Read "The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft" by George Gissing online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
As I walked today in the golden sunlight -- this warm, still day on the far verge of autumn -- there suddenly came to me a thought which checked my step, and for the moment half bewildered me. I said to myself: My life is over. Surely I ought to have been aware of that simple fact; certainly it has made part of my meditation, has often coloured my mood; but the thing had never definitely shaped itself, ready in words for the tongue. My life is over. I uttered the sentence once or twice, that my ear might test its truth. Truth undeniable, however strange; undeniable as the figure of my age last birthday.
My age? At this time of life, many a man is bracing himself for new efforts, is calculating on a decade or two of pursuit and attainment. I, too, may perhaps live for some years; but for me there is no more activity, no ambition. I have had my chance -- and I see what I made of it.