Please follow me, and I will
conduct you to it."

Bernardine complied, though the desire was strong upon her to fly
precipitately from the house, and out into the darkness of the
night---anywhere--anywhere, so that she might escape meeting Jay
Gardiner and his bride.

Up several flights of carpeted polished stairs, through draughty
passages, along a broad corridor, down another passage, then into a
huge, gloomy room, Bernardine followed her, a war of conflicting
emotions surging through her heart at every step.

"You have plenty of room, you see," said the housekeeper, lighting the
one gas-jet the apartment contained.

"Plenty!" echoed Bernardine, aghast, glancing about her in dismay at the
huge, dark, four-poster bed in a far-off corner, the dark dresser, which
seemed to melt into the shadows, and the three darkly outlined windows,
with their heavy draperies closely drawn, that frowned down upon her.

"You must not be frightened if you hear odd noises in the night. It's
only mice. This is the old part of the mansion," said the housekeeper,
turning to go.

"Am I near any one else?" asked Bernardine, her heart sinking with a
strange foreboding which she could not shake off.

"Not very near," answered the housekeeper.

"Would no one hear me if I screamed?" whispered Bernardine, drawing
closer to her companion, as though she would detain her, her frightened
eyes burning like two great coals of fire.

"I hope you will not make the experiment, Miss Moore," returned the
housekeeper, impatiently. "Good-night," and with that she is gone, and
Bernardine is left--alone.

The girl stands quite still where the housekeeper has left her long
after the echo of her footsteps has died away.

She is in _his_ home, and he is coming here with his bride! Great God!
what irony of fate led her here?

Her bonnet and cloak are over her arm.

"Shall I don them, and fly from this place?" she asks herself over and
over again.

But her tired limbs begin to ache, every nerve in her body begins to
twitch, and she realizes that her tired nature has endured all it can.
She must stay here, for the night at least.

Despite the fatigue of the previous night, Bernardine awoke early the
next morning, and when the housekeeper came to call her, she found her
already dressed.

"You are an early riser, Miss Moore," she said. "That is certainly a
virtue which will commend itself to my mistress, who rises early
herself. You will come at once