y Gardiner's wife. But I defy you!
you can not do it! He _shall_ marry me, in spite of you all!"

At that moment there was a commotion outside. The minister had arrived.

Sally herself rushed forward to meet him ere the doctors could have an
opportunity to exchange a word with him, and conducted him at once to
the sick man's bedside, explaining that her lover had met with an
accident, and that he wished to be married to her without a moment's
delay.

"I shall be only too pleased to serve you both," replied the good man.

"You must make haste, sir," urged Miss Pendleton sharply. "See, he is
beginning to sink."

The minister did make haste. Never before were those solemn words so
rapidly uttered.

How strange it was that fate should have let that ceremony go on to the
end which would spread ruin and desolation before it!

The last words were uttered. The minister of God slowly but solemnly
pronounced Sally Pendleton Jay Gardiner's lawfully wedded wife.

The doctors did not congratulate the bride, but sprung to the assistance
of the young physician, who had fallen back upon his pillow gasping for
breath.

One held a sponge saturated with a strong liquid to his nostrils, while
another escorted the minister, the bride, and her mother from the
apartment.

"Remain in this room as quietly as possible," urged the doctor, in a
whisper, "and I will let you know at the earliest possible moment
whether it will be life or death with your husband, Mrs. Gardiner."

At last the door quickly opened, and two of the doctors stood on the
threshold.

"Well, doctor," she cried, looking from one to the other, "what tidings
do you bring me? Am I a wife or a widow?"

"Five minutes' time will decide that question, madame," said one,
impressively. "We have performed the operation. It rests with a Higher
Power whether it will be life or death."

And the doctor who had spoken took out his watch, and stood motionless
as a statue while it ticked off the fatal minutes.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Sally Pendleton and her mother watched their faces keenly.

The time is up. They open the inner door reluctantly. The two doctors,
bending over their patient, look up with a smile.

"The heart still beats," they whisper. "He will live."

And this is the intelligence that is carried out to the young bride, the
words breaking in upon her in the midst of her selfish calculations.

She did not love Jay Gardiner. Any genuine passion in her bre