much to the delight of doctor covert, the little beauty did call again, at the very hour he had set. but his pleasure had one drawback to it, she was heavily veiled. but, for all that, he knew how lovely was the face that veil concealed, how bright the eyes, how charming the dimples, how white the pearly teeth, how sweet the ripe red cheeks, so like cupid's bow.
he could not conceal his great joy at beholding her again. she noticed his emotion at once. he would not have been so well pleased if he could have seen how her red lip curled in scorn as she said to herself:
"fools fall in love with a pretty face on sight; but it is another thing to get a desirable man to fall in love. they are hard to win. i have heard of this doctor covert before. true, he did go to college with jay gardiner, and is his chum; but one is rich and the other poor."
"i hope you have been successful," murmured sally, giving him her little white hand to hold for an instant—an instant during which he was intensely happy.
"yes, my dear miss," he answered, quickly. "i am overjoyed to think i can be of service to you—in a way, at least. i did not communicate with doctor gardiner, for it occurred to me just after you left that i had heard him mention the name; but i am sure there is a mistake somewhere. this girl—bernardine—whom i refer to, and whom doctor gardiner knows, can not possibly be a friend of yours, miss, for she is only the daughter of an humble basket-maker, and lives on the top floor of a tenement house in one of the poorest parts of the city."
sally pendleton's amazement was so great she could hardly repress the cry of amazement that arose to her lips.
she had never for an instant doubted that this beautiful bernardine, who had won the proud, unbending heart of haughty jay gardiner, was some great heiress, royal in her pomp and pride, and worth millions of money. no wonder doctor covert's words almost took her breath away.
"are you quite sure?" she responded, after a moment's pause. "surely, as you remarked, then there must be some mistake."
"i am positive doctor gardiner knows but this one bernardine. in fact, i heard him say that he never remembered hearing that beautiful name until he heard it for the first time in the humble home of the old basket-maker. and he went on to tell me how lovely the girl was, despite her surroundings."
the veiled lady arose hastily, her hands clinched.
"i thank you for your information," she said, huskily, as she moved rapidly toward the door.
"she is going without my even knowing who she is," thought doctor covert, and he sprung from his chair, saying, eagerly:
"i beg a thousand pardons if the remark i am about to make seems presumptuous; but believe that it comes from a heart not prompted by idle curiosity—far, far from that."
"what is it that you wish to know?" asked sally, curtly.
"who you are," he replied, with blunt eagerness. "i may as well tell you the truth. i am deeply interested in you, even though you are a stranger, and the bare possibility that we may never meet again fills me with the keenest sorrow i have ever experienced."
sally pendleton was equal to the occasion.
"i must throw him off the track at once by giving him a false name and address," she thought.
she hesitated only a moment.
"my name is rose thorne," she replied, uttering the falsehood without the slightest quiver in her voice. "i attend a private school for young ladies in gramercy park. we are soon to have a public reception, to which we are entitled to invite our friends, and i should be pleased to send you a card if you think you would care to attend."
"i should be delighted," declared doctor covert, eagerly. "if you honor me with an invitation, i shall be sure to be present. i would not miss seeing you again."
was it only his fancy, or did he hear a smothered laugh from beneath the thick dark veil which hid the girl's face from his view?
the next moment sally was gone, and the young doctor gazed after her, as he did on the former occasion with a sigh, and already began looking forward to the time when he should see her again. meanwhile, sally lost no time in finding the street and house indicated.
a look of intense amazement overspread her face as she stood in front of the tall, forbidding tenement and looked up at the narrow, grimy windows. it seemed almost incredible that handsome, fastidious jay gardiner would even come to such a place, let alone fall in love with an inmate of it.
"the girl must be a coarse, ill-bred working-girl," she told herself, "no matter how pretty her face may be."
a number of fleshy, ill-clad women, holding still more poorly clad, fretful children, sat on the door-step, hung out of the open windows and over the balusters, gossiping and slandering their neighbors quite as energetically as the petted wives of the four hundred on the fashionable avenues do.
sally took all this in with a disgusted glance; but lifting her dainty, lace-trimmed linen skirts, she advanced boldly.
"i am in search of a basket-maker who lives somewhere in this vicinity," said sally. "could you tell me if he lives here?"
"he lives right here," spoke up one of the women. "david moore is out, so is the elderly woman who is staying with him; but miss bernardine is in, i am certain, working busily over her baskets. if you want to see about baskets, she's the one to go to—top floor, right."
sally made her way up the narrow, dingy stairs until she reached the top floor. the door to the right stood open, and as sally advanced she saw a young girl turn quickly from a long pine table covered with branches of willow, and look quickly up.
sally pendleton stood still, fairly rooted to the spot with astonishment not unmingled with rage, for the girl upon whom she gazed was the most gloriously beautiful creature she had ever beheld. she did not wonder now that jay gardiner had given his heart to her.
in that one moment a wave of such furious hate possessed the soul of sally pendleton that it was with the greatest difficulty she could restrain herself from springing upon the unconscious young girl and wrecking forever the fatal beauty which had captivated the heart of the man who was her lover and was so soon to wed.
sally had thrown back her veil, and was gazing at her rival with her angry soul in her eyes.
seeing the handsomely dressed young lady, bernardine came quickly forward with the sweet smile and graceful step habitual to her.
"you wish to see some one—my father, perhaps?" murmured bernardine, gently.
"you are the person i wish to see," returned sally, harshly—"you, and no one else."
bernardine looked at her wonderingly. the cold, hard voice struck her ear unpleasantly, and the strange look in the stranger's hard, steel-blue eyes made her feel strangely uncomfortable.
was it a premonition of coming evil?
