LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 725, 16 October 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE STORY OF BERYL KARR. ( Concluded .) *No !’ She rang it out with an emphasis that startled him. ‘ No!’ repeated Paul. He seized her hands and held them as in a vice. ‘ What do you mean ?’ he asked in a thick hoarse voice. ‘Do you wish to drive me to crime ? For I will do anything—do you hear, Beryl ?—anything to prevent this hateful union of yours. Beryl—my Beryl—you do love me ; then why make me mad by refusing to go with me ?’ he pleaded hard, with a wild upturned face, kneeling before her and still grasping her tightly. *lf you have a spark of good feeling you will not ask me to go, Beryl said, with a faintness stealing over her. His vehemence, his pale passionate pleading face touched her in spite of herself. She stood firm, however, though in this moment she was more nearly in love with Paul than she had ever been before. And she felt an intense yearning for such great waves of affection as he offered her. But again she remembered all she owed Carl and his family. And she resolved to carry out her self-sacrifice. ‘ I must marry Carl!’ she almost whispered in her agitation; ‘ but I wish you had never come—that you had left me in peace.’ ‘ Beryl, you will never marry Carl, mark my words,’ he said in a meaning tone. * Why shall I never marry him ?’ she asked, with fear and surprise mingling. ‘ Never mind why. Only I warn you that yon will repent all your life if you refuse to do as I ask. Once for all, will you leave this place with me or not ?’ ‘ Once for all—l will not I’ answered the girl bravely. Out into the dewy fragrance of the summer evening went her words, falling clearly and distinctly on the stillness around. With an effort she freed herself from his clasp, and turned from him, for there was a spell in his handsome face against which she could not harden her heart. ‘ How often must I say “ No ” to you ?’ * You have said it once too often, Paul answered, drawing up his tall figure to its utmost height and folding his arms tightly across his chest, with a cold gleam in his eyes that made Beryl shudder. ‘ Recollect that I warned you, Beryl. And now, fair face and false heart, I will leave you ; but it is only au revoir and without waiting her reply, he walked back into the laboratory and closed the door.

The day following Beryl kept her room on the pretext of headache, but in reality she was suffering tortures of anxiety and distrust and fear. At length, unable to stand the ordeal of loneliness, she entered the sitting-room at the conclusion of the evening meal. Carl rose hastily to greet her with quite a tender genial smile on his face. ‘ How ill you look, Beryl,’ he cried, his features changing to gravity. ‘ You are as white as death. Come into the air ; ’ and, throwing his arms caressingly round her, he took her out on the lawn. A pale pure moon was shining down on them, and, in its misty light, the girl looked more like a spirit than a mortal in her snowy garb, ‘ It is just a month ago to-night since Lennard came,’ Carl commenced abruptly, apropos of nothing. But the words fell with a thrill on his companion’s frame. ‘ I wish you had heeded me and sent him away long ago,’ she said frankly, callous of what he would think of her anxiety to be rid of his guest. ‘ As far as chemistry goes, it is as well that I did not heed you. It is lucky he remained, for he tells me that he sees a way how to carry out my idea.’ ‘ And when did you hear this ? ’ * About half an hour ago. lam delighted at his words. And to-night we shall make the final test.’ ‘Where is Mr Leonard?’ Beryl asked, forcing herself to speak indifferently, while her heart was beating with an indefinible dread and suspicion. 1 He went back to the laboratory at once to arrange everything, and bade me be there at nine o’clock, By Jove, it must be that now !’ She listened to what he said, and an awful fear crept over her. Was she absurdly fanciful, and was there any real meaning in the threats she had heard the preceding day? ‘ Beryl dear, you must not let prejudice sway you. If I had sent Lennard away as you desired, you see my poor idea would have come to nothing.’

* It will come to nothing now,’ she ejaculated. * Why should I doubt Lennard’s assurance ? But seeing is believing; and I shall be able to tell you all about it later when I return from the laboratory.’ * May Igo with you ?’ she pleaded. ‘ I like chemistry too now, you know,’ she added, scarcely heeding her own words in the turmoil of her feelings. *Y ou like chemistry, Beryl! Why, that is something new,’ laughed Carl, bending down, and touching her white brow lightly. To his surprise Beryl, the cold and the undemonstrative, flung her arms round his neck, and laid her head on his breast, ‘I like all that you like, Carl,’ she told him softly, ‘ and I intend to be instructed in everything that interests you. So you will let me go with you ; or, better still, let me go first.’ ‘Of course you can go if you choose, dearest,’ he answered fondly, glad for an opportunity to yield to his pretty capricious tyrant. ‘ Very well; and Beryl breathed more freely. ‘ Carl, ’ she cried suddenly, * have you ever felt a longing to be at peace with all the world ?’ * Well, no, I cannot say I have. It is because I have fancied I was at peace with every one, I suppose,’ he replied, with a smile. She seemed such a child to him always in her strange varying moods that he was sufficiently in love to admire rather than to condemn. ‘ I am not good enough to be at peace with any one,’ she said bitterly; ‘but I should like to begin by being at peace with you. Carl, if I have done things to vex you, can you forgive me freely from your heart ?’ Could he forgive her! with that sweet flowerlike face looking up into his own, with those great brown eyes lifted up with pathos in their depths, deprecation in their glance. Carl was a stolid young Briton; a little matter-of-fact perhaps, but neither a stock nor a stone to be impervious to such charms. ‘ I have nothing to forgive, my darling. God bless you for giving me your love, he said in his [outspoken frank way, that bore upon it unmistakeable truth, even though it might have lacked eloquence. And catching her in his stalwart arms, he pressed (for the first time unresisted) a long passionate kiss on the cold pale lips of his betrothed. Just at this moment the large clock that faced Pelham Tower gave out nine loud strokes, and Beryl started from Carl’s embtace. Her features were agitated, and her mouth trembling; but she laughed slightly as she cried, ‘Goodbye,’ and turned towards the wing. Carl watched her slender figure flitting through the dusk, then of a sudden he saw her fall in a heap on the turf. Overcome by a conflict of feeling, the girl lay cold and senseless, while Carl, clasping her hands, called vainly on her to speak ; then like one distraught he rushed into the house, imploring that Paul Lennard should be despatched on the fleetest horse for medical aid, while he returned himself to Beryl, and lifting her with the same facility he would have done a child, he carried her tenderly to her room.

A dim light shone from the window of the wing ; but a heavy black cloud obscured the moon, when Paul Lennard, peering through the thick foliage of some neighbouring laurels, maiked a figure enter the laboratory. Was he a man or a demon? for a triumphant smile sat on his lip as he watched in his hiding-piace. There was silence—a deep silence for a while. Then cautiously emerging from the thicket, he walked boldly to the door and threw it open. On the floor lay a figure already rigid in death. His heart throbbing fast with fiendish exultation at the success of his work, Paul Leonard stooped, and saw that Heaven had thwarted him ! In lieu of the young life that stood between him and Beryl Karr an old man lay, with one hand still clutching at his throat. The poisonous fumes had choked him ! When Paul Lennard recognised Mr Pelham’s face, and realised fully the horror before him, he uttered no exclamation, but casting a scared look round, to note if any human eyes were watching, he hastily crossed the threshold, and before many minutes elapsed he had left the scene of his horrible crime for ever. ***** Beryl Karr recovered from her fainting fit, to fall into the delirium of brain-fever. It was then that the honest unsuspicious nature of Carl served her well : for what her hot lips babbled he attributed to the phantasy of illness alone. It was some time before she was strong enough to be told of Mr Pelham’s death. ‘ What was the cause of it, Carl ? ’ she asked, in a voice that was still painfully feeble. * I scarcely like to speak of it, Beryl,’ he answered sadly. ‘ The memory of it fills me with a dreadful remorse.’ ‘ Remorse ! ’ the girl said wonderingly. ‘Yes. If I had not persisted in my mania for chemistry the poor old man would have been alive. I could not leave you the evening you fainted, and my father went to seek Lennard for me. An hour afterwards we found him dead on the floor of the laboratory, poisoned, of course, by the gas. ’ * And where was —? ’ Beryl paused, unable to articulate the name. A rush of suspicion blanched her cheek, and she shook all over like an aspen. ‘ Lennard ? God only knows. His fate remains a complete mystery. I cannot help believing that, terrified at the fatal result of his experiment, and dreading to face my mother and myself, he at once fled the place. ’ Beryl did not speak ; but in her heart she knew now that she had not wronged Paul Lennard by her suspicions - that the gas that had killed Mr Pelham had been generated for Carl. She shuddered, as she thought of the fate from which Heaven had saved her, Carl’s voice, pleading -in her ear, broke upon her reflections. * I want my wife so much, Berl. When will she come to me V She turned and looked at him for a moment fixedly. The fair Saxon face, with its frank brow and honest blue eyes, seemed almost angelic, contrasted with the dark demoniac beauty memory conjured up. Paul Lennard had taught her one good lesson—-the lesson of * content. 1 There w'ere no more longings for ‘ freedom’ from her old life ; no more yearnings for change and excitement in her breast, ISo Beryl said quietly and earnestly. ‘ I will be your wife, Carl, whenever you wish; and, please God, I shall be a good I wife too.’