Unenduring

And yet, though the happiness may be unenduring, what heart, though seared by time and worldly care, can fail to sympathise with those emotions of early life? In after years there are none such. They are the high noon of earthly joy. After them, life goes on decayingly and solemnly to its shadowy sunset.

Naturally, the river wasn't wrinkled or creased at all— wrong words, implying something unfluid like skin, something unenduring, prey to age.