noon
If things had ended thus , my story would end here , and perhaps it would be complete . Unfortunately , events rarely take place as we expect that they will , still more rarely as we hope that they may ; and it is generally when our hopes coincide with our expectations , and we feel most sure of ourselves , that fate overtakes us with the most cruel disappointments . Paul Patoff had not yet reached the quiet haven of his hopes , and I have not reached the end of my story . It would indeed be a very easy matter , as I have said before , to collect all the things which happened to him into a neat romance , of which the action should not cover more than four-and-twenty hours of such excitement as no one of the actors could have borne in real life , any more than Salvini could act a tragedy which should begin at noon to-day and end at midday to-morrow . I might have divested Paul of many of his surroundings , have bereaved him of many of his friends , and made him do himself what others did to him ; but if he were to read such an account of his life he would laugh scornfully , and say that the real thing was very different indeed , as without doubt it was . This is the reason why I have not hesitated to bring before you a great number of personages , each of whom , in a great or a small way , affected his life . I do not believe that you could understand his actions in the sequel without knowing the details of those situations through which he had passed before .