G. B. Lancaster

“ Our Lady came to her feet in one lithe movement, and her eyes blazed. “If you say another word,” she cried, “I'll thump you, Crandeck! It's no business of yours. I love the plain better than anything—'cept dad—and I'll never go away from it. Never! Never! It's beautifuller than Revelation, because it's really here now. And the tussock is like the sea of glass in heaven; and when the mountains are all purple and scarlet and green they are like God's throne, and—and—you're a perfect beast, Crandeck!” ”

“ Life was in its throes of beginning, with no God, no soul to it. Life was clay only—animated clay—so near to the earth that it heard the voices of the earth and breathed the breath of it.
Nearer crept the beast, until its blotched skin showed bristly in the moonlight, and Penderel, with the sweat breaking on him, backed away from it. Then, like a shot bolt, a zebra sprang across the clearing, with panting, sleek sides and its pink tongue lolling. Hard on its quarters flashed a great yellow lioness, and the hyenas seemed to wither up in the shadows as if they were not. ”

“ The mare, caked with foam, was nosing around the barn door, and behind her clanged the cracked shafts and the nickel front rail of the pung. The lines trailed, unbuckled, and there was a deep cut on the mare's flank as if she had been struck by a flying sliver.
Sallie went to the gate and looked down the road. She wheeled and looked across the level lots, now scarlet sheer away to the pure, pale green of the sky. The world was soundless, contracting already in the increasing grip of the frost. Janice leaned in the doorway, with that hysterical clutch at her throat again. ”

“ And Andree stood for the old dynasty; the thing which must die; the thing to be trodden hard that the roots of the new-planted tree should stand firm in it. This was the law of life; the law of eternity. It was the ever-mutable. Now out of which the Future is shaped. All mankind were governed alike by that law. There was no escape. But, with those young arms gripped about him, Dick did not feel competent to lay the whole blame on the natural evolution of destiny.
Andree drew herself up against him; lifting her quivering lips. ”

“ It was exactly a week. But, through stress of business, Yorke had only seen her four times in that week. On the afternoon of the eighth day he had been surf-riding on Waikiki beach and from the pier Betty had cheered him with glowing eyes and the very spirit of delight in her voice. He went back to the bathing-rooms and changed swiftly, and came to her among the palms and the gaudy poinsettias rimming the sea. The slap of the salt water had tingled his blood; the glory of the long ride in on the slippery board that crested the mighty combers had filled him to the brim with pride and daring. ”