she muttered.
"Heaven help poor Bernardine if she carries out her intention of
marrying him! He will surely kill her before the honeymoon is over! Poor
girl! what direful power has he over her? Alas! I tremble for her
future. It would be the marriage of an angel and a devil. Poor
Bernardine! why does she not elope with the young lover whom she loves,
if there is no other way out of the difficulty, and live for love,
instead of filial duty and obedience?"

Bernardine worked harder than ever over her basket-making during the
next few days--worked to fill every moment of her time, so as to forget,
if she could, the tragedy--for it was nothing less--of her approaching
marriage to Jasper Wilde.

She grew thinner and paler with each hour that dragged by, and the tears
were in her eyes all the while, ready to roll down her cheeks when she
fancied she was not observed.

Once or twice she spoke to Miss Rogers about the man she loved, telling
her how grand, noble, and good he was, and how they had fallen in love
with each other at first sight; but she never mentioned his name.

"God help poor Bernardine!" she sobbed. "I do not know how to save the
darling girl. I think I will lay the matter before my dear young friend,
Doctor Gardiner. He is bright and clever. Surely he can find some way
out of the difficulty. Yes, I will go and see Jay Gardiner without
delay; or, better still, I will write a note to have him come here to
see me."

She said nothing to Bernardine, but quietly wrote a long and very
earnest letter to her young friend, asking him to come without delay to
the street and number where he had left her a week previous, as she had
something of great importance to consult him about.

CHAPTER XXI.

JASPER WILDE MEETS WITH AN ADVENTURE.

Miss Rogers had taken the greatest pains to direct her all-important
letter to Doctor Jay Gardiner, and had gone to the nearest box to mail
it herself. But, alas! for the well-laid plans of mice and men which
gang aft aglee.

Fate, strange, inexorable Fate, which meddles in all of our earthly
affairs, whether we will or not, ordained that this letter should not
reach its destination for many a day, and it happened in this way:

Quite by accident, when it left Miss Rogers' hand, the letter dropped in
the depths of the huge mail-box and became wedged securely in a crevice
or crack in the bottom.

The mail-gatherer was always in a hurry, and when he took up the mail on
hi