"Oh, I am so glad that you have come, doctor!" she said, clasping her little hands. "My poor father is so much worse. Please step in this way!"
He was ushered into a little sitting-room, and as he entered it he saw that everything was scrupulously neat and clean.
"Poor papa is out of his mind, doctor. Please come quickly, and see him!"
It did not require a second glance for the doctor to understand all; and straightway he proceeded to give the man a draught, which had the effect of quieting him. The young girl stood by the man with clasped hands and dilated eyes, scarcely breathing as she watched him.
The young doctor turned impulsively to the girl by his side.
"Pardon me for the question, but do you live alone with your father?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied in a voice that thrilled him as the grandest, sweetest music he had heard had never had power to do. "We have only each other," she added, watching the distorted face on the pillow with a fond wistfulness that made the young doctor, who was watching her, almost envy the father.
"I will come again to-morrow," he said, "and prescribe for him. I have done all the good that is possible for the present."
"Good-morning, Miss Moore," he said, standing with his hat in his hand, and bowing before her as if she were a princess. "If you should have occasion to need me in a hurry, send for me at once. This is my address." And he handed her his card.
Again she thanked him in a voice so sweet and low that it sounded to him like softest music.
He closed the door gently after him; and it seemed to him, as he walked slowly down the narrow dark stairs, that he had left Paradise and one of G.o.d"s angels in it.
CHAPTER IX.
"WHAT A LONELY LIFE FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL YOUNG GIRL!"
All that day the sweet face of Bernardine Moore was before Doctor Gardiner. He found himself actually looking forward to the morrow, when he should see her again. He deceived himself completely as to the cause, telling himself that it was because of his pity for her, and the desolate life she was leading.
The next day when he called, Bernardine again met him at the door.
"Papa has been calling for you," she said. Then she stopped short, in dire confusion, as she remembered the reason why he was so anxious to see him. "He has just fallen into a light sleep. I will go and awaken him at once and tell him you are here."
"By no means," he said. "Pray do not awaken him; the sleep he is having is better than medicine. Will you permit me to sit down and talk with you for a few moments, until he awakens?"
She looked anxiously at him for a moment, then said, with charming frankness:
"Would you mind very much if I went on with my work. I have several baskets to be finished by night, when they will be called for."
"By no means. Pray proceed with your work. Do not let me disturb you,"
he answered, hastily. "I shall consider it a great favor if you will allow me to watch you as you work."
"Certainly," said Bernardine, "if you will not mind coming into our little work-shop," and she led the way with a grace that completely charmed him.
The place was devoid of any furniture save two or three wooden chairs, which the girl and her father occupied at their work, the long wooden bench, the great coils of willow--the usual paraphernalia of the basket-makers" trade.
She sat down on her little wooden seat, indicating a seat opposite for him. He watched her eagerly as her slim white fingers flew in and out among the strands of trailing willow quickly taking shape beneath her magic touch.
"It must be a very lonely life for you," said Jay Gardiner, after a moment"s pause.
"I do not mind; I am never lonely when father is well," she answered, with a sweet, bright smile. "We are great companions, father and I. He regales me by the hour with wonderful stories of things he used to see when he was a steamboat captain. But he met with an accident one time, and then he had to turn to basket-making."
As he conversed with the young girl, Jay Gardiner was indeed surprised to see what a fund of knowledge that youthful mind contained. She was the first young girl whom he had met who could sit down and talk sensibly to a man. Her ideas were so sweet, so natural, that it charmed him in spite of himself. She was like a heroine out of a story-book--just such a one, he thought, as Martha Washington must have been in her girlhood days. His admiration and respect for her grew with each moment.
CHAPTER X.
WHAT IS LIFE WITHOUT LOVE?
Every evening, on some pretext or other, Jay Gardiner managed to pay David Moore, the basket-maker, a visit, and the cynical old man began to look forward to these visits.
He never dreamed that his daughter was the magnet which drew the young man to his poor home. They were evenings that Jay Gardiner never forgot.
Bernardine was slightly confused at first by his presence; then she began to view the matter in another light--that the young doctor had taken quite an interest in her father. He had certainly cured him of a terrible habit, and she was only too pleased that her father should have visits from so pleasant a man.
She always had some work in her slender white hands when the doctor called. Sometimes, glancing up unexpectedly, she would find the doctor"s keen blue eyes regarding her intently, and she would bend lower over her sewing. Jay Gardiner, however, saw the flush that rose to her cheek and brow.
As he sat in that little tenement sitting-room--he who had been flattered and courted by the most beautiful heiresses--he experienced a feeling of rest come over him.
He would rather pa.s.s one hour in that plain, unpretentious sitting-room than visit the grandest Fifth Avenue mansion.
And thus a fortnight pa.s.sed. At the end of that time, Jay Gardiner stood face to face with the knowledge of his own secret--that he had at last met in Bernardine Moore the idol of his life. He stood face to face with this one fact--that wealth, grandeur, anything that earth could give him, was of little value unless he had the love of sweet Bernardine.
It came upon him suddenly that the sweet witchery, the glamor falling over him was--love.
He realized that he lived only in Bernardine"s presence, and that without her life would be but a blank to him. His love for Bernardine became the one great pa.s.sion of his life. Compared with her, all other women paled into insignificance.
He fell, without knowing it, from a state of intense admiration into one of blind adoration for her. He had never before trembled at a woman"s touch. Now, if his hand touched hers, he trembled as a strong tree trembles in a storm.
Looking forward to the years to come, he saw no gleam of brightness in them unless they were spent with the girl he loved.
Then came the awakening. He received a letter from Sally Pendleton, in which she upbraided him for not writing. That letter reminded him that he was not free; that before he had met Bernardine, he had bound himself in honor to another.
He was perplexed, agitated. He loved Bernardine with his whole heart, and yet, upon another girl"s hand shone his betrothal-ring.
When the knowledge of his love for sweet Bernardine came to him, he told himself that he ought to fly from her; go where the witchery of her face, the charm of her presence, would never set his heart on fire; go where he could never hear her sweet voice again.
"Only a few days more," he said, sadly. "I will come here for another week, and then the darkness of death will begin for me, for the girl who holds me in such galling chains will return to the city."
Why should he not see Bernardine for another week? It would not harm her, and it would be his last gleam of happiness.
At this time another suitor for Bernardine"s hand appeared upon the scene. On one of his visits to the Moores" home he met a young man there. The old basket-maker introduced him, with quite a flourish, as Mr. Jasper Wilde, a wine merchant, and his landlord. The two men bowed stiffly and looked at each other as they acknowledged the presentation.