the door.

Beth could not suppress one little cry.

"Oh!" It was half a moan, half a shuddering gasp.

With her last rally of strength she faced the stairway, and weakly
stumbled up the steps.

A spasm of agony seized Van by the cords of his heart. He went blindly
away, with a vision in his eyes of Beth groping weakly up the stairs--a
doe with a mortal hurt.

CHAPTER XL

GLEN AND REVELATIONS

How she spent that night Beth never could have told. Her mind had
refused to work. Only her heart was sensible of life and emotions, for
there lay her wound, burning fiercely all the long hours through. That
Van had made excuses to his partners and disappeared on "business" was
a matter of which she received no account.

In the morning the unexpected happened. Her brother Glen arrived in
Goldite, having driven from Starlight with a friend. He appeared at
Mrs. Dick's while Beth was still in her room, indisposed. She had
eaten no dinner. She took no breakfast. But with Glenmore's advent
she was suddenly awakened to a new excitement, almost a new sort of
hope.

Young Kent was a smooth-faced, boyish chap, slightly stooped,
exceedingly neat, black-haired, and of medium height. He was like Beth
only in a "family" manner. His nose was a trifle large for his face,
but something in his modest, good-natured way, coupled to his earnest
delivery of slang in all his conversation, lent him a certain charm
that no one long resisted.

He was standing in his characteristic pose, with one hand buried in his
pocket, as he laughingly explained himself to Mrs. Dick, when Beth came
running down the stairs.

"Glen!" she cried, as she ran along the hall, and casting herself most
fervently upon him, with her arms about his neck, she had a good,
sky-clearing cry, furious and brief, and looked like a rain-wet rose
when she pushed him away and scrutinized him quickly through her tears.

"I say, Sis, why this misplaced fountain on the job?" he said. "Do I
look as bad as that?"

"Oh, Glen," she said, "you've been ill! You were hurt! I've worried
so. You're well? You've entirely recovered? Oh, I'm so glad to see
you. Glen! There's so much I've got to say!"

"Land snakes!" said Mrs. Dick. "If I don't hurry----" and off she went.

"You're the phonograph for mine," said Glen. "What's the matter with
your eyes? Searle hasn't got you going on the lachrymals already?"

"No, I--I'm all right," she said excitedly. "I di