Markland.
"We may look for the good time coming, but look in vain. Its morning
will never break over the distant mountain-tops to which our eyes
are turned."
"Life is a mockery, a cheating dream!" said Mr. Markland, bitterly.
"Not so, my friend," was the calmly spoken answer.
"Not so. Our life here is the beginning of an immortal life. But, to
be a happy life, it must be a true one. All its activities must have
an orderly pulsation."
Mr. Markland slowly raised a hand, and, pressing it strongly against
his forehead, stood motionless for some moments, his mind deeply
abstracted.
"My thoughts flow back, Mr. Allison," he said, at length, speaking
in a subdued tone, "to a period many months gone by, and revives a
conversation held with you, almost in this very place. What you then
said made a strong impression on my mind. I saw, in clear light, how
vain were all efforts to secure happiness in this world, if made
selfishly, and thus in a direction contrary to true order. The great
social man I recognised as no mere idealism, but as a verity.
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