Accordingly he broke into every topic that was introduced; and thus the evening wore on, until it became quite evident to Doctor Gardiner that Mr. Jasper Wilde intended to sit him out. Bernardine looked just a trifle weary when the clock on the mantel struck ten, and Doctor Gardiner rose to depart. 

"Shall I hold the light for you?" she asked. "The stair-way is always very dark." 

"If you will be so kind," murmured the doctor. 

Jasper Wilde's face darkened as he listened to this conversation. His eyes flashed fire as they both disappeared through the doorway. 

On the landing outside Doctor Gardiner paused a few moments. How he longed to give her a few words of advice, to tell her to beware of the man whom he had just left talking to her father! But he remembered that he had not that right. She might think him presumptuous. If he had only been free, he would have pleaded his own suit then and there. That she was poor and unknown, and the daughter of such a father, he cared nothing. 

Ah! cruel fate, which forbid him taking her in his arms and never letting her go until she had promised to be his wife! 

As it was, knowing that he loved her with such a mighty love, he told himself that he must look upon her face but once again, and then it must be only to say farewell. 

"The night is damp and the air is chill, and these narrow halls are draughty. Do not stand out here," he said, with eager solicitude; "you might catch cold." 

She laughed a sweet, amused laugh. 

"I am used to all kinds of weather, Doctor Gardiner," she said. "I am always out in it. I make the first track in winter through the deep snows. I go for the work in the morning, and return with it at night. You know, when one is poor, one can not be particular about such little things as the weather; it would never do." 

CHAPTER XI. A SHADOW DARKENS THE PEACEFUL HOME OF THE BASKET-MAKER. Sweet Bernardine Moore laughed to see the look of amazement upon the young doctor's face. He who had been reared in luxury, pampered and indulged -- ay, spoiled by an over-indulgent mother, what had he ever known of the bitter realities of life, the struggles many have to undergo for their very existence? 

He looked at this delicate, graceful girl, and his lips trembled, his eyes grew moist with 

 Prev. P 23/179 next