She was so preoccupied with her own thoughts, she hardly noticed which
way her footsteps tended. All she realized was, that she was walking in
the sweet, rose-laden grounds, away--far away--from the revelers, with
the free, cool, pure air of Heaven blowing across her heated, feverish
brow.

"An heiress!" She said the words over and over again to herself, trying
to picture to herself what the life of an heiress would be.

If she had been an heiress, living in a luxurious, beautiful home, would
Jay Gardiner have deserted her in that cruel, bitterly cruel, heartless
fashion?

She never remembered to have heard or read of the lover of a wealthy
heiress deserting her. It was always the lovers of poor girls who dared
play such tricks.

How shocked Jay Gardiner would be when he heard that she was--an
heiress!

Would he regret the step he had taken? The very thought sent a strange
chill through her heart.

The next instant she had recovered herself.

"No, no! There will be no regrets between us now," she sobbed, hiding
her white face in her trembling hands. "For he is another's and can
never be anything more to me save a bitter-sweet memory. To-night I will
give my pent-up grief full vent. Then I will bury it deep--deep out of
the world's sight, and no one shall ever know that my life has been
wrecked over--what might have been."

Slowly her trembling hands dropped from her face, and, with bowed head,
Bernardine went slowly down the path, out of the sound of the
dance-music and the laughing voices, down to where the crickets were
chirping amid the long grasses, and the wind was moaning among the tall
pines and the thick alders.

When she reached the brook she paused. It was very deep at this
point--nearly ten feet, she had heard Miss Margaret say--and the bottom
was covered with sharp, jagged rocks. That was what caused the hoarse,
deep murmur as the swift-flowing water struck them in its hurried flight
toward the sea.

Bernardine leaned heavily against one of the tall pines, and gave vent
to her grief.

Why had God destined one young girl to have youth, beauty, wealth, and
love, while the other had known only life's hardships? Miss Rogers'
offer of wealth had come to her too late. It could not buy that which
was more to her than everything else in the world put together--Jay
Gardiner's love.

The companionship of beautiful women, the homage of noble men, were as
nothing to her. She would go through life with a