CHAPTER XXXI.
"I SHOULD have been contented amid so much beauty, and with even more than my share of earthly blessings." Thus Mr.Markland communed with himself, walking about alone, near the close of the day preceding that on which his appointed journey was to begin.

"Am I not acting over again that old folly of the substance and shadow?
Verily, I believe it is so.

Ah! will we ever be satisfied with any achievement in this life?
To-morrow I leave all by which I am here surrounded, and more, a thousand-fold more--my heart's beloved ones; and for what?
To seek the fortune I was mad enough to cast from me into a great whirlpool, believing that it would be thrown up at my feet again, with every disk of gold changed into a sparkling diamond.

I have waited eagerly on the shore for the returning tide, but yet there is no reflux, and now my last hope rests on the diver's strength and doubtful fortune.

I must make the fearful plunge." A cold shudder ran through the frame of Mr.Markland, as he realized, too distinctly, the image he had conjured up.