esser light. She will never swerve one iota
from her lofty standard, and some day, please God, she may yet wear her
coveted crown right royally. Governor Glenbeigh is worthy even of her,
but will his devotion win her at last?"

CHAPTER XXXI.

If it be true that the universal Law of Labor, physical or mental,
emanated from the Creator as a penal statute, for disobedience which
forfeited Eden, how merciful and how marvellous is the delicacy of an
adjustment, whereby all growth of body, mind and soul being conditioned
by work, humanity converts punishment into benediction; escapes
degeneration, attains development solely in accordance with the
provisions of the primeval curse, man's heritage of labor? Amid the
wreck of sacerdotal systems, the destruction of national gods, the
periodical tidal waves of scepticism, the gospel of work maintains
triumphantly its legions of evangels; its apostolic succession direct
from Adam; its myriad temples always alight with altar fires, always
vocal with the sublime hymn swelling from millions of consecrated
throats.

The one infallible tonic for weakened souls, the one supreme balm for
bruised hearts is the divinely distilled chrism of labor.

Absorbed in the round of duties that employed her hands and thoughts,
and necessitated dedication of every waking hour, Beryl found more
solace than she had dared to hope; and the artistic fancies which she
had supposed extinguished, spread their frail gossamer wings and
fluttered shyly into the serene sunshine that had broken rpon her
frozen life. The distinctively ornamental character of many of the
industrial pursuits at the "Anchorage", demanded originality and
variety of designs, and as this department had been assigned to her,
she entered with increasing zest the tempting field of congenial
employment; yet day by day, bending over her tasks, she never lost
sight of the chain that clanked at her wrist, that bound her to a
hideous past, to a murky, lowering and menacing future.

Weeks slipped away, months rolled on; Autumn overtook her. Winter snows
and sleet blanched the heavenly blue of the dimpling lake, and no
tidings reached her from the wanderer, for whom she prayed. The
advertisement had elicited no reply, and though it had long ceased to
appear, she daily searched the personal column of the "Herald", with a
vague expectation of some response. If her brother still lived, was the
world so wide, that she could never trace his