Part 16 (2/2)
”Who are you, and what do you want with me?” he demanded, with a harsh imprecation on his lips, thinking her one of his father's tenants.
”I want to intercede with you for poor Bernardine Moore,” she said, simply. ”Let me plead with you to forego this marriage, which I earnestly a.s.sure you is most hateful to her, for she loves another.”
The flas.h.i.+ng fire in his hard black eyes might have warned her that he was an edged tool, and that it was dangerous to encounter him.
”Out of my way, you cursed old fool!” he cried, savagely; ”or I'll take you by the neck and fling you to the bottom of the stairs!”
Miss Rogers was sorely frightened, but she n.o.bly held her ground.
”Your bullying does not terrify me in the least, Jasper Wilde,” she said, calmly. ”I have seen such men as you before. I would have talked with you quietly; but since you render that an impossibility, I will end my interview with one remark, one word of warning. Attempt to force Bernardine Moore into this hateful marriage, and it will be at your peril. Hear me, and understand what I say: She shall never wed you!”
”I should be as big a fool as you are, woman, if I lost time bandying words with you!” he cried, sneeringly. ”If Bernardine has deputized you to waylay me and utter that nonsensical threat, you may go back and tell her that her clever little plan has failed ignominiously. I am proof against threats of women.”
Miss Rogers looked after him with wrathful eyes.
”If there was ever a fiend incarnate, that man is one,” she muttered.
”Heaven help poor Bernardine if she carries out her intention of marrying him! He will surely kill her before the honeymoon is over! Poor girl! what direful power has he over her? Alas! I tremble for her future. It would be the marriage of an angel and a devil. Poor Bernardine! why does she not elope with the young lover whom she loves, if there is no other way out of the difficulty, and live for love, instead of filial duty and obedience?”
Bernardine worked harder than ever over her basket-making during the next few days--worked to fill every moment of her time, so as to forget, if she could, the tragedy--for it was nothing less--of her approaching marriage to Jasper Wilde.
She grew thinner and paler with each hour that dragged by, and the tears were in her eyes all the while, ready to roll down her cheeks when she fancied she was not observed.
Once or twice she spoke to Miss Rogers about the man she loved, telling her how grand, n.o.ble, and good he was, and how they had fallen in love with each other at first sight; but she never mentioned his name.
”G.o.d help poor Bernardine!” she sobbed. ”I do not know how to save the darling girl. I think I will lay the matter before my dear young friend, Doctor Gardiner. He is bright and clever. Surely he can find some way out of the difficulty. Yes, I will go and see Jay Gardiner without delay; or, better still, I will write a note to have him come here to see me.”
She said nothing to Bernardine, but quietly wrote a long and very earnest letter to her young friend, asking him to come without delay to the street and number where he had left her a week previous, as she had something of great importance to consult him about.
CHAPTER XXI.
JASPER WILDE MEETS WITH AN ADVENTURE.
Miss Rogers had taken the greatest pains to direct her all-important letter to Doctor Jay Gardiner, and had gone to the nearest box to mail it herself. But, alas! for the well-laid plans of mice and men which gang aft aglee.
Fate, strange, inexorable Fate, which meddles in all of our earthly affairs, whether we will or not, ordained that this letter should not reach its destination for many a day, and it happened in this way:
Quite by accident, when it left Miss Rogers' hand, the letter dropped in the depths of the huge mail-box and became wedged securely in a crevice or crack in the bottom.
The mail-gatherer was always in a hurry, and when he took up the mail on his rounds, he never noticed the letter pressed securely against the side down in the furthermost corner.
Sitting anxiously awaiting a response to her missive, or her young friend to come in person, Miss Rogers watched and waited for Jay Gardiner, or any tidings of him, in vain.
Meanwhile, the preparations for the obnoxious marriage which she seemed unable to prevent went steadily on.
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