what is life without love?
every evening, on some pretext or other, jay gardiner managed to pay david moore, the basket-maker, a visit, and the cynical old man began to look forward to these visits.
he never dreamed that his daughter was the magnet which drew the young man to his poor home. they were evenings that jay gardiner never forgot.
bernardine was slightly confused at first by his presence; then she began to view the matter in another light—that the young doctor had taken quite an interest in her father. he had certainly cured him of a terrible habit, and she was only too pleased that her father should have visits from so pleasant a man.
she always had some work in her slender white hands when the doctor called. sometimes, glancing up unexpectedly, she would find the doctor's keen blue eyes regarding her intently, and she would bend lower over her sewing. jay gardiner, however, saw the flush that rose to her cheek and brow.
as he sat in that little tenement sitting-room—he who had been flattered and courted by the most beautiful heiresses—he experienced a feeling of rest come over him.
he would rather pass one hour in that plain, unpretentious sitting-room than visit the grandest fifth avenue mansion.
and thus a fortnight passed. at the end of that time, jay gardiner stood face to face with the knowledge of his own secret—that he had at last met in bernardine moore the idol of his life. he stood face to face with this one fact—that wealth, grandeur, anything that earth could give him, was of little value unless he had the love of sweet bernardine.
it came upon him suddenly that the sweet witchery, the glamor falling over him was—love.
he realized that he lived only in bernardine's presence, and that without her life would be but a blank to him. his love for bernardine became the one great passion of his life. compared with her, all other women paled into insignificance.
he fell, without knowing it, from a state of intense admiration into one of blind adoration for her. he had never before trembled at a woman's touch. now, if his hand touched hers, he trembled as a strong tree trembles in a storm.
looking forward to the years to come, he saw no gleam of brightness in them unless they were spent with the girl he loved.
then came the awakening. he received a letter from sally pendleton, in which she upbraided him for not writing. that letter reminded him that he was not free; that before he had met bernardine, he had bound himself in honor to another.
he was perplexed, agitated. he loved bernardine with his whole heart, and yet, upon another girl's hand shone his betrothal-ring.
when the knowledge of his love for sweet bernardine came to him, he told himself that he ought to fly from her; go where the witchery of her face, the charm of her presence, would never set his heart on fire; go where he could never hear her sweet voice again.
"only a few days more," he said, sadly. "i will come here for another week, and then the darkness of death will begin for me, for the girl who holds me in such galling chains will return to the city."
why should he not see bernardine for another week? it would not harm her, and it would be his last gleam of happiness.
at this time another suitor for bernardine's hand appeared upon the scene. on one of his visits to the moores' home he met a young man there. the old basket-maker introduced him, with quite a flourish, as mr. jasper wilde, a wine merchant, and his landlord. the two men bowed stiffly and looked at each other as they acknowledged the presentation.
doctor gardiner saw before him a heavy-set, dark-eyed young man with a low, sinister brow. an unpleasant leer curled his thin lips, which a black mustache partially shaded, and he wore a profusion of jewels which was disgusting to one of his refined temperament.
he could well understand that he was a wine merchant's son. he certainly gave evidence of his business, and that he had more money than good breeding. the word roué was stamped on his every feature.
jay gardiner was troubled at the very thought of such a man being brought in contact with sweet bernardine. then the thought flashed through his mind that this was certainly the man whom the woman on the doorstep had told him about.
jasper wilde, looking at the young doctor, summed him up as a proud, white-handed, would-be doctor who hadn't a cent in his pocket.
"i can see what the attraction is here—it's bernardine; but i'll block his little game," he muttered. "the few weeks that i've been out of the city he has been making great headway; but i'll stop that."
the young doctor noticed that what the woman had told him was quite true. he could readily see that bernardine showed a feeling of repugnance toward her visitor.
but another thing he noticed with much anxiety was, that the old basket-maker was quite hilarious, as though he had been dosed with wine or something stronger.
jay gardiner knew at once that this man must have known the basket-maker's failing and slipped him a bottle, and that that was his passport to favor.
doctor gardiner talked with david moore and his daughter, addressing no remarks whatever to the obnoxious visitor.
"the impudent popinjay is trying to phase me," thought wilde; "but he will see that it won't work."
accordingly he broke into every topic that was introduced; and thus the evening wore on, until it became quite evident to doctor gardiner that mr. jasper wilde intended to sit him out.
bernardine looked just a trifle weary when the clock on the mantel struck ten, and doctor gardiner rose to depart.
"shall i hold the light for you?" she asked. "the stair-way is always very dark."
"if you will be so kind," murmured the doctor.
jasper wilde's face darkened as he listened to this conversation. his eyes flashed fire as they both disappeared through the door-way.
on the landing outside doctor gardiner paused a few moments.
how he longed to give her a few words of advice, to tell her to beware of the man whom he had just left talking to her father! but he remembered that he had not that right. she might think him presumptuous.
if he had only been free, he would have pleaded his own suit then and there. that she was poor and unknown, and the daughter of such a father, he cared nothing.
ah! cruel fate, which forbid him taking her in his arms and never letting her go until she had promised to be his wife!
as it was, knowing that he loved her with such a mighty love, he told himself that he must look upon her face but once again, and then it must be only to say farewell.
"the night is damp and the air is chill, and these narrow halls are draughty. do not stand out here," he said, with eager solicitude; "you might catch cold."
she laughed a sweet, amused laugh.
"i am used to all kinds of weather, doctor gardiner," she said. "i am always out in it. i make the first track in winter through the deep snows. i go for the work in the morning, and return with it at night. you know, when one is poor, one can not be particular about such little things as the weather; it would never do."
