whirl, his emotions wrenching
his very soul.

Miss Pendleton had written him that she would expect him to call that
evening. He had been about to write her that it would be an
impossibility; but now he changed his mind. Going there would be of some
benefit to him, after all, for it would bring him surcease of sorrow for
one brief hour, forgetfulness of Bernardine during that time.

It touched him a little to see how delightedly the girl welcomed him.
She, too, was a money-seeker like the rest of her sex; but he could
also see that she was in love with him.

"I have been home for three days, and you have not even remembered that
fact," she said, brightly, yet with a very reproachful look.

"If you will pardon the offense, I will promise not to be so remiss in
the future."

"I shall hold you to your word," she declared. "But dear me, how pale
and haggard you look! That will never do for a soon-to-be bridegroom!"

His brow darkened. The very allusion to his coming marriage was most
hateful to him. Sally could see that, though she pretended not to notice
it.

Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton came in to welcome him, being so profuse in their
greeting that they annoyed him.

Louisa was more sensible. Her welcome was quiet, not to say constrained.

"If it had been Louisa instead of Sally," he mused, bitterly, "the fate
that I have brought upon myself would be more bearable."

He was so miserable as he listened to Sally's ceaseless chatter that he
felt that if he had a revolver, he would shoot himself then and there,
and thus end it all.

CHAPTER XVI.

"WHERE THERE IS NO JEALOUSY THERE IS LITTLE LOVE!"

It was a relief to Jay Gardiner when he found himself out of the house
and on the street. The short two hours he had passed in Sally's society
were more trying on his nerves than the hardest day's work could have
been.

He groaned aloud at the thought of the long years he was destined to
live though, with this girl as his companion.

He had come at seven, and made his adieu at nine. Sally then went
upstairs to her mother's room with a very discontented face, and entered
the _boudoir_ in anything but the best of humors.

Mrs. Pendleton looked up from the book she was reading, with an
expression of astonishment and wonder.

"Surely Doctor Gardiner has not gone so soon!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, he has," replied Sally, laconically.

"I suppose some important duty called him away so early?"

"He did not say so,"