LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 722, 12 October 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE STORY OF BERYL KARB

{Continued.)

Bravely as she uttered the sentence, a big ball seemed to rise up in her throat. It was as if her own hand rolled the stone to the door of her sepulchre. Stay at Pelham and marry Carl! A picture of her future life rose up before her, a suffocating sense of misery and dreaminess stole over her, and she positively rejoiced when, glancing at Paul, she saw that smiling. ' Marry Carl and stay at Pelham!' he cried. •Is that all that is the matter ? O my sweet one, it is a great deal to late to talk of such a thing. You have placed your life in my hands, and I mean to take care of it.'

' But I have not placed my life in your Lauds,' said Beryl ; not knowing herself whether his insolence and dictatorial manner fascinated or repelled her. ' I was only weak for a moment, I forgot Carl for a moment; but I have reflected, and it is better to let him be happy in his own way with an unworthy wife, than to make him miserable by telling him how poor a faith he has won.'

' Beryl, I told you before that I meant to win you. Do you believe that after—after that —kiss, I would yield you up to any man on earth ?' he asked in concentrated tones, with his eyes looking straight into hers. It was the old, old fable of the bird and the serpent. Beryl felt she could not have moved an inch from under that glance to save her life, and she trembled a little inwardly. Then her natural spirit burst out, and she said in a decided voice,

' If I willfi*-, you must needs give me up.'

Paul laughed a little low laugh, not scornfully, but with genuine mirth, just as he might have laughed at a display of petulance iu a school girl out for a holiday.

' Love,' he whispered almost, ' can you possibly be so blind as not to see that you nave gone a great deal too far to draw back ? It may be natural that you, who are after all only a woman, and like the rest of your sex, should be drafted hither and thither by a variety of feeling, but you are old enough at any rate to know that, because you opened a dam, you have not the power to stop a flood. You told me yourself in the beginning that we are all creatures of circumstance, and, following your own creed, you know tbat if even you succeeded in altering circumstances you could not control them. Beryl, my sweet, you are mine, and it is hardly wise at the eleventh hour to speak to me of your marriage with Carlton Pelham;' and there was a soupcon of warning in the tone, but to this she was too wistful to listen.

' I may have been weak,' she told him, with a defiant gleam in her eyes, ' I may have allowed myself to become a plaything for you,' and she frowned in self-contempt ; ' but still I am not quite so foolish as you think. I refuse to let you dictate what I am to do, or what I am not to do, and it is not too late for me to say that our acquaintance must end here.' Paul Lennard looked for one instant hard and unflinchingly at her. Then this time he laughed outright, without trying to stem the loud merriment. She stood before him, her little white face full of resolution, her slender figure swaying slightly in her excitement, her tiny hands clenched in passion, but withal wearing such an appearance of fragility that it struck him as absurd her testing her will against his. His will, that in his self-sufficiency and inordinate pride seemed to be almost omnipotent. He was not angry with her, he was only amused ; and she looked so much prettier always when under the influence of some strong feeling, that he rather liked to provoke her, so as to lengthen out his own pleasure in gazing at her.

• This is all nonsense,' he said quietly, but with decision. ' Baryl, you are just as well aware as I am that nothing can prevent your being my wife.' 1 Never 1' she cried passionately.

She was an enigma, this girl, that even Paul's astute nature failed to read aright. In truth she scarcely understood herself, or knew what she desired or intended to do. At this moment she rebelled against the power this man asserted, just as she had rebelled against the dullness of her life, with the futility of her rebellion being clear before her mind. Carl's quiet respeetful attention and care came back to her, and it seemed preferable to live in peace with a humble slave than to own an imperious master, with whom her existence would be turmoil and struggle. 'No, I shall never be your wife,' she reiterated firmly, with her pale face flushing to the deep pink of a rose, and her brown eyes literally flashing into his own. Paul began to grow wrath—he did not like the idea that any woman should consider him a fit subject for playing fast and loose with—and as he grew wrath, a white sternness crept over his features that rather surprised and frightened Beryl. • Must I tell you again that this is all folly and must cease ?' he said in a changed voice ; there was no tender inflection in it now: all of it was hard, cold, almost metallic and then an overbearing hauteur rang out. ' Like all women, you are ready to make a fool of any man who gives you his love, but none of your sex ever made a fool or a plaything of me. Beryl, you do not half know me, or you would cease this ridiculous contest ; nothing can stand between us two now, and if you are not my wife, you will never be the wife of any other man !'

It was true what he had said that she did not half know him. She realised that as she glanced furtively at the passionate proud face, with resolution deepening the dark grey eyes, and showing itself in the set thin lips. It was a face in which determination could be easily read, and a determination that would be unscrupulous in reaching its desired goal. f To be continued.']

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