the shot which rang out so clearly on the early morning air missed its mark, and the noise only succeeded in sending bernardine's horse along the faster. taking one terrified glance backward, bernardine saw jasper wilde's horse suddenly swerve, unseating her rider, and the next instant he was measuring his length in the dusty road-side.
the girl did not pause to look again, nor did she draw rein upon the panting steed, until, covered with foam, and panting for breath, he drew up of his own accord at the gate of gardiner mansion.
one of the grooms came running forward, and bernardine saw that he was greatly excited.
"the maids missed you, and feared something had happened to you, miss moore," he said; "but we were all so alarmed about young master, it caused us to forget everything else, we all love master jay so well."
a sharp pain, like that caused by a dagger's thrust, seemed to flash through bernardine's heart as those words fell upon her startled ear.
"what has happened to your master, john?" she asked, huskily; and her voice sounded terribly unnatural.
in a voice husky with emotion the groom explained to her what was occurring—how young mrs. gardiner stood guard over her husband, refusing to allow the doctor to perform an operation which might save their young master, who was dying by inches with each passing moment of time—how she had caught up a thin, sharp-bladed knife which the doctor had just taken from his surgical case, and, brandishing it before her with the fury of a fiend incarnate, defied any one to dare approach.
both mrs. gardiner and miss margaret had gone into hysterics, and had to be removed from the apartment to an adjoining room.
"oh, miss moore, surely your services were never so much needed as now, you seem so clever! oh, if you could, by any means in earthly power, coax young mrs. gardiner from her husband's bedside, the operation would be performed, whether she consented or not! in god's name, see what you can do!"
bernardine waited to hear no more, but, like a storm-driven swallow, fairly flew across the lawn to the house, without even stopping a moment to give the least explanation concerning the strange horse and buggy which she had left in the groom's hands.
as the man had said, the greatest excitement pervaded the mansion. servants were running about hither and thither, wringing their hands, expecting to hear each moment—they knew not what.
like one fairly dazed, bernardine flew along the corridor toward the blue and gold room which she knew had been set apart for jay gardiner's use.
she could hear the murmur of excited voices as she reached the door.
she saw that it was ajar. a draught of wind blew it open as she approached.
as she reached the threshold, bernardine stood rooted to the spot at the spectacle that met her gaze.
young mrs. gardiner was bending over her hapless husband with a face so transformed by hate—yes, hate—there was no mistaking the expression—that it nearly took bernardine's breath away. in her right hand she held the gleaming blade, the end of which rested against jay's bared breast.
the doctor had sunk into the nearest seat, and in that unfortunate moment had taken his eyes off the sufferer, whose life was ebbing so swiftly, and had dropped his face in his trembling hands to think out what he had best do in this dire moment of horror.
all this bernardine took in at a single glance.
jay gardiner's life hung in the balance. she forgot her surroundings, forgot everything, but that she must save him even though at the risk of her own life. she would have gladly given a hundred lives, if she had them, to save him.
she did not stop an instant to formulate any plan, but with a cry of the most intense horror, born of acute agony, she had cleared the space which divided her from young mrs. gardiner at a single bound, and in a twinkling had hurled the blade from her hands.
sally gardiner was taken so entirely by surprise for an instant that she did not stoop to recover the gleaming knife which had fallen between her assailant and herself.
in that instant, the doctor, who had witnessed the scene which had taken place with such lightning-like rapidity, sprung forward and grasped the furious woman, pinioning her hands behind her, and called loudly upon the servants to come to his aid and remove her from jay gardiner's bedside.
but there was little need of their assistance. sally gardiner stood regarding bernardine, her hands hanging by her sides, her eyes staring eagerly at the intruder.
"you here!" she muttered, in an almost inaudible voice. "what are you doing in his sick-room, you whom he always loved instead of me? he married me from a sense of honor, but he loved you, and never ceased to let me understand that to be the case. what are you doing here now—you of all other women?"
"come with me quietly into the other room and i will tell you how it happens that i am here—in his home," whispered bernardine, huskily.
"no," she shrieked, laughing a hard, jeering, terrible laugh in bernardine's white, pain-drawn face as she battled fiercely to shake off the doctor's hold of her pinioned arms. "i shall not go—i shall not leave my post until he is dead! do you hear?—until he is dead! i shall not save him for you! i'd rather be his widow than his unloved wife!"
"come!" whispered bernardine, sternly. "a human life is at stake—he is dying. you must come with me and let the doctor be free to do his work. i command you to come!" she added, in a stern, ringing, sonorous voice that seemed to thrill the other to her very heart's core and fascinate her—ay, fairly paralyze her will-power. "come!" repeated bernardine, laying a hand on her shoulder—"come out into the grounds with me, mrs. gardiner—out into the fresh air. i have something to tell you. i had an encounter with victor lamont last night," she added in a whisper, her eyes fixed steadily on the young wife as she slowly uttered the words.
their effect was magical on sally gardiner. she reeled forward like one about to faint.
"let me go out into the grounds alone," she cried, hoarsely. "i must collect my scattered thoughts. come to me there in half an hour, and tell me. i—i can listen to you then."
and with these words, the fiery creature left the room, staggering rather than walking through the open french window.
the doctor caught bernardine's hand in his.
"if he lives, it will be to your strategy that he owes his life," he said, hurriedly. "now leave the room quickly. in ten minutes i will call you, and you shall tell his mother and sister whether it be life or death."
true to his promise, within the prescribed time the doctor called bernardine.
"it will be life," he said, joyously; "and in performing the operation, i also found a small piece of bone resting against the brain, which was the cause of the strange lapse of memory he complained to me about several months ago. his brain is perfectly clear now. i heard from his lips a startling story," continued the doctor, taking bernardine aside. "come to him."
she refused, saying she was just about to leave the house; but the doctor insisted, and at length, accompanied by jay's mother and his sister, she went to his bedside.
jay's joy at beholding bernardine was so great they almost feared for his life. and then the truth came out: his marriage to bernardine was legal and binding before god and man, and that, directly after he had left her on the day of the ceremony, he had met with an accident which completely obliterated the event from his mind; even all remembrance of bernardine's existence.
"what, then, is poor sally?" cried his mother, in horror. "she wedded you, knowing nothing of all this!"
before he could answer, they heard a great commotion in the corridor below; and, forgetful of the sick man, antoinette rushed in weeping wildly, crying out that her young mistress had just been found dead in the brook.
she died without knowing the truth, and they were all thankful for that—not even her family or miss rogers ever knew the sad truth.
two men fled from the vicinity that day—victor lamont and jasper wilde.
when jay gardiner was able to travel, he and his mother and sister and bernardine went abroad; but, out of respect to poor sally's memory, it was a year before they took their places in the great world as—what they had been from the first—husband and wife.
in the sunshine of the happy years that followed, bernardine never reproached her husband for that blotted page in their history which he would have given so much to efface.
sally's father and mother and sister grieved many a long year over her death.
antoinette stole quietly away, and was seen no more. old mrs. gardiner and miss margaret are as happy as the day is long in the love of jay's sweet, grave young wife, while her husband fairly adores her, though two others share his love as the sunny days flit by—a sturdy youngster whom they call jay, and a dainty little maiden named sally—named after miss rogers, and whom that lady declares is to be her heiress—a jolly little maiden, hoidenish and mischievous, strangely like that other one who came so near wrecking her father's and mother's life.
the little girl has but one fear—she never goes near the brook; perhaps its babbling waters could reveal a strange story—who can tell?
over a grave on the sloping hill-side there is a marble shaft. the name engraved upon it is sally gardiner, that the world may not know the story of her who rests there.
the sun does not fall upon it, the shadow of the trees is so dense; but soft and pityingly falls the dew on the hearts of the flowers that cover the grave where sally sleeps.
