e. "I have brought some one else for you to welcome. Look up
and greet my wife, mother."

Slowly the grand old lady unwound her arms from about the neck of her
handsome, stalwart son, and turned rather fearfully toward the slender
figure by her side.

At that moment young Mrs. Gardiner took a step forward, which brought
her in the full glow of the lamp, and as Bernardine gazed, her heart
sunk within her.

She saw, as the lovely young stranger threw back her gray silk
traveling-cloak, a slim, beautiful creature, with golden hair, round,
dimpled face, flushed cheeks and lips, and the brightest of blue,
sparkling eyes--a girl who looked like some dazzling picture painted by
some old master, and who had just stepped out of a gilded frame. Her
face was so lovely, that, as Bernardine gazed, her heart grew so heavy
and strained with pain, that she thought it must surely break. _She was
the same girl who had visited her at her humble home._

The grand old lady took the haughty young beauty in her arms, calling
her "daughter," and bidding her welcome to Gardiner Castle, her future
home.

"Ah! no wonder the man I loved deserted me for this beautiful being all
life, all sparkle, all fire," was the thought that rushed through
Bernardine's breaking heart.

Then suddenly the old lady remembered her, and turned to her quickly,
saying:

"Come forward, my dear girl. I wish to present my new companion to my
son and his bride."

CHAPTER XLVI.

Bernardine stood still. She could not have moved one step forward if her
life depended on it; and thinking she had not heard, the old lady turned
to her, and repeated:

"I want my son and his wife to know you, my dear. You have been but a
short time beneath this roof, but in that time you have made yourself so
indispensable to me that I could not do without you."

Both Jay Gardiner and his wife glanced carelessly in the direction
indicated by his mother.

The room was in such dense shadow that they only saw a tall, slim form
in a dark dress that seemed to melt into and become a part of the
darkness beyond.

They bowed slightly in the most thoughtless manner; then turned their
attention to Mrs. Gardiner, who had commenced telling them how eagerly
she had watched for their coming, and of the strange presentiment that
something was going to happen.

That moment stood out forever afterward in the life of hapless
Bernardine.

She thought that when her eyes rested on the face