nything to do with it. I am Jasper
Wilde's wife, girl, and the story you have told is a revelation to me.
He must have got the other man to bring you here, and he means to fly
with you and desert me! Ha, ha, ha! I always find out everything he
attempts to do in _some_ way!"

"He went off on his horse just as you were brought in. Before he comes,
I will set you free."

"Oh, I thank you more than words can express!" said Bernardine,
fervently.

"You can take the horse and buggy that they always have hitched and
ready for an emergency. If they took you from Gardiner mansion, you will
find it a good hour's drive; but if you start at once you will get there
by sunrise. You may meet some of them on the road; but you seem to be a
brave girl. You have a horse that not one of them could overtake in a
five-mile race, if you lay on the whip. Now go!"

"But you?" cried Bernardine. "I can not go and leave you suffering here.
You are very ill--I see it in your face. You are white as death. Let me
take you to the nearest doctor--there are several hereabouts----"

But the woman shook her head sadly.

"I feel that it is of no use," she whispered, hoarsely. "I feel that I
am doomed--that my hour has come. Your startling news has done it," she
gasped. "Jasper once dealt me a terrible blow over the heart. I--I did
not die then, but my heart has been weak ever since. Go--go, girl, while
the opportunity is yours. You can not escape him, if he returns and
finds you here! Leave me to my fate. It is better so."

As she uttered the last word, she fell back with a dull thud, and
Bernardine saw--ah, she knew--that the patient heart of this poor
creature who had loved faithless, cruel Jasper Wilde to the bitter end
had slowly broken at last.

Reverently covering the white, staring face with her apron, and
breathing a sobbing prayer for her, Bernardine fled from the room.

A faint belt of light over the eastern hills told her that dawn was not
far off.

She found the horse and buggy where the woman had indicated, and with
hands trembling with nervous excitement untied the bridle.

The animal scarcely gave her time to climb into the vehicle, ere he was
off with the speed of the wind through the stubble fields of the old
deserted farm and on to the high-road.

It was all that Bernardine could do to cling to the reins, let alone
attempt to guide the animal, whose speed was increasing perceptibly at
every step he took.

The trees, the w