I am nominated to succeed Crillon in the Town Council.

There, no doubt, I shall arrive sooner or later.

I continue to become a personality by the force of circumstances, without my noticing it, and without any real interest in me on the part of those around me.
Quite a piece of my life has now gone by.

When sometimes I think of that, I am surprised at the length of the time elapsed; at the number of the days and the years that are dead.

It has come quickly, and without much change in myself on the other hand; and I turn away from that vision, at once real and supernatural.