It touched him a little to see how delightedly the girl welcomed him. She, too, was a money-seeker like the rest of her sex; but he could also see that she was in love with him. "I have been home for three days, and you have not even remembered that fact," she said, brightly, yet with a very reproachful look. "If you will pardon the offense, I will promise not to be so remiss in the future." "I shall hold you to your word," she declared. "But dear me, how pale and haggard you look! That will never do for a soon-to-be bridegroom!" His brow darkened. The very allusion to his coming marriage was most hateful to him. Sally could see that, though she pretended not to notice it. Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton came in to welcome him, being so profuse in their greeting that they annoyed him. Louisa was more sensible. Her welcome was quiet, not to say constrained. "If it had been Louisa instead of Sally," he mused, bitterly, "the fate that I have brought upon myself would be more bearable." He was so miserable as he listened to Sally's ceaseless chatter that he felt that if he had a revolver, he would shoot himself then and there, and thus end it all. CHAPTER XVI. "WHERE THERE IS NO JEALOUSY THERE IS LITTLE LOVE!" It was a relief to Jay Gardiner when he found himself out of the house and on the street. The short two hours he had passed in Sally's society were more trying on his nerves than the hardest day's work could have been. He groaned aloud at the thought of the long years he was destined to live though, with this girl as his companion. He had come at seven, and made his adieu at nine. Sally then went upstairs to her mother's room with a very discontented face, and entered the _boudoir_ in anything but the best of humors. Mrs. Pendleton looked up from the book she was reading, with an expression of astonishment and wonder. "Surely Doctor Gardiner has not gone so soon!" she exclaimed. "Yes, he has," replied Sally, laconically. "I suppose some important duty called him away so early?" "He did not say so," returned her daughter, crossly. "Is he coming soon again?" questioned Mrs. Pendleton, anxiously. "I don't know," replied Sally; adding, slowly: "When I tried to find out when he would call again, he seemed annoyed, and replied, curtly: 'That will be hard for me to determine, Miss Pendleton. You must remember that those in my profession have few leisure hours.' He would not set a time. I had to let the matter rest at that."