There are at times in our life when a word spoken or left unsaid may alter the whole tenor of our future, when we hold the scales of destiny in our hand, and are permitted to say the word that may prove the turning-point of our existence for either weal or woe. Such a moment was mine ; and now, five years after, I sit, pen in hand, thinking it all over, and every word and every look come back to me, as though the occurrence took place only yesterday, instead of so many years ago.
