The room into which Sally Pendleton was ushered was so dimly lighted
that she was obliged to take the second glance about ere she could
distinguish where the couch was on which Jay Gardiner lay. The next
moment she was bending over him, crying and lamenting so loudly that the
doctors waiting outside were obliged to go to her and tell her that this
outburst might prove fatal to their patient in that critical hour.
Jay Gardiner was looking up at her with dazed eyes. He recognized her,
uttered her name.
"Was it to-night that I left your house, after settling when the
marriage was to take place?" he asked.
Miss Pendleton humored the idea by answering "Yes," instead of telling
him that the visit he referred to had taken place several weeks before.
"To-day was to have been our wedding-day," she sobbed, "and now you are
ill--very ill. But, Jay," she whispered, bending down and uttering the
words rapidly in his ear, "it could take place just the same, here and
now, if you are willing. I sent a note to a minister to come here, and
he may arrive at any moment. When he comes, shall I speak to him about
it?"
He did not answer; he was trying to remember something, trying, oh, so
hard, to remember something that lay like a weight on his mind.
Heaven help him! the past was entirely blotted out of his memory!
He recollected leaving Miss Pendleton's house after setting the date for
his marriage with her, but beyond that evening the world was a blank to
him.
He never remembered that there were such people as David Moore, the
basket-maker, and a beautiful girl, his daughter Bernardine, to whom he
had lost his heart, and whom he had wedded, and that she was now waiting
for him. His mind was to be a blank upon all that for many a day to
come.
"What do you say, Jay?" repeated Miss Pendleton; "will not the ceremony
take place to-day, as we had intended?"
"They tell me I am very ill, Sally," he whispered. "I--I may be dying.
Do you wish the ceremony to take place in the face of that fact?"
"Yes," she persisted. "I want you to keep your solemn vow that you would
make me your wife; and--and delays are dangerous."
"Then it shall be as you wish," he murmured, faintly, in an almost
inaudible voice, the effort to speak being so great as to cause him to
almost lose consciousness.
Sally stepped quickly from Jay's beside out into the adjoining room.
"Mr. Gardiner wishes our marriage to take place here and now," she
announced. "A minister will be here directly. When he arrives, please
show him to Doctor Gardiner's bedside."
Mamma Pendleton smiled and nodded her approval in a magnificent way as
she caught her daughter's eye for a second. The doctors looked at one
another in alarm.
"I do not see how it can take place just now, Miss Pendleton," said one,
quietly. "We have a very dangerous and difficult operation to perform
upon your betrothed, and each moment it is delayed reduces his chance of
recovery. We must put him under chloroform without an instant's delay."
"And I say that it shall not be done until after the marriage ceremony
has been performed," declared Sally, furiously; adding, spitefully: "You
want to cheat me out of becoming Jay 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.