, square posts. The long dark cloak and bonnet she wore
would never betray her presence there.

Bernardine soon became aware that he had not seen her, for he stopped
short scarcely a rod from her, drew out his watch, and looked at the
time; then, with a fierce imprecation on his lips, he cried aloud:

"Missed the train by just one minute! Curse the luck! But then it's
worth my trip here, and the trouble I've been put to, to know that the
Mrs. Jay Gardiner in question is some New York society belle instead of
Bernardine. Ah, if it were Bernardine, I would have followed him to the
end of the earth and murdered him; taken her from him _by force_, if no
other way presented itself. I love the girl to madness, and yet _I hate
her_ with all the strength of my nature!"

As he uttered the words, he wheeled about, hurried down the platform,
and stepped into the darkness, the sound of his quick tread plainly
dying away in the distance.

It seemed to Bernardine that her escape from the clutches of Jasper
Wilde was little short of miraculous. Trembling in every limb, she
stepped out from behind the large pillar which shielded her.

He had not come by the same train; he did not know she was here. But
what caused him to come to this place to look for Jay Gardiner and his
bride? Perhaps it was because he had learned in some way that a family
named Gardiner resided here, and he had come out of his way only to
discover that they were _not_ one and the same.

While Bernardine was ruminating over this, she saw the short, thick-set
figure of a man approaching.

Should she advance or retreat? She felt sure he had seen her. He stopped
quite short and looked at her.

"Surely _you_ can't be Miss Moore?" he inquired, incredulously.

"Yes," replied Bernardine in a voice in which he detected tears.

The man muttered something under his breath which she did not quite
catch.

"If you please, Miss, where is your luggage?"

"I--I have only this hand-bag," she faltered.

"Come this way, miss," he said; and Bernardine followed him, not without
some misgiving, to the end of the platform from which Jasper Wilde had
so recently disappeared.

Here she saw a coach in waiting, though she had not heard the sound of
the horses' hoofs when they arrived there.

Then came a long ride over a level stretch of country. It was a great
relief to Bernardine to see the moon come forth at last from a great
bank of black clouds; it was a relief to see the