Page:Ethel Churchill 1.pdf/207

Rh one time he had spent large sums of money on the house, but that was when he had hoped for a son; of late years he obviously directed his views in another channel. He had pulled down a great part of the building, while he increased his landed property to a vast extent; but all his purchases were adjacent to the Courtenaye property, which, when united with his own, would make one of the finest estates in England. He had long gone back upon the ancient honours of his house, instead of his once hope to be the founder of another line. In the little, as in the great things of life, are to be found the type and sign of our immortality. Every hope that looks forward is pledge of the hereafter to which it refers. Who rests content with the present? None. We have all deep within us a craving for the future. In childhood we anticipate youth; in youth manhood; in manhood old age; and to what does that turn, but to a world beyond our own? From the very first, the strong belief is nursed within us; we look