The girl grew pale as death. "Is it something about father? Has anything happened to him?" she faltered, catching her breath. He nodded his head; then slowly, very gently, he told her of the fire, and that he had seen her father perish--that he was now forever beyond Jasper Wilde's power. Poor Bernardine listened like one turned to stone: then, without a word or a cry, fell at his feet in a faint. At that opportune moment the old nurse returned. Doctor Gardiner soon restored her to consciousness; but it made his heart bleed to witness her intense grief. She begged him to take her to the ruins, and with great reluctance he consented. Ordering a cab at the nearest stand, he placed her in it, and took a seat by her side, feeling a vague uneasiness, a consciousness that this ride should never have been taken. She was trembling like a leaf. What could he do but place his strong arm about her? In that moment, in the happiness of being near her, he forgot that he was in honor bound to another, and that other Sally Pendleton, whom he was so soon to lead to the altar to make his wife. The girl he loved with all the strength of his heart was so near to him--ah, Heaven! so dangerously near--the breath from her lips was wafted to him with each passing breeze, and seemed to steal his very senses from him. Oh, if he could but indulge in one moment of happiness--could clasp her in his arms but a single moment, and kiss those trembling lips just once, he would be willing to pay for it by a whole life-time of sorrow, he told himself. Ah! why must he refuse himself so resolutely this one draught of pleasure that fate had cast in his way? He hesitated, and we all know what happens to the man who hesitates--he is lost. At this moment Bernardine turned to him, sobbing piteously: "Oh, what shall I do, Doctor Gardiner? Father's death leaves me all alone in the world--all alone, with no one to love me!" In an instant he forgot prudence, restraint; he only knew that his heart, ay, his very soul, flowed out to her in a torrent so intense no human will could have restrained it. Almost before he was aware of it, his arms were about her, straining her to his madly beating heart, his passionate kisses falling thrillingly upon her beautiful hair and the sweet, tender lips, while he cried, hoarsely: "You shall never say that again, beautiful Bernardine! _I_ love you--yes, I love you with all my heart and soul! Oh, darling! answer me--do you care for me?" The girl recoiled from him with a low, wailing sob. The words of the fashionably attired young girl who had called upon her so mysteriously on that never-to-be-forgotten day, and taunted her with--"He is deceiving you, girl! Doctor Gardiner may talk to you of love, but he will never--never speak to you of marriage. Mark my words!"--were ringing like a death-knell in her ears.