Hour after hour he sat there, himself fighting with himself; or rather his consciousness of what was right fighting with his great desire to do something to help that luckless child, lying there a few streets farther off, friendless, poverty-stricken, fever-stricken, with the most hopeless of futures before her.
"The Beautiful Wretch; The Pupil of Aurelius; and The Four Macnicols"
William Black
Simply, Providence had drawn an impenetrable curtain over his memory, separating the past from the present; the same curtain that divides our presents from our futures.
"Garrison's Finish A Romance of the Race-Course"
W. B. M. Ferguson
Amelia drew attention to the probable differences in the futures of the two brides-to-be, and wondered which would be the happier, then Annie Lee began to tease her about some imaginary suitor whom she declared was languishing for Amelia.
"Jane Lends A Hand"
Shirley Watkins