"Without knowing it, I was galloping towards the dénouement of an adventure that had started forty years earlier."
I awoke with this sentence in my head, for no known reason. After a while I remembered its origin: an English translation of a great story from one of Marcel Pagnol's Autobiographical novels.
Still don't know why it was rolling around in my head, but it's a great story.
My copy, which I think must be public domain by now, is at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZRyi_n00gV7kgu7vzVxPyLG87lnhCeA4qdrymgGe8qs/edit