Pearl of Pearl Island

to Sark he was bound. And wherefore Sark, when, within reasonable limits, all the wide world lay open to him ? Truly, it might not be easy to say. But this I know,?having so far learned the lesson of life, though missing much else?that at times, perhaps at all times, when we think our choice of ways our very own,?when we stand in doubt at the crossroads of life, and then decide on this path or that, and pride ourselves on the exercise of our high prerogative as free agents,?the result, when we look back, bears in upon our hearts the mighty fact that a higher mind than our own has been quietly at work, shaping our ends and mouldingand rounding our lives. We may doubt it at times. We may take all the credit to ourselves for dangers passed and tiny victories won, but in due time the eyes of our understanding are opened ?and we know. Possibly it was the rapt eulogiums of his friend Black?who had spent the previous summer in Sark, and had ever since been seeking words strong enough in which to paint its charms?that forced its name to the front when he stood facing the wide world, that lacked, for him at all events, a Margaret Brandt, and was therefore void and desolate. " If ever you seek perfect peace, relief from your fellows, and the simple life, try Sark?and see that you live in a cottage ! " he remembered Adam Black murmuring softly, as they sat smoking at the Travellers' one night, shortly after that memorable dinner of the Whitefriars'. And then he ...