This is Volume V of Guy de Maupassant's Collective Short Stories, including Regret, Misti, My Wife, That Pig of A Morin, The Awakening, The Log, and The Mustache. What is the most regrettable thing for an old bachelor? The answers vary from person to person. In Regret, we see Monsieur Saval feels terribly sad for the past when "he had not even been loved." But he did and still loves a woman, Madame Sandres, who never has the chance to hear his confession. The woman is the wife of one of his old friends, which predestines the impossibility of their further relationship. Always lingering in his mind is the wonderful time they spent together, and this unforgettable memory gives Monsieur Saval an impulse to seek for her real feelings for him. Does the "Mrs. Right" in his heart still remember the grass, the river and the trees they ever saw and the beautiful afternoon they shared with one another? Will his affection for her be unrequited love?

如若郎未娶，妾未嫁，这一定是一段美好姻缘，然而故事中的男主人公却只能是爱在心头口难开。"恨不相逢未嫁时"也许能够更好地剖白萨瓦尔的心声。萨瓦尔将自己的爱恋深藏心底，本想就这样看着心爱的人与他人过一辈子，但"到底意难平"。不甘心的萨瓦尔执意追求一个答案，孰知明白真相后反而更加痛苦。单相思不是作孽，最令人扼腕痛惜的是自以为是的成全反而造成了一世的错过。