CHAPTER XXXVI.
"OUR Father in heaven never leaves us in a pathless desert," said Mrs.Markland, light breaking through her tear-filled eye.

Her husband had just related the conversation held with Mr.Willet.
"When the sun goes down, stars appear." "A little while ago, the desert seemed pathless, and no star glittered in the sky," was answered.
"Yet the path was there, Edward; you had not looked close enough to your feet," replied his wife.
"It was so narrow that it would have escaped my vision," he said, faintly sighing.
"If it were not the safest way for you and for all of us, it would not be the only one now permitted our feet to tread." "Safest it may be for me; but your feet could walk, securely, a pathway strewn with flowers.

Ah me! the thought that my folly--" "Edward," Mrs.Markland interrupted him in a quick, earnest voice, "if you love me, spare me in this.

When I laid my hand in yours on that happy day, which was but the beginning of happier ones, I began a new life.

All thought, all affection, all joy in the present and hope in the future, were thenceforth to be mingled with your thought, affection, joy, and hope.