RIVEN ASUNDER. OR, BERYL GRAYSON'S ORDEAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8372, 5 March 1907, Page 2

RIVEN ASUNDER. OR, BERYL GRAYSON'S ORDEAL.

A KOMANCE OF THE SAN FiiANCISCO DISASTER. *

CHAPTER 111. -Continued

"Oh what are you telling me?" cried Beryl, passionately, springing forward and catching one of Irma's hands in a convulsive clasp. "My darling, after I have mourned him these many ;r.onths as dead, is still alive? For the love of Heaven, for the love of all that you hold dear on earth, do not deceive me!" The next moment she had dropped Irma's hand, and pressed both her own hands to her throbbing temples. She reeled as though about to fall, and the elder woman caught her about the waist and supported her. "Courage, Beryl Grayson," whispered Irma; "joy cannot kill! If what I have told you has gladdened your heart, what supreme happiness is yet in store for you—nay, on the way to you at this very moment." Beryl's arms clasped themselves about Irma's neck. "Truly," Beryl whispered, in a transport of joy, "you are my good angel! You have brought a gleam of sunlight into my darkened life, and I prey that God may bless and reward you!" A look as of pain crossed Irma's face. "I have not come here out of any kindly feeling for you, Miss Grayson," said she sharply, "but simply to foil Berdyne; to keep him from entangling himself with another when he rightfully belongs to me. I am a selfish and revengeful woman, and have no desire to be regarded as an angel of mercy. Compose yourself now, and hear the rest of what I have to tell you." Beryl was like a person transformed. Her lovely face was aglow, her eyes were like stars, and she was trembling in an ecstacy of suddenly awakened hope. "You have given Mr Berdyne reason to hope that you would yield to his entreaties and consent to marry him," continued Irma Lee. "If you still love Neil Preston, to do such a thing even out of pity and gratitude, would be to wrong both him and yourself; aye, and Berdyne and me. Mr Preston at this very moment, is on his way to Sunset Ranch " "Neil! —coming here?" murmured Beryl, scarcely believing her ears.

"Yes." "But he does not know where I am.

"He does know, for I met him in San Francisco last evening, and told him. Berdyne, as I have already informed you, is also coming. You must settle this matter with him, once and for all, before the man you love appears on the scene." Beryl, blinded by the happy tears that suffused her eyes, sank to her "knees. Often, in the bitterness of despair, her heart had rebelled against the cruel fate to have taken 1 her darling from her; now, at last, she was brought to know how unnecessary had been her sorrow, how unjust her repining.

"You have suffered," said Irma Lee, bending over her, "needlessly suffered, and all because of the machinations of Nicholas Berdyne. Do not forget this in your coming interview with him ;l and do not fail, at that time, to conceal the source of your information. If you desire proof of what I have told you concerning Mr Preston, you will find it in this paper." Simultaneously with her last words a folded newspaper was pressed into Beryl's hand; and when her sight cleared, she was that Irma Lee had vanished as suddenly as she had come. The paper proved to be a San Francisco daily. On the first page was marked article containing an .account of the recent arrival from ' Skaguay, Alaska, of the steamer Argonaut. Among the list of returning passengers was the name of Neil Preston! Ah, how a young heart rebounds from sorrow under an impulse of hope and love! At times the strongest of us are prone to forget that "The morning must succeed the night, All storms subside. The clouds drive by. And when again the glorious light From heaven's gate comes bursting through, Behold! The rains have washed to sky As bright as heaven's bluest blue."

CHAPTER IV. "NO POWER CAN TAKE YOU FROM ME!" ''The hypocrite] had left his mask, and stood In naked ugliness. He was a man Who stole the livery of the court of Heaven To serve the devil'in." "Beryl! My little sweetheart!" It was Berdyne's voice. He was mounting the varandah steps, his face aglow with eagerness, his hands .outstretched toward Beryl who had just risen from the hammock. The girl had expected him the evening before but he had arrived late. He, and a man who had come withjhim, had had a midnight supper with Mr Jackman. All three had retired in the "wee small hours.

Beryl, through the open window of her room on the second floor, had heard the voices of the three in low conversation. Mr Berdyne had been at the ranch several times since Beryl had been the guest of the ranchman and his wife; and Beryl had imagined that these visits measured the length of Berdyne's acquaintance with Mr Jackman. She was a little surprised, therefore, at the prolonged talk which the three (men had had in the dining-room. Mr and Mrs Jackman and Beryl, served by the Chinese cook, had had their breakfast long before Mr Berdyne and his companion were astir. Following the meal, Beryl had been

By Juiia Edwards, Author of "The Little Tiidoic," "Sadiu, the Bosebnd," "Prettiest of Jll," "Stella Sterling," "Laura, lira i/ton," etc.

waiting and nerving herself for the interview which she knew could not be much longer postponed. Now it was at hand, and it found her ready. "Wait, Mr Berydyne," said Beryl, fluttering her hand with a restraining gesture. Clad in a simple white gown, with a pale rose at her breast, Beryl had never looked more entraneingly lovely than she did at that moment. Her beauty was a lure to the man, beckoning him on even as her imperious manner repelled him. Berdyne was abashed and bewildered. He stood for a space as her ; words had left him, one foot on the j edge of the verandah and the other on the step below. ; "Why," he returned, "what do you mean. What sort of greeting is this for your affianced husband?" "Not that!" she cried vehemently. "But you promised me " "I promised you nothing, Mr Berdyne. Search your memory, and you will not find that, by words or deed, have I ever given you the least encouragement." Berdyne was like one stunned. Suddenly he dismissed his wonder with a shrug, mounted the last step, and seated himself on the verandah rail. , "By gad!" he muttered. "What sort of a tangent have you gone off on now, Miss Grayson? Will you go so far as to say there was no understanding between us? In pursuance of that understanding, I have come from Denver to make you my wife. Your treatment of me, I must say, is decidedlsitf|cool. What has happened? ~.I&J read the signs aright, someone has been setting you against me." "There was no understanding, Mr Berdyne," persisted Beryl' quite calmly, "but I think it is high time we had one now." "I grant you that, my dear," said he easily. A flush of hot indignation swept through her rounded cheeks. "Those terms of affection," she said, "are out of place —even were you the loyal friend of my father's which you have led me to believe. I cannot listen to any more of them." He gave a low whistle, and settled back against the verandah-post. His narrowing eyes were filled with a bold, gloating insolence that aroused her loathing. She wondered, then, why she had needed those words of Irma Lee's to show her the true nature of this man. Ah, she had been blind, blind!

"I was grateful to you, Mr Berdyne," Beryl went on, "for what I supposed was kindness extended to me on my father's account. You took for granted very much more than you had any warrant to do. You knew, at the time Mr Preston went to Alaska, that—that I was engaged to him; and I have told you again and again that all my heart is his." "Neil Preston has passed from the scene," said he. "I saw an account of his demise in a Skaguay paper, and the man Gorsline verified it."

"The man Gorsline," she said, drawing herself to her full height, "did not tell the truth. I believe, Mr Berdyne, that he never went to Alaska at all, and that he brought me that wretched story at your instigation."

A muttered anathema fell from Berdyne's lips. Another moment and he had sprung to his feet. "Who says that?" he roughly demanded. "Who has been talking to you?" "That is beside the question." Beryl's nerves were tingling with excitement, but her resolution did not waver. She pointed to a newspaper liyng in the hammock. "That paper,", she continued, "gives an account of the arrival at San Francisco of the steamer Argonaut, and Neil's name is among the list of returning passengers." He uttered a malediction under his breath. "The time has come, Mr Berdyne, when we must be perfectly frank with each other. I cannot be. your wife. If I never stated this before as emphatically as I should have done, it was because I thought you had been good to me, and I hesitated to wound your feelings." At that moment his anger got" the better of him. "By Heaven!" he cried fiercely, "you shall marry me! lam not the man to be trifled with by a chit of a girl. I love you passionately; you are the one woman in all the world I want for my own. No power can take you from me." More and more was Berdyne revealing the nature which he had, up to then, kept studiously in the background. Beryl was horrified at the hideous treachery his words suggested. (To be Continued).