"To-day was to have been our wedding-day," she sobbed, "and now you are ill--very ill. But, Jay," she whispered, bending down and uttering the words rapidly in his ear, "it could take place just the same, here and now, if you are willing. I sent a note to a minister to come here, and he may arrive at any moment. When he comes, shall I speak to him about it?" He did not answer; he was trying to remember something, trying, oh, so hard, to remember something that lay like a weight on his mind. Heaven help him! the past was entirely blotted out of his memory! He recollected leaving Miss Pendleton's house after setting the date for his marriage with her, but beyond that evening the world was a blank to him. He never remembered that there were such people as David Moore, the basket-maker, and a beautiful girl, his daughter Bernardine, to whom he had lost his heart, and whom he had wedded, and that she was now waiting for him. His mind was to be a blank upon all that for many a day to come. "What do you say, Jay?" repeated Miss Pendleton; "will not the ceremony take place to-day, as we had intended?" "They tell me I am very ill, Sally," he whispered. "I--I may be dying. Do you wish the ceremony to take place in the face of that fact?" "Yes," she persisted. "I want you to keep your solemn vow that you would make me your wife; and--and delays are dangerous." "Then it shall be as you wish," he murmured, faintly, in an almost inaudible voice, the effort to speak being so great as to cause him to almost lose consciousness. Sally stepped quickly from Jay's beside out into the adjoining room. "Mr. Gardiner wishes our marriage to take place here and now," she announced. "A minister will be here directly. When he arrives, please show him to Doctor Gardiner's bedside." Mamma Pendleton smiled and nodded her approval in a magnificent way as she caught her daughter's eye for a second. The doctors looked at one another in alarm. "I do not see how it can take place just now, Miss Pendleton," said one, quietly. "We have a very dangerous and difficult operation to perform upon your betrothed, and each moment it is delayed reduces his chance of recovery. We must put him under chloroform without an instant's delay." "And I say that it shall not be done until after the marriage ceremony has been performed," declared Sally, furiously; adding, spitefully: "You want to cheat me out of becoming Jay Gardiner's wife. But I defy you! you can not do it! He _shall_ marry me, in spite of you all!" At that moment there was a commotion outside. The minister had arrived. Sally herself rushed forward to meet him ere the doctors could have an opportunity to exchange a word with him, and conducted him at once to the sick man's bedside, explaining that her lover had met with an accident, and that he wished to be married to her without a moment's delay. "I shall be only too pleased to serve you both," replied the good man.