haughtily from her seat. "While I thank you for the honor you have paid me, I repeat that I could never marry you." "And I say that you shall, girl, and that, too, within a month from today," cried the other, in a rage. "Oh, Bernardine, say 'Yes!'" cried the old man, trembling like an aspen leaf. "I have never gone contrary to your wishes, father, in all my life," she said; "but in this instance, where my interests are so deeply concerned, I do feel that I must decide for myself." With a horrible laugh, Jasper Wilde quitted the room, banging the door after him. With a lingering look at the beautiful young face, her father bid her good-night, and with faltering steps quitted the little sitting-room and sought his own apartment. A little later, Bernardine was startled to hear him moaning and sobbing as though he were in great pain. "Are you ill, father? -- can I do anything for you?" she called, going quickly to his door and knocking gently. "No," he answered in a smothered voice. "Go to your bed, Bernardine, and sleep. It is a great thing to be able to sleep -- and forget." "Poor papa!" sighed the girl, "how I pity him! Life has been very hard to him. Why are some men born to be gentlemen, with untold wealth at their command, while others are born to toil all their weary lives through for the meager pittance that suffices to keep body and soul together?" She went slowly to her little room, but not to sleep. She crossed over to the window, sat down on a chair beside it, and looked up at the bit of starry sky that was visible between the tall house-tops and still taller chimneys, then down at the narrow deserted street so far below, and gave herself up to meditation. "No, no; I could never marry Jasper Wilde!" she mused. "The very thought of it makes me grow faint and sick at heart; his very presence fills me with an indescribable loathing which I cannot shake off. How differently the presence of Doctor Gardiner affects me! I -- I find myself watching for his coming, and dreading the time when he will cease to visit Papa." Doctor Gardiner's coming had been to Bernardine as the sun to the violet. The old life had fallen from her, and she was beginning to live a new one in his presence. As she sat by the window, she thought of the look the young doctor had given her at parting. The remembrance of it quickened the beating of her heart and brought the color to her usually pale cheeks. How different the young doctor was from Jasper Wilde! If the young doctor had asked her the same question Jasper Wilde had, would her answer have been the same? The clock in an adjacent belfry slowly tolled the midnight hour. Bernardine started. "How quickly the time has flown since I have been sitting here," she thought. She did not know that it had been because her 

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