From the novel, a passage which seems to refer to Jerome's coming of age:
Returning home on this particular day of days, I paused upon the bridge, and watched for a while the lazy barges maneuvering their way between the piers. It was one of those hushed summer evenings when the air even of grim cities is full of whispering voices; and as, turning away from the river, I passed through the white toll-gate, I had a sense of leaving myself behind me on the bridge. So vivid was the impression, that I looked back, half expecting to see myself still leaning over the iron parapet, looking down into the sunlit water.[1]
^Jerome, Jerome (1902). Paul Kelver. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 62. Retrieved 14 February 2024 – via Internet Archive.