The Complete Works of Guy de Maupasssant (Volume 1) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1917 Excerpt: ... A Stroll HEN Old Man Leras, bookkeeper for Messieurs Labuze and Company, left tbe store, he stood for a minute bewildered at the glory of the setting sun. He had worked all day in the yellow light of a small jet of gas, far in the back of the store, on a narrow court, as deep as a well. The little room where he had been spending his days for forty years was so dark that even in the middle of summer one could only go without the gaslight from eleven until three. It was always damp and cold, and from this hole on which his window opened came the musty odor of a sewer. For forty years Monsieur Leras had been arriving every morning in this prison at eight o'clock, and he would remain there until seven at night, bending over his books, writing with the application of a good clerk. He was now making three thousand francs a year, having started at fifteen hundred. He had remained a bachelor, as his means had not allowed him the luxury of a wife, and as he had never enjoyed anything, he desired nothing. From time to time, however, tired of his continuous and monotonous work, he formed a platonic wish: ' Gad If I only had an income of fifteen thousand francs, I would take life easy." He had never taken life easy, as he had never had anything but his monthly salary. His life had been uneventful, without emotions, without hopes. The faculty of dreaming with which every one is blessed had never developed in the mediocrity of his ambitions. When he was twenty-one he entered the employ of Messieurs Labuze and Company. And he had never left them. In 1856 he had lost his father, and then his mother in 1859. Since then the only incident in his life was when he moved, in 1868, because his landlord had tried to raise his rent. Every day his alarm clock made him jump out of b...