bine Lodge will rebuke me daily," said Mr.
Markland.

"You cannot be happy in this neighbourhood." Grace spoke in her
emphatic way. "It is impossible!"

"I fear that it is even so," replied her brother.

"Then," said Mrs. Markland, in a firm voice, "we will go hence. I
place nothing against the happiness of my husband. If the sight of
our old home is to trouble him daily, we will put mountains between,
if necessary."

Markland turned toward his wife. She had never looked more beautiful
in his eye.

"Is self-negation to be all on her part?" The thought, flashing
through his mind, changed the current of his feelings, and gave him
truer perceptions.

"No, Agnes," he said, while a faint smile played around his lips,
"we will not put mountains between us and this neighbourhood. Pride
is a poor counsellor, and they who take heed to her words, sow the
seeds of repentance. In reverse of fortune, we stand not alone.
Thousands have walked this rugged road before us; and shall we
falter, and look weakly back?"

"Not so, Edward!" returned his wife, with enthusiasm; "we will
neither falter nor look back. Our good and evil are often made by
contrasts. We shall not find the way rugged, unless we compare it
too closely with other ways our feet have trodden, and sigh vainly
over the past, instead of accepting the good that is awarded us in
the present. Let us first make the 'rough paths of peevish nature
even,' and the way will be smooth to our feet."

"You will never be happy in this neighbourhood, Edward," said his
sister, sharply; for she saw that the pride her words had awakened
was dying out.

"If he is not happy here, change of place will work no difference."
Mrs. Markland spoke earnestly.

"Why not?" was the quick interrogation of Grace.

"Because happiness is rarely, if ever, produced by a change of
external relations. We must have within us the elements of
happiness; and then the heart's sunshine will lie across our
threshold, whether it be of palace or cottage."

"Truer words were never spoken," said Mr. Markland, "and I feel
their better meaning. No, Agnes, we will not go out from this
pleasant neighbourhood, nor from among those we have proved to be
friends. If Woodbine Lodge ever looks upon me rebukingly, I will try
to acknowledge the justice of the rebuke. I will accept Mr. Willet's
kind offer to-morrow. But what have you to say, Fanny?" Mr. Markland
now turned to his daughter, who had not ventured a word