There are but few persons, I imagine, who have not created for
themselves a sort of intimate language, which they use to separate and
classify the different emotions and events of their lives. It was thus
that I gave the name of "days of sunshine" to those few fortunate hours
that brightened my existence, which were fixed in my memory in such
vivid colours that even the remembrance of them sufficed to cheer the
dullest days of my after life.
At such times, when, by a turn of her wheel, fortune seems to amuse
herself by raising a man to the very height of his fondest desire, on
such "days of sunshine" everything that happens to us is not only just
as we would wish, but the environment is such that our senses are doubly
gratified.
And who is there that has not had his day of sunshine once at least in
his life? One of those days when everything is beautiful and splendid,
when the soul is filled with an ineffable sense of satisfaction, and
Nature herself seems to contribute to our felicity? When if a
long-cherished friend said, in a trembling voice: "To-night!" the night
was so beautiful, the heavens so clear, the woods beautiful in their
fresh foliage, the flowers glistening, the air saturated with perfume,
and everything that you gazed on was smiling and peaceful.
No shadow of sadness came to obscure your luminous aureole. Is it
needful to say how such rare and divine harmony delighted you? New and
happily turned expressions came spontaneously to your lips; your lively
wit sparkled in a thousand graceful pleasantries; when that is silent
your heart murmurs ineffable tenderness. You feel yourself to be so
brave, so proud, so gifted, that to your dazzled eyes the future is
boundless, the perspective illimitable and glorious, and you say to
yourself, "No misfortune can come to me while I am under the guidance of
the radiant genius who shelters me with his golden wings."
Since Marguerite had declared her love, a love so long and sadly
struggled against by every souvenir of her past happiness, my incurable
distrust had succumbed, at least for the time being, to the most
intoxicating proofs of her affection.
There never were happier or more beautiful days than those that followed
this avowal.
Almost every evening, on returning home, I had written in my journal a
memento of these charming days.
Therefore it is with tender and respectful emotion that in writing this
memoir I transcribe these fragments which were written during one of the
most delightful periods of my life.
I
APRIL, 18--.
I have been fortunate enough to-day to spare Marguerite a moment's
annoyance, but poor Candid is dead.
I have just seen him die. Brave, noble horse! I loved him well!
George does not weep for him, he is in a stupid despair; he said to me
in English, with a horrified look as he pointed to the expiring beast:
"Ah, monsieur, to die like that! and never to have run against any one,
never to have run a race!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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