"From my heart do I say 'Amen,'" replied Arnest. "Yes, let us
forgive and forget. Would that we had been as wise as we now are,
years ago!"

Thus were they reconciled. And now the question is, What did either
gain by his indignation against the other? Did Arnest rise higher in
his self-esteem, or Marston gain additional self-respect? We think
not. Alas! how blinding is selfish passion! How it opens in the mind
the door for the influx of multitudes of evil and false suggestions!
How it hides the good in others, and magnifies, weakness into
crimes! Let us beware of it.

"Reconciled at last," said old Mr. Wellford, when he next saw Arnest
and heard the fact from his lips.

"Yes," replied the latter. "I can now forget as well as forgive."

"Rather say you can forget, _because_ you forgive. If you had
forgiven truly, you could have ceased to think of what was wrong in
your friend long ago. People talk of forgiving and not forgetting,
but it isn't so: they do not forget because they do not forgive."

"I believe you are right," said Arnest. "I think, now, as naturally
of my friend's good qualities as I ever did before of what was evil.
I forget the evil in thinking of the good."

"Because you have forgiven him," returned Mr. Wellford. "Before you
forgave him, your thought of evil gave no room for the thought of
good."