`` Let us stay here awhile first , Joyce . I want to make sure that this is no dream . Last night I stood on those hills yonder and looked down , but I meant to go away because I thought there would be no one left to welcome me . If I had known you were here ! You have lived here in the old valley all these years ? '' `` All these years , '' she said gently , `` I suppose you think it must have been a very meagre life ? '' `` No . I am much wiser now than I was once , Joyce . I have learned wisdom beyond the hills . One learns there -- in time -- but sometimes the lesson is learned too late . Shall I tell you what I have learned , Joyce ? The gist of the lesson is that I left happiness behind me in the old valley , when I went away from it , happiness and peace and the joy of living . I did not miss these things for a long while ; I did not even know I had lost them . But I have discovered my loss . '' `` Yet you have been a very successful man , '' she said wonderingly . `` As the world calls success , '' he answered bitterly . `` I have place and wealth and power . But that is not success , Joyce . I am tired of these things ; they are the toys of grown-up children ; they do not satisfy the man 's soul . I have come back to the old valley seeking for what might satisfy , but I have little hope of finding it , unless -- unless -- '' He was silent , remembering that he had forfeited all right to her help in the quest .
Yet he realized clearly that only she could help him , only she could guide him back XXXXX the path he had missed .
As If because beyond for from than that to unless