Guy de Maupassant complete short stories volume 2 - Penn State ...

This time there was no answer. But as they were going home
at night, by couples, each one was saying to his companion:
“Really, M. Rade goes much too far. His mind must surely be
unbalanced. He ought to be appointed assistant chief at the
Charenton Asylum.”
Guy de Maupassant
183
A A RECOLLECTION
RECOLLECTION
How many recollections of youth come to me in the soft sunlight
of early spring! It was an age when all was pleasant, cheerful,
charming, intoxicating. How exquisite are the remembrances
of those old springtimes!
Do you recall, old friends and brothers, those happy years
when life was nothing but a triumph and an occasion for mirth?
Do you recall the days of wanderings around Paris, our jolly
poverty, our walks in the fresh, green woods, our drinks in the
wine-shops on the banks of the Seine and our commonplace
and delightful little flirtations?
I will tell you about one of these. It was twelve years ago and
already appears to me so old, so old that it seems now as if it
belonged to the other end of life, before middle age, this dreadful
middle age from which I suddenly perceived the end of the
journey.
I was then twenty-five. I had just come to Paris. I was in a
government office, and Sundays were to me like unusual festivals,
full of exuberant happiness, although nothing remarkable
occurred.