Still Bernardine clung to her with that awful look of agony in her beautiful eyes, but uttering no word.
"Has she gone?" she murmured, at length.
"Has _who_ gone?" questioned Miss Rogers, wondering what she meant.
"The beautiful, pitiless stranger," sobbed Bernardine, catching her breath.
Miss Rogers believed that the girl"s mind was wandering, and refrained from further questioning her.
"The poor child is grieving so over this coming marriage of hers to Jasper Wilde that I almost fear her mind is giving way," she thought, in intense alarm, glancing at Bernardine.
As she did so, Bernardine began to sob again, breaking into such a pa.s.sionate fit of weeping, and suffering such apparently intense grief, that Miss Rogers was at a loss what to do or say.
She would not tell why she was weeping so bitterly; no amount of questioning could elicit from her what had happened.
Not for worlds would Bernardine have told to any human being her sad story--of the stranger"s visit and the startling disclosures she had made to her.
It was not until Bernardine found herself locked securely in the seclusion of her own room that she dared look the matter fully in the face, and then the grief to which she abandoned herself was more poignant than before.
In her great grief, a terrible thought came to her. Why not end it all?
Surely G.o.d would forgive her for laying down life"s cross when it was too heavy to be borne.
Yes, that is what she would do. She would end it all.
Her father did not care for her; it caused him no grief to barter her, as the price of his secret, to Jasper Wilde, whom she loathed.
It lacked but one day to that marriage she so detested.
Yes, she would end it all before the morrow"s sun rose.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Miss Rogers noticed that Bernardine was strangely silent and preoccupied during the remainder of that day; but she attached no particular importance to it.
She knew that the girl was wearing her heart out in brooding over the coming marriage. Jasper Wilde refused to be bought off, and Bernardine herself declared that it must take place. _She, alas! knew why!_
Miss Rogers had done her best to persuade David Moore to take Bernardine away--to Europe--ay, to the furthest end of the world, where Jasper Wilde could not find them, declaring that she would raise the money to defray their traveling expenses.
David Moore shook his head.
"There is no part of the world to which we could go that he would not find us," he muttered, burying his face in his shaking hands. "But we will speak no more about it. It unmans me to think what would happen were----" and he stopped short.
He had often heard Miss Rogers make allusion to money she could lay her hand on at any moment; but the old basket-maker never believed her. He fancied that the poor woman had a sort of mania that she was possessed of means which she could lay her hand on at any moment, and all she said on the subject he considered as but visionary, and paid no attention to it whatever.
Poor Miss Rogers was in despair. What could she do to save Bernardine?
She worried so over the matter that by evening she had so severe a headache that she was obliged to retire to her room and lie down.
David Moore had drunk himself into insensibility early in the evening, and Bernardine, sick at heart, alone, wretched, and desolate, was left by herself to look the dread future in the face.
The girl had reached a point where longer endurance was impossible. The man whom she loved had been only deceiving her with his protestations of affection; he had laughed with his companions at the kisses he had bestowed on her sweet lips; and she abhorred the man who was to claim her on the morrow as the price of her father"s liberty.
No wonder the world looked dark to the poor girl, and there seemed nothing in the future worth living for.
As the hours dragged by, Bernardine had made up her mind what to do.
The little clock on the mantel chimed the midnight hour as she arose from her low seat by the window, and putting on her hat, she glided from the wretched rooms that had been home to her all her dreary life.
Owing to the lateness of the hour, she encountered few people on the streets. There was no one to notice who she was or whither she went, save the old night-watchman who patroled the block.
"Poor child!" he muttered, thoughtfully, looking after the retreating figure; "she"s going out to hunt for that drunken old scapegrace of a father, I"ll warrant. It"s dangerous for a fine young girl with a face like hers to be on the streets alone at this hour of the night. I"ve told the old basket-maker so scores of times, but somehow he does not seem to realize her great danger."
Bernardine drew down her dark veil, and waited until the people should go away. She was dressed in dark clothes, and sat so silently she attracted no particular attention; not even when she leaned over and looked longingly into the eddying waves.
Two or three ships bound for foreign ports were anch.o.r.ed scarcely fifty rods away. She could hear the songs and the laughter of the sailors. She waited until these sounds had subsided.
The girl sitting close in the shadow of one of the huge posts was not observed by the few stragglers strolling past.
One o"clock sounded from some far-off tower-clock; then the half hour struck.
Bernardine rose slowly to her feet, and looked back at the lights of the great city that she was leaving.
There would be no one to miss her; no one to weep over her untimely fate; no one to grieve that she had taken the fatal step to eternity.
Her father would be glad that there was no one to follow his step by night and by day, and plead with the wine-sellers to give him no more drink. He would rejoice that he could follow his own will, and drink as much as he pleased.
There was no dear old mother whose heart would break; no gentle sister or brother who would never forget her; no husband to mourn for her; no little child to hold out its hands to the blue sky, and cry to her to come back. No one would miss her on the face of G.o.d"s earth.
Alas! for poor Bernardine, how little she knew that at that very hour the man whose love she craved most was wearing his very heart out for love of her.
Bernardine took but one hurried glance backward; then, with a sobbing cry, sprung over the pier, and into the dark, seething waters.
CHAPTER XXVII.
When Jay Gardiner left the city, he had expected to be gone a week, possibly a fortnight; but, owing to an unexpected turn in the business he was transacting, he was enabled to settle it in a day or so, and return to the city.
It was by the merest chance that he took pa.s.sage by boat instead of going by rail; or, more truly speaking, there was a fate in it. The boat was due at the wharf by midnight; but, owing to an unaccountable delay, caused by the breaking of some machinery in the engine-room, it was after one o"clock when the steamer touched the wharf.
Doctor Gardiner was not in such a hurry as the rest of the pa.s.sengers were, and he walked leisurely across the gang-plank, pausing, as he reached the pier, to look back at the lights on the water.
He felt just in the mood to pause there and enjoy what comfort he could find in a good cigar. He was just about to light a cigar, when his gaze was suddenly attracted toward a slender object--the figure of a woman sitting on the very edge of the pier.