The Project Gutenberg eBook, By Berwen Banks, by Allen Raine

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Title: By Berwen Banks

Author: Allen Raine

Release Date: July 4, 2006 [eBook #18758]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BY BERWEN BANKS***

E-text prepared by Al Haines

BY BERWEN BANKS

a Novel

by

ALLEN RAINE

Author of "A Welsh Singer," "Torn Sails," etc.

111TH THOUSAND

London
Hutchinson & Co.
Paternoster Row

CONTENTS

I. BERWEN BANKS
II. THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF
III. THE SASSIWN
IV. THE STORM
V. GWYNNE ELLIS ARRIVES
VI. CORWEN AND VALMAI
VII. THE VICAR'S STORY
VIII. THE OLD REGISTER
IX. REUBEN STREET
X. THE WEB OF FATE
XI. THE "BLACK DOG"
XII. A CLIMAX
XIII. "THE BABIES' CORNER"
XIV. UNREST
XV. THE SISTERS
XVI. DISPERSING CLOUDS
XVII. HOME AGAIN
XVIII. THE VELVET WALK
XIX. THE MEREDITHS
XX. GWLADYS
XXI. INTO THE SUNSHINE

BY BERWEN BANKS.

CHAPTER I.

BERWEN BANKS.

Caer Madoc is a sleepy little Welsh town, lying two miles from the sea
coast. Far removed from the busy centres of civilisation, where the
battle of life breeds keen wits and deep interests, it is still, in the
opinion of its inhabitants, next to London, the most important place in
the United Kingdom. It has its church and three chapels, its mayor and
corporation, jail, town hall, and market-place; but, more especially,
it has its fairs, and awakes to spasmodic jollity on such occasions,
which come pretty often--quite ten times in the year. In the interims
it resigns itself contentedly to its normal state of lethargy.

The day on which my story opens had seen the busiest and merriest fair
of the year, and the evening found the little town looking jaded and
disreputable after its few hours of dissipation, the dusty High Street
being littered with scraps of paper, orange-peel, and such like
_debris_. The merry-go-rounds and the "shows" had departed, the last
donkey-cart had rattled out of the town, laden with empty gingerbread
boxes.

In the stable of the Red Dragon three men stoope