor be free to do his work. I command you to come!" she added, in a stern, ringing, sonorous voice that seemed to thrill the other to her very heart"s core and fascinate her--ay, fairly paralyze her will-power. "Come!" repeated Bernardine, laying a hand on her shoulder--"come out into the grounds with me, Mrs. Gardiner--out into the fresh air. I have something to tell you. I had an encounter with Victor Lamont last night," she added in a whisper, her eyes fixed steadily on the young wife as she slowly uttered the words.
Their effect was magical on Sally Gardiner. She reeled forward like one about to faint.
"Let me go out into the grounds alone," she cried, hoa.r.s.ely. "I must collect my scattered thoughts. Come to me there in half an hour, and tell me. I--I can listen to you then."
And with these words, the fiery creature left the room, staggering rather than walking through the open French window.
The doctor caught Bernardine"s hand in his.
"If he lives, it will be to your strategy that he owes his life," he said, hurriedly. "Now leave the room quickly. In ten minutes I will call you, and you shall tell his mother and sister whether it be life or death."
True to his promise, within the prescribed time the doctor called Bernardine.
"It will be life," he said, joyously; "and in performing the operation, I also found a small piece of bone resting against the brain, which was the cause of the strange lapse of memory he complained to me about several months ago. His brain is perfectly clear now. I heard from his lips a startling story," continued the doctor, taking Bernardine aside.
"Come to him."
She refused, saying she was just about to leave the house; but the doctor insisted, and at length, accompanied by Jay"s mother and his sister, she went to his bedside.
Jay"s joy at beholding Bernardine was so great they almost feared for his life. And then the truth came out: his marriage to Bernardine was legal and binding before G.o.d and man, and that, directly after he had left her on the day of the ceremony, he had met with an accident which completely obliterated the event from his mind; even all remembrance of Bernardine"s existence.
"What, then, is poor Sally?" cried his mother, in horror. "She wedded you, knowing nothing of all this!"
Before he could answer, they heard a great commotion in the corridor below; and, forgetful of the sick man, Antoinette rushed in weeping wildly, crying out that her young mistress had just been found dead in the brook.
She died without knowing the truth, and they were all thankful for that--not even her family or Miss Rogers ever knew the sad truth.
Two men fled from the vicinity that day--Victor Lamont and Jasper Wilde.
When Jay Gardiner was able to travel, he and his mother and sister and Bernardine went abroad; but, out of respect to poor Sally"s memory, it was a year before they took their places in the great world as--what they had been from the first--husband and wife.
In the sunshine of the happy years that followed, Bernardine never reproached her husband for that blotted page in their history which he would have given so much to efface.
Sally"s father and mother and sister grieved many a long year over her death.
Antoinette stole quietly away, and was seen no more. Old Mrs. Gardiner and Miss Margaret are as happy as the day is long in the love of Jay"s sweet, grave young wife, while her husband fairly adores her, though two others share his love as the sunny days flit by--a st.u.r.dy youngster whom they call Jay, and a dainty little maiden named Sally--named after Miss Rogers, and whom that lady declares is to be her heiress--a jolly little maiden, hoidenish and mischievous, strangely like that other one who came so near wrecking her father"s and mother"s life.
The little girl has but one fear--she never goes near the brook; perhaps its babbling waters could reveal a strange story--who can tell?
Over a grave on the sloping hill-side there is a marble shaft. The name engraved upon it is Sally Gardiner, that the world may not know the story of her who rests there.
The sun does not fall upon it, the shadow of the trees is so dense; but soft and pityingly falls the dew on the hearts of the flowers that cover the grave where Sally sleeps.
THE END.
THE HART SERIES
Laura Jean Libbey Miss Caroline Hart Mrs. E. Burke Collins Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller Charlotte M. Braeme Barbara Howard Lucy Randall Comfort Mary E. Bryan Marie Corelli
Was there ever a galaxy of names representing such authors offered to the public before?
Masters all of writing stories that arouse the emotions, in sentiment, pa.s.sion and love, their books excel any that have ever been written.
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