It would have afforded him unspeakable relief to have been able to pour out his heart to his friend, to give him an insight into his turbid love-story and the conflict in his soul.

But a sense of shame--the outcome, no doubt, of his own disgust at the unsavory accessories of his love--had withheld him from making these confidences.

He made none now, complained only in a general way of the emptiness of his life, to which neither desire nor hope bound him any more; especially that he had no future, and looked forward to each new day with horror and shrinking.
Schrotter's answer was, as usual, full of faithful affection and wise encouragement.

He chid him gently for his want of spirit, and then went on to say: "You have no future! I am amazed at such a remark in the mouth of a man of thought.

Which one of us can say he has a future?
To say we have a future is simply to say that we wish for something, strive after something, set some aim before us.