r, would neither be
wise nor like your husband, who is not a man to trust himself on the
ocean of business without studying well the charts, and, at times,
taking fast hold upon the rudder."

"You might have been so happy here, Edward," said Mrs. Markland,
looking into his face and smiling feebly.

"A happy idler? Impossible!"

"You have been no idler, my husband, since our retirement from the
city. Look around, and say whose intelligence, whose taste, are
visible wherever the eye falls?"

"A poor, vain life, for a man of thought and energy, has been mine,
Agnes, during the last few years. The world has claims on me beyond
that of mere landscape-gardening! In a cultivation of the beautiful
alone no man of vigorous mind can or ought to rest satisfied. There
is a goal beyond, and it is already dimly revealed, in the far
distance, to my straining vision."

"I greatly fear, Edward," replied his wife, speaking in her gentle,
yet impressive way, "that when the goal you now appear so eager to
reach, is gained, you will see still another beyond."

"It may be so, Agnes," was answered, in a slightly depressed voice;
"yet the impulse to bear onward to the goal now in view is not the
less ardent for the suggestion. I can no more pause than the
avalanche once in motion. I must onward in the race I have entered."

"To gain what, Edward?"

"I shall gain large wealth."

"Have we not all things here that heart can desire, my husband?"

"No, Agnes," was replied with emphasis.

"What is lacking?"

"Contentment."

"Edward!" There came a quick flush to the brow of Mrs. Markland.

"I cannot help the fact, Agnes," said Mr. Markland. "For months I
have suffered from a growing dissatisfaction with the fruitless life
I am leading."

"And yet with what a fond desire we looked forward to the time when
we could call a spot like this our own! The world had for us no more
tempting offer."

"While struggling up from the valley, we cannot know how wide the
landscape will spread beneath our enchanted vision. We fix our eyes
on the point to be gained. That reached, we are, for a time, content
with our elevation. But just enough of valley and mountain,
stretching far off in the dim distance, is revealed, to quicken our
desire for a more extended vision, and soon, with renewed strength,
we lift our gaze upward, and the word 'excelsior!' comes almost
unbidden to our lips. There is a higher and a highest place to be
gained, and I feel,