d, and awaited developments.

"I tell by cards," the woman said, producing a box of black pasteboards,
upon which were printed strange hieroglyphics.

It was almost an hour before Jasper Wilde took his departure from the
wizard's abode, and when he did so, it was with a strangely darkened
brow.

He looked fixedly at a small vial he held in his hand as he reached the
nearest street lamp, and eyed with much curiosity the dark liquid it
contained.

"I would do anything on earth to gain Bernardine's love," he muttered;
"and for that reason I am willing to try anything that promises success
in my wooing. I have never believed in fortune-tellers, and if this one
proves false, I'll be down on the lot of 'em for all time to come. Five
drops in a glass of water or a cup of tea."

CHAPTER XXII.

While the preparations for the marriage which poor, hapless Bernardine
looked forward to with so much fear went steadily on, preparations for
another wedding, in which Jay Gardiner was to be the unwilling
bridegroom, progressed quite as rapidly.

On the day following the scene in which Sally Pendleton had turned Miss
Rogers from the house--which had been witnessed by the indignant young
doctor--he called upon his betrothed, hoping against hope that she might
be induced to relent, even at the eleventh hour, and let him off from
this, to him, abhorrent engagement.

He found Sally arrayed in her prettiest dress--all fluffy lace and
fluttering baby-blue ribbons--but he had no eyes for her made-up,
doll-like sort of beauty.

She never knew just when to expect him, for he would never give her the
satisfaction of making an appointment to call, giving professional
duties as an excuse for not doing so.

Sally arrayed herself in her best every evening, and looked out from
behind the lace-draped windows until the great clock in the hall chimed
the hour of nine; then, in an almost ungovernable rage, she would go up
to her room, and her mother and Louisa would be made to suffer for her
disappointment.

On the day in question she had seen Jay Gardiner coming up the stone
steps, and was ready to meet him with her gayest smile, her jolliest
laugh.

"It is always the unexpected which happens, Jay," she said, holding out
both her lily-white hands. "Welcome, a hundred times welcome!"

He greeted her gravely. He could not have stooped and kissed the red
lips that were held up to him if the action would have saved his life.

He was