" And he had been looking at them the whole afternoon, not
because he had intended to do so, but because it was not possible to
prevent himself from doing it.
This was one of the ironies of fate. Orthodox doctrine might suggest
that it was to teach him that his past rebellion had been undue.
Orthodox doctrine was ever ready with these soothing little
explanations. He had raged and sulked at Destiny, and now he had been
given something to rage for.
"No one knows anything about it until it takes him by the throat,"
he was thinking, "and until it happens to a man he has no right
to complain. I was not starving before. I was not hungering and
thirsting--in sight of food and water. I suppose one of the most awful
things in the world is to feel this and know it is no use."
He was not in the condition to reason calmly enough to see that there
might be one chance in a thousand that it was of use. At such times the
most intelligent of men and women lose balance and mental perspicacity.
A certain degree of unreasoning madness possesses them. They see too
much and too little. There were, it was true, a thousand chances against
him, but there was one for him--the chance that selection might be
on his side.
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