nted to my mind was like a flood
of light; but I did not love the truth, and shut my eyes to the
light that revealed more than I wished to know. Ah, sir! if I could
have accepted all you then advanced--if I could have overcome the
false principle of self-seeking then so clearly shown to be the
curse of life--I would not have involved myself in business that
must now separate me for months from my home and family."

"And should you achieve all that was anticipated in the beginning,"
said Mr. Allison, "I doubt if you will find pleasure enough in the
realization to compensate for this hour of pain, to say nothing of
what you are destined to suffer during the months of separation that
are before you."

"Your doubts are my own," replied Markland, musingly. "But,"--and he
spoke in a quicker and lighter tone,--"this is all folly! I must go
forward, now, to the end. Why, then, yield to unmanly weakness?"

"True, sir," returned the old man. "No matter how difficult the way
in which our feet must walk, the path must be trodden bravely."

"I shall learn some lessons of wisdom by this experience," said Mr.
Markland, "that will go with me through life. But, I fear, they will
be all too dearly purchased."

"Wisdom," was the answer, "is a thing of priceless value."

"It is sometimes too dearly bought, for all that."

"Never," replied the old man,--"never. Wisdom is the soul's true
riches; and there is no worldly possession that compares with it in
value. If you acquire wisdom by any experience, no matter how severe
it may prove, you are largely the gainer. And here is the
compensation in every affliction, in every disappointment, and in
every misfortune. We may gather pearls of wisdom from amid the ashes
and cinders of our lost hopes, after the fires have consumed them."

Mr. Markland sighed deeply, but did not answer. There was a dark sky
above and around him; yet gleams of light skirted a cloud here and
there, telling him that the great sun was shining serenely beyond.
He felt weak, sad, and almost hopeless, as he parted from Mr.
Allison, who promised often to visit his family during his absence;
and in his weakness, he lifted his heart involuntarily upward, and
asked direction and strength from Him whom he had forgotten in the
days when all was light around him, and, in the pride and strength
of conscious manhood, he had felt that he possessed all power to
effect the purposes of his own will.

CHAPTER XXXII.

A