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.
All the long nights through Bernardine would weep and moan and wring her
little white hands. When Miss Rogers attempted to expostulate with her,
declaring no one could compel her to marry Jasper Wilde against her
will, she would only shake her head and cry the more bitterly, moaning
out that she did not understand.
"I confess, Bernardine, I do not understand you," she declared,
anxiously. "You will not try to help yourself, but are going willingly,
like a lamb to the slaughter, as it were."
David Moore seemed to be as unnerved as Bernardine over the coming
marriage. If he heard a sound in Bernardine's room at night, he would
come quickly to her door and ask if anything was the matter. He seemed
to be always awake, watching, listening for something. The next day he
would say to Miss Rogers:
"I was sorely afraid something was happening to Bernardine last
night--that she was attempting to commit suicide, or something of that
kind. A girl in her highly nervous state of mind will bear watching."
"Your fears on that score are needless," replied Miss Rogers. "No matter
whatever else Bernardine might do, she would never think of taking her
life into her own hands, I assure you."
But the old basket-maker was not so sure of that. He had a strange
presentiment of coming evil which he could not shake off.
Each evening, according to his declared intention, Jasper Wilde
presented himself at David Moore's door.
"There's nothing like getting my bride-to-be a little used to me," he
declared to her father, with a grim laugh.
Once after Jasper Wilde had bid Bernardine and her father good-night, he
walked along the street, little caring in which direction he went, his
mind was so preoccupied with trying to solve the problem of how to make
this haughty girl care for him.
His mental query was answered in the strangest manner possible.
Almost from out the very bowels of the earth, it seemed--for certainly
an instant before no human being was about--a woman suddenly appeared
and confronted him--a woman so strange, uncanny, and weird-looking, that
she seemed like some supernatural creature.
"Would you like to have your fortune told, my bonny sir?" she queried in
a shrill voice. "I bring absent ones together, tell you how to gain the
love of the one you want----"
"You do, eh?" cut in Jasper Wilde, sharply. "Well, now, if you can do
anything like that, you ought to have been able to have retired, worth
your millions, long ago, with people coming from all over the world to
get a word of advice from you."
"I care nothing for paltry money," replied the old woman, scornfully. "I
like to do all the good I can."
"Oh, you work for nothing, then? Good enough. You shall tell me my
fortune, and how to win the love of the girl I care for. It will be
cheap advice enough, since it comes free."
"I have to ask a little money," responded the old dame in a wheedling
tone. "I can't live on air, you know. But let me tell you, sir, there's
something I could tell you that you ought to know--you have a rival for
the love of the girl you want. Look sharp, or you'll lose her."
"By the Lord Harry! how did you find out all that?" gasped Jasper Wilde,
in great amazement, his eyes staring hard, and his hands held out, as
though to ward her off.
She laughed a harsh little laugh.
"That is not all I could tell if I wanted to, my bonny gentleman. You
ought to know what is going on around you. I only charge a dollar to
ladies and two dollars to gents. My place is close by. Will you come and
let me read your future, sir?"
"Yes," returned Jasper Wilde. "But, hark you, if it is some thieves' den
you want to entice me to, in order to rob me, I'll tell you here and now
you will have a mighty hard customer to tackle, as I always travel armed
to the teeth."
"The bonny gentleman need not fear the old gypsy," returned the woman,
with convincing dignity.
Turning, he walked beside her to the end of the block.
She paused before a tall, dark tenement house, up whose narrow stair-way
she proceeded to climb after stopping a moment to gather sufficient
breath.
Jasper Wilde soon found himself ushered into a rather large room, which
was draped entirely in black cloth hangings and decorated with mystic
symbols of the sorceress's art.
An oil lamp, suspended by a wire from the ceiling, furnished all the
light the apartment could boast of.
"Sit down," said the woman, pointing to an arm-chair on the opposite
side of a black-draped table.
Jasper Wilde took the seat indicated, and awaited developments.
"I tell by cards," the woman said, producing a box of black pasteboards,
upon which were printed strange hieroglyphics.
It was almost an hour before Jasper Wilde took his departure from the
wizard's abode, and when he did so, it was with a strangely darkened
brow.
He looked fixedly at a small vial he held in his hand as he reached the
nearest street lamp, and eyed with much curiosity the dark liquid it
contained.
"I would do anything on earth to gain Bernardine's love," he muttered;
"and for that reason I am willing to try anything that promises success
in my wooing. I have never believed in fortune-tellers, and if this one
proves false, I'll be down on the lot of 'em for all time to come. Five
drops in a glass of water or a cup of tea."