about to sweep the yielding air with her snowy pinions.

The enjoyment of all he had provided as a means of enjoyment did not
come in the measure anticipated. Soon mere beauty failed to charm
the eye, and fragrance to captivate the senses; for mind immortal
rests not long in the fruition of any achievement, but quickly
gathers up its strength for newer efforts. And so, as we have seen,
Edward Markland, amid all the winning blandishments that surrounded
him on the day when introduced to the reader, neither saw, felt, nor
appreciated what, as looked to from the past's dim distance, formed
the Beulah of his hopes.






CHAPTER II.





A FEW minutes after Mrs. Markland left her husband's side, she
stepped from the house, carrying a small basket in one hand, and
leading a child, some six or seven years old, with the other.

"Are you going over to see Mrs. Elder?" asked the child, as they
moved down the smoothly-graded walk.