RIVEN ASUNDER. OR, BERYL GRAYSON'S ORDEAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8372, 4 March 1907, Page 2

RIVEN ASUNDER. OR, BERYL GRAYSON'S ORDEAL.

A ROMANCE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER.

CHAPTER ll.—Continued. "Mr Berdyne has been so good to me, Tonita. He has spent hundredsof dollars trying to learn my darling's fate. It was he, you know, who sent the man Gorsline to Alaska, and £0 discovered the dread truth. He has a noble heart, and worries so over my grief. Of course Ido not Ijve him; how could I, when my love is all in that dreary north land?" "You would miTY/ Senor Berdyne, querida, feeling toward him as you do?" "Oh," cried Beryl, with a burst of tears, "I do not know what I should do! Was ever a poor, forlorn girl so woefully beset? Mr Berdyne was a' friend of my father's, and he rwas .constantly looking after my welfare while I was in Denver. He ■would have done more for me, had I allowed him." "Did Neil know Senor Berdyne, Beryl?" An expression of pain crossed Beryl's face. "Neil never liked Mr Berdyne," said she. "In one who was always' so generous with others this was something I could never understand. When Neil! left to go to Alaska, to look after some of poor dear papa's mining properties, he warned me against Mr Berdyne. I wish Neil could have known him as I have come to know him during the past year." "Perhaps," suggested Tonita archly, "|feil was jealous?" "He had no cause to be, dearest," said Beryl hastily, "not the least."

"Of course, he had not?!" exclaimed the Mexican, "but some times men are quite unreasonable when they love devotedly. It is their way, dear, Mr Jackman/the owner of Sunset Ranch, was also a good friend of your padre's?" "I y had never heard of Mr Jackman until' he wrote to me. That was just after I had learned of Neil's sad fate, dearest, and I was very sad, and very lonely. So I came here, to this beautiful valley, as you know, and the sweetest part of it all is that I gained you for a friend!" The two girls, by a mutual impulse, threw their arms about each other.

"I could not love you more, dear," breathed the lovely Mexicana, "if you were my own sister. But, come! I must be going home. You .will walk a way with me, as you always do?" V They set out together, arm in arm, along a path that led away f <-om the great ranch-house, lost itself among trees, and vines, and roses, ar.d eventually halted at Tonita's door.' These hours of companionship were very sweet to Beryl, and they loitered along the "path. When they had reached a great red boulder, about midway between Sunset; Ranch and Tonita's home, they seated themselves upon it for a little time, as was their wont. Tonita's witching face had become quite serious. '"Would you be advised by me, dear?'' she asked. "What have you to say dearest?" Beryl returned, taking one of the Mexicana's little brown hands in both her own. "Do not allow any mistaken idea of gratitude toward Senor Berdyne to influence- you in doing something you might live regret," said Tonita, her voice throbbing with earnestness. "If you cannot give him your heart, then do not give him your hand."/ Afl have not promised——" "'Then do not! Be guided by me." "But, " r 7,.^„ , Tonita, having eased herl mind, withdrew her hand softly and arose. "Think of what I have told you, querida," she interrupted, flitting away down the path. "I will see you in the morning; and, until then, adios!" Tonita vanished, and Beryl continued to remain where her [friend had left her, thinking as she had never thought before. Mr so true of heart, and so devoted to her welfare, that he desired her only that he might give her the luxury of his wealth, the protection of his close companionship. His generosity, perhaps, was luring him into something which he himself might regret. BMj^Wl <ai!t ßN "As these reflections drifted through Beryl's mind, again she shivered; and out of that dreary north land the very breeze seemed to carry the words:( "And when above my grave, love, Some day the grass grows strong?, Then sing the song we loved, love; Love, just that one sweet song."

Once more tears veiled her violet eyes, and she bowed her face in her hands. In the midst of her sorrow, she felt .a rough grasp on Ther arm, and sprang erect like a startled fawn. A woman in a rich travelling dress stood beside her, and was just lifting a veil and revealing a face that might be described as "coarsely beautiful. Just now the face 1 was as hard as flint, and the eyes burned with cruel intensity. "So you, with your baby face, are the one who would take Nicholas Berdyne from me! Away from|me, to whom he rightfully belongs!" :. The woman's voice rang out with cutting clearness, and poor Beryl drew back in fear and wonder. 9 "Who are you?" she demanded. "Whence do you come?" 'j "My name is Irma Lee," was the calm response, "and I have come fromjSan Francisco, to tear the mask from a man who is seeking to deceive you" *„ The two stared at each other for a few moments, and then the elder womaptame a step nearer.

By Julia Edwards, Authv of "The Little Widow," "Sadia, the Rosebud," "Prettiest of All," A "Stella Sterling," "Laura Bray ton," etc.

CHAPTER 111. A WOMAN SCORNED. Through Eeryl's mind ran a host of surmises moused by the woman's strange words. A baleful light smouldered in Irma Lee's gray eyes, always relentless, but varying in intensity under press of her wayward temper. In one breath she accused Beryl of taking Nicholas Berdyne away from her, and in the next she accused Berdyne of deceit. Breyl hardly knew how to take the woman. "I do not know you," said Beryl, straightening her lithe form, and gazing steadily into Irma Lee's face, "and I do not recognize your right to come-to me with such a subject as the one you have mentioned." A bitter laugh greeted the words. "I have the right of a woman whose love has been won, then trampled upon and cast aside," said the stranger; "the ; right to interfere, and save another from the same fate. Look at me, Beryl Grayson! I am no longer young, but I was no older than you when this man came into my life; now there are threads of gray in my hair, and my face is marred by sorrow, and I have paid for the right to step between you and Berdyne with all that has made life worth living. Is it not enough? Would you ask more?" Beryl listened in stunned bewilderment. Could Mr Berdyne be such a man as this woman was picturing him? The girl would not have it so. This terrible woman must have some base design of her own to serve by thus traducing his character. ;.v«r , "I. will not listen to you," said Beryl, and sought to turn and retrace her way to the ranch-house. Before she. Buld take two steps the other once more had her by the arm. "You shall listen!" breathed Irma Lee's voice, with hateful insistencei "Hiding in the hushes beside the path, I overheard something of what passed between you and your friend. You are lovely, Beryl Grayson, but if you had said one word to your friend that would have led me ,to think you really cared for Berdyne, at this moment you would be hideously disfigured, and your loveliness a thing of the past. See! I had come prepared." I The woman held aloft a small phial, and Beryl gazed with horrified eyes. "Enough of this," continued Irma I Lee, replacing the phial in the bosom of her dress. "You do not know Berdyne's hypocrisy, you have not sounded the depths of his malignant nature. You regard him as a noble gentleman, who, out of friendship for your father, has endeavoured to advance your welfare. But I declare to you he has been serving his own selfish purpose." Poor Beryl, ever loyal to those whom she considered her friends, felt that she should not remain and listen to Irma Lee's' words. At the same time, notwithstanding Irma's remorseless jealousy, there was something about her that rang true, and influenced Beryl in spite of herself. "A man came to you in Denver," proceeded Irma, noting with satisfaction the impression she had made on the girl, "a - man named Gorsline. This was a year ago. Gorsline told you that, with his own eyes, he had seen your lover meet his depth in the Copper River country, in far-away Alaska." A moaning, sigh burst instinctively from Beryl's lips, and she averted her face. Irma came to her side. "What Gorsline told you," Irma went on, her voice full of throbbing earnestness, "was false! He had never seen your lover, .he had never even been in Alaska! He was a San Francisco hoodlum, hired by Berdyne Itogo to you with a lie! Letters sent to you from the far North, and addressed to Denver, have been intercepted ; not one has been allowed to reach your hands." These amazing statements poured from Irma Lee's lips in a torrent. Beryl appeared fas one in a dream, fairJy astounded by thejweight of the revelations. Her wide, wondering eyes were fixed upon the face of the elder woman, and her red lips moved, but no words came. "It is true," proceeded Irma, "Your good and noble friend"—her lip curled, and a fierce irony rang in her tones —"wanted you to believe that your lover was dead, so that he could encompass his own base designs. Nicholas Berdyne would inveigle you into marrying him—he is even now on his way to Sunset Ranch with this object in view—and he would accomplish this before your lover returns from Alaska." (To be Continued).