"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, hoarsely. "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 God 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. * * * * *