RIVEN ASUNDER. OR, BERYL GRAYSON'S ORDEAL,

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8388, 27 March 1907, Page 2

RIVEN ASUNDER. OR, BERYL GRAYSON'S ORDEAL,

A KOMANCE OF THE SA.N FsIANCISO UI3ASTER.

CHAPTER XXI.- Continued. ' The palaces of Nob Hill seemed to liave withstood the earthquake shock most valiantly; for the stately edifice, up whose marble steps Beryl and Tonita presently mounted, appeared to show no signs of ruin apart from its fallen chimneys and cracked and broken windows. As they Blojdonthe great, railed verandah and pressed the bell, some one inside stole a look at them through a broken pane. The face of the person within was that of an elderly woman. It was a cold, haughty face, indelibly marked ■with that arrogance of casto which has gold for its god. Both girls, their faces caught luridly in the light from the little stoves on the wall, were clearly under the eyes of the elderly woman. Astonishment crossed the woman's proud features—astonishment, which was swiftly merged into anger and apprehension. She turned to a •man of thirty, or thereabouts, who was standing near her and holding a candle. "A rare night for visitors, Aunt Hester," said he grimly, "and I must be my own flunky and answer, the ring in person." "Two girls?" gasped the woman; "common people, Arthur. And one of them is—is " "Calm yourself, Aunt Hester, returned the man in his measured, wellbred tones. "What should excite you so? You know onej>f them. Who is it?" , , "It is the working girl whose beauty has ensnared my son!" The words came quick and sharp, but in a low tone.

. "Impossible!" muttered the man in a voice of dismay. "I cannot be mistaken, Arthur!" the woman answered decidedly. "Oh that this should happen, and now, of all times. I saw the creature once in Denver—in fact, 1 made it a point to see her—and I never forget a face. Send her away! Or, stay; can you keep Neil in his room while I talk with the girl?" "I think so," returned the man. "Then you might admit them, and leave them alone with me." The woman's thin lips closed with cruel firmness, and she waited ominiously while Arthur Preston went to the door. CHAPTER XXII. "I AM HIS WIFE!" "It is a fearful thing To love as I love thee; to feel the world — The bright, the beautiful, joy-giv-ing world— A blank without thee. Never more to me Can hope, joy, fear wear different seeming. Now I have no hope that does not dream of thee; , I. have no joy that is not shared by

Thee; I have no fear that does not dread for thee! And oh, my love! what cruel star Brings thee so near, keeps thee so far?" For, the first time in long, long months, Neil Preston pushed his way through the refugees and mounted the marble steps on his cousin's stately home on Nob Hill. Never since Arthur Preston had sided with his mother and brother against Beryl had Neil the heart to cross his threshold. He turned to his cousin now as a last resort —willing, if Arthur was so minded, to lejt the dead past bury.its dead.

An overmastering weariness was slowly but steadily creeping upon Neil's dauntless spirit. His strong limbs trembled under a strain that threatened momentarily to snap his endurance. He fought heroically against the weakness. 1 But that which caused him the most dismay was the throbbing pain that darted from his wound. Arthur himself, punctiliously clinging to his evening apparel despite the wreck and confusion that shook the city, came to the door bearing a lighted candle. Arthur's wife and children had gone, some days before, to the country home at Tamalpais, and the servants had fled like frightened . sheep at the first great shock. Neil's clothes were torn, dusty, and burned in places by dropping sparks; he was bareheaded, and his face begrimed with dust; his cheeks were haggard, his eyes blood shot, and the bandage about his temples gave him a gruesome look. Small wonder his cousin did not know him at first. "Well, my man?" asked Arthur Preston impatiently.' "If you have come here for relief you have come ■ the wrong place. You should apply to one of the relief-stations operated by the Red Cross." He would have closed the door, but Neil staggered through it bef.re he could do so. /"Arthur!" exclaimed Neil, "don't • you know me?"

"Merciful heavens!" Arthur Preston drew back and stared as though he could scarcely believe his eyes. "Neil!" he exclamed. "Why, cousin, what has happened to you?" A cry of sharp surprise echoed from a near apartment. It was followed by a rustle of sillc, a quick, light footfall, and the woman with the proud face and the gray hair swept to Arthur's side, took the candle from his hand, and held it in front of Neil. Neil gazed a); her as though spellbound. The woman's face hardened and she recoiled as Neil halfstretched forth his hands. '"Graceless boy!" cried the woman, "It appears that you have suffered for your past folly. I saw in a papefi that you had arrived in this

By Julia Edwards 3 Author of -The Little If Mow- «S«cZ«/, /W.Wfc""," <>/ ;*«," •'.StfUu Sterling," ''Laura Drayton," etc..\

city from the North, and without loss j of * time I hurried. here, arriving only yesterday. Imagine how my heart was torn when I discovered that you had been in San Francisco several day.?, and had not called to see Arthur!" Neil drew closer, but the cold, proud woman retreated from his extended hands. "Do not touch me!" she said sharply, "I shall not come near you until you declare to me that your infatuation for that common creature is a thing of the past. If you are repentant, I can forgive and forget." Neil drew himself erect and his hands dropped. "Mother," he began, "I—l " He got no further. Suddenly and silently he sank to the floor at the woman's feet. "My boy! Oh, my son!" Mrs Preston bent over him. "It is only a faint," said Arthur. "He has evidently suffered many hardships on account of the general calamity. Now that we have him here, we will keep him until he is once more well and strong. Poor fellow! he was always my favorite cousin, and I am grieved to see him in this.plight." "Better for him, and for me," murmured the woman, "that he should die rather than continue to disgrace our name!" It was indeed a hard and cruel speech to come from a I mother's lips. "Perhaps," said Arthur, "he has learned his lesson, and profited by it. He is young, you know, Aunt HesI ter."

, "Yes, yes," said | Mrs Preston. ''We will care for him,tenderly until we are able to hear, from his own lips, that the working girl has gone out of his life. He can retrieve himself, but only through contrition, and an acknowledgment that he was in the wrong." , Between them, Neil, unconscious and breathing heavily, was carried into a rear chamber and laid upon a bed. A clean, fresh bandage was tied about the bruised forehead, and, some time later, his gentle, regular breathing proved that he had passed into deep sleep. , ******

Arthur Preston, after admitting Beryl and Tonita into the drawingroom and placing the candle on a table, withdrew from the apartment with a significant glance at his aunt. Poor Beryl had not had time to ask a question concerning her loved one; Arthur, as soon as he had opened the door, had curtly Requested his two callers to enter, and had ushered them at once into the presence of the haughty, Mrs Preston.' Although Mrs Preston had been at some pains to see Beryl and make a note .of her appearance, Beryl had never before been so close to Neil's mother as she was at that moment. Naturally, she did not know who she was, but the chill of her hauteur wove a foreboding, spell, about the girls. "Girl," sad Mrs Preston arrogantly, addressing herself to Beryl, "why have you come to this house?" "I have, r come to learn something about Neil," Beryl calmly answered, meeting the elder woman's forbidding look with steady eyes. "I am Neil Preston's mother," came frigidly from Mrs Preston, "and I deny your right to ask about him, or even to mention his name. He is not in your social sphere, and you should have the good sense to set your cap for some one in an humbler station."

"Madam" cried Beryl, her violet eyes agleam and the colour surging intp ; her cheeks, "I have every right to call here and ask about Neil. Love levels every barrier—even if a barrier, other than of your own making, ever stood between us." "You talk of love!" exclaimed the elder woman scornfully. "There is no love on my son's part—merely a passing fancy. Neither is there any love on your part; yon are a designing creature " "Senora!" interposed Touita, her quick Southern nature up in arms for her friend, "you speak falsely, for no woman ever loved a man more devotedly than " "I am addressing Beryl Grayson, the bindery girl," said Mrs Preston, with a disdainful gesture that brought fire into the Mexicana's eyes. "Leave this to me, dearest Tonita," said Beryl to her friend. Beryl's face was white, but thei'e was a gentle dignity about her, a calmness and resolution which gave her character a new aspect in Tonita's eyes. x (To be Contii uid).