“And that was much gained,” said Florence, breathing deeply with a sense of relief.  “If we cannot recall and correct the past, we can at least be more guarded in the future.  This is the effect of my own experience.  Ah! if we properly considered the action of our present upon the future, how guarded would we be.  All actions are in the present, and the moment they are done the present becomes the past, over which Memory presides.  What is past is fixed.  Nothing can change it.  The record is in marble, to be seen in all future time.”

The serious character of the interview soon changed, and the young lovers forgot every thing in the joy of their reconciliation.  Nothing arose to mar their intercourse until the appointed time for the nuptial ceremonies arrived, when they were united in holy wedlock.  But, Edwin Florence did not pass on to this time without another visit from the rebuking Angel of the past.  He was not permitted to take the hand of Clara in his, and utter the words that bound him to her forever, without a visit from the one whose heart he had broken years before.  She came to him in the dark and silent midnight, as he tossed sleeplessly upon his bed, and stood and looked at him with her pale face and despairing eyes, until he was driven almost to madness.  She was with him when the light of morning dawned; she moved by his side as he went forth to meet and claim his betrothed; and was near him, invisible to all eyes but his own, when he stood at the altar ready to give utterance to the solemn words that bound him to his bride.  And not until these words were said, did the vision fade away.

No wonder the face of the bridegroom wore a solemn aspect as he presented himself to the minister, and breathed the vows of eternal fidelity to the living, while before him, as distinct as if in bodily form, was the presence of one long since sleeping ill her grave, who had gone down to her shadowy resting place through his infidelity.

From this time there was a thicker veil drawn over the past.  The memory of that one event grew less and less distinct; though it was not obliterated, for nothing that is written in the Book of Life is ever blotted out.  There were reasons, even in long years after his marriage, when the record stood suddenly before him, as if written in words of light; and he would turn from it with a feeling of pain.

Thus it is that our present blesses or curses our future.  Every act of our lives affects the coming time for good or evil.  We make our own destiny, and make it always in the present.  The past is gone, the future is yet to come.  The present only is ours, and, according to what we do in the present, will be the records of the past and its influence on the future.  They are only wise who wisely regard their actions in the present.

THE BRILLIANT AND THE COMMONPLACE.