urt Beryl to the soul.

"Mother! Mother, _please_ don't. It isn't too late. I can get them
back. I didn't know you cared, don't you see?"

Beryl of course did not know about the pulling ache at the back of
Mother Moira's neck or she would have understood that her mother's
hysteria was due partly to that. She had never seen her mother look so
queer and old and pale and it frightened her.

Mrs. Lynch crossed the room until she stood behind Danny's chair.
Involuntarily her hand moved to his shoulder.

"No, you wouldn't know. It isn't your fault. Of course it's just beads
they were, but they belonged to the young part of me when my heart was
that light and full of beautiful dreams and so strong that it hurt the
inside of me. And nothing in this world was too fine for the likes of my
Danny and me. And we thought 'twas just ours for the asking. And then
when the clouds come--" her hand pressed big Danny's shoulder ever so
lightly, "I told myself the dreams were my own and no one could _take
them_ away from me and if I couldn't make them come true, as true for
himself and me, sure, I'd keep them for my boy and girl. And 'twas the
beads were like a dear voice out of the past telling me to be strong,
for Father Murphy, with the saints in Heaven now, God rest him, gave
them to me himself with his blessing and saying might my dreams come
true! Ah, well--sure it's a punishment, maybe, for me wanting things
just for my own--"

"Mother!" broke in Beryl, sternly. "As if you could be punished for
anything! Will you tell me one thing? Which would you rather have--those
beads--or--or--a nice little farm in the hills with a cow and chickens
and pigs and a little orchard and--and a Ford--and a girl to do the
cooking so's you could stay with Pop, and Dale studying engineering in
some college, if he wanted to, and me--"

"Beryl Lynch, are ye crazy?" cried big Danny, suspecting that the girl
was in someway trying to mock her mother.

"_No_, I'm not crazy, though I ought to be, with old Jacques Henri
scolding me and now mother--" She bit her lip childishly. "Will you
please just answer me, mother?"

"A farm--with a garden--and a cow--and trees and a good stretch of the
green meadow--ah, sure I'd think it a bit of Heaven."

"Mother, you can have it! You can have it!" Beryl rushed to and knelt by
big Danny's chair. "That's what I was trying to tell you. That man will
give you fifteen thousand dollars for those beads! Really, truly. See