As soon as there was an opportunity to be alone with his wife, he said-- "I may have to be absent several weeks." "Why so ?" she asked, quickly, as a shadow fell over her face.
"Business," was briefly answered.
Mrs.Markland sighed, and her eyes fell to the floor.
"I have been a drone in the world's busy hive long enough, Agnes; and now I must go to work again, and that in right good earnest.

The business that took me to New York is growing daily in importance, and will require my best thought and effort.

The more thoroughly I comprehend it, the more clearly do I see its vast capabilities.

I have already embarked considerable money in the enterprise, and shall probably see it to my interest to embark more.

To do this, without becoming an active worker and director, would neither be wise nor like your husband, who is not a man to trust himself on the ocean of business without studying well the charts, and, at times, taking fast hold upon the rudder." "You might have been so happy here, Edward," said Mrs.Markland, looking into his face and smiling feebly.
"A happy idler?
Impossible!" "You have been no idler, my husband, since our retirement from the city.