"
"I hardly expected this from you, Mr. Markland," said the neighbour;
"to my observation, you always seemed one of the most cheerful of
men."
"I never was a misanthrope; I never was positively unhappy. No, I
have been too earnest a worker. But there is no disguising from
myself the fact, now I reflect upon it, that I have known but little
true enjoyment as I moved along my way through life."
"I must be permitted to believe," replied Mr. Allison, "that you are
not reading aright your past history. have been something of an
observer of men and things, and my experience leads me to this
conclusion."
"He who has felt the pain, Mr. Allison, bears ever after the memory
of its existence."
"And the marks, too, if the pain has been as prolonged and severe as
your words indicate."
"But such marks, in your case, are not visible. That you have not
always found the pleasure anticipated--that you have looked
restlessly away from the present, longing for some other good than
that laid by the hand of a benignant Providence at your feet, I can
well believe; for this is my own history, as well as yours: it is
the history of all mankind.
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