"It was within a fortnight after that most unfortunate event that the
crisis came. My father sent for me, and told me he had had a proposal
for my hand.

"'The man who wants to marry you will make a great lady of you, my
girl,' said my father, eagerly. 'You are lucky! I repeat you are _very_
lucky! Why are you looking at me with troubled eyes,' he demanded, 'when
you ought to be clapping your hands in delight and asking me who it is?'

"'I am silent because I fear to inquire the name,' I replied, slowly,
'lest you should utter a name which I loathe.'

"'The man is rich,' he said, leaning forward eagerly.

"'Riches do not bring happiness,' I replied. 'I know of a man whom the
world calls rich, and yet I would not marry him if he had all the wealth
of the world to pour at my feet. But who is this man who has come to you
without even the formality of finding out if it was worth his
while--without deigning to take the trouble to find out if I could care
for him to the extent of becoming his wife?'

"'The son of our landlord,' replied my father, his voice a little husky.

"'Were I not so angry I should be amused,' I answered. 'If there was not
another man on the face of the earth, I would not marry Jasper Wilde.
I----'"

The woman had been listening to Bernardine's story indifferently enough
until she uttered that name. At the sound of it, she caught her breath
sharply, and sprung suddenly forward.

"What name did you say? What is the name of the man who wanted to marry
you?" she gasped. "Did I understand you to say Jasper Wilde?"

"Yes," replied Bernardine, wonderingly; and her wonder grew into the
utmost consternation when the woman fell at her feet shrieking with
rage.

CHAPTER LVII.

Bernardine was tender of heart. She saw that the woman who was groveling
at her feet was suffering mental pain, and she realized that in some
vague way the name Jasper Wilde, which she had just uttered, had
occasioned it.

She forgot her surroundings, forgot the woman had declared it her
intention to detain her there even against her will; she remembered only
that a human being was suffering, and she must aid her if she could.

Suddenly the woman struggled to her feet.

"I did not know who you were talking about until you mentioned _that
name_!" she cried, excitedly and almost incoherently; "for it was _not_
Jasper Wilde who brought you here. It never occurred to me that Jasper
Wilde had a hand in it--that he had a