She rose abruptly from her knees, and quitted the room with unsteady steps. "Thank Heaven it is over!" muttered David Moore, with a sigh. "Bernardine has consented, and I am saved!" The day that followed was surely the darkest sweet Bernardine Moore had ever known. But it came to an end at last, and with the evening came Jay Gardiner. He knew as soon as he greeted Bernardine and her father that something out of the usual order had transpired, the old basket-maker greeted him so stiffly, Bernardine so constrainedly. Bernardine's manner was quite as sweet and kind, but she did not hold out to him the little hand which it was heaven on earth to him to clasp even for one brief instant. Looking at her closely, he saw that her beautiful dark eyes were heavy and swollen with weeping. "Poor child! She is continually grieving over the drinking habit of her father," he thought; and the bitterest anger rose up in his heart against the old basket-maker for bringing a tear to those beautiful dark eyes. Again the longing came to him to beat down all barriers that parted her from him, take Bernardine in his arms, and crying out how madly he loved her, bear his beautiful love away as his idolized bride to his own palatial home. But the thought of that other one, to whom he was in honor and in duty bound, kept him silent. He realized that for his own peace of mind and hers he must never see Bernardine again; that this must be the last time. "I am sorry your father has fallen asleep, yet I do not wish to waken him, for I have come to say farewell to him and to you, Miss Moore," he said, huskily. He saw the lovely face grow as white as a snow-drop; he saw all the glad light leave the great dark eyes; he saw the beautiful lips pale and the little hands tremble, and the sight was almost more than he could endure, for he read by these signs that which he had guessed before--that the sweet, fond, tender heart of Bernardine had gone out to him as his had gone out to her. "Are you sorry, my poor girl?" he asked, brokenly. "Yes," she answered, not attempting to stay her bitter tears, "I shall miss you. Life will never be the same to me again." He stopped before her, and caught her passionately to him. "Dear Heaven, help me to say good-bye to you!" he cried; "for you must realize the truth, Bernardine. I love you--oh, I love you with all the strength of my heart and soul! Yet we must part!" CHAPTER XV. "I LOVE YOU! I CAN NOT KEEP THE SECRET ANY LONGER!" For a moment Bernardine rested in his arms while Jay Gardiner cried over and over again, reckless as to how it would end: "Yes, I love you, Bernardine, with all my heart, with all my soul!" But it was for a moment only; then the girl struggled out of the strong arms that infolded her, with the expression of a startled fawn in her dark, humid eyes.