He
settled himself there like a dog. She looked at him a moment; then
closed her eyes and began again.
* * * * *
Five minutes later she understood.
The first symptom of which she was aware was a powerlessness to
formulate her prayers. Up to that point she had leaned, as has been
said, on an enormous Power external to herself, yet approached by an
interior way. Now it required an effort of the will to hold to that
Power at all. In terms of space, let it be said that she had rested,
like a child in the dark, upon Something that sustained her: now she
was aware that it no longer sustained her; but that it needed a strong
continuous effort to apprehend it at all. There was still the dark
about her; but it was of a different quality--it cannot be expressed
otherwise--it was as the darkness of an unknown gulf compared to the
darkness of a familiar room. It was of such a nature that space and
form seemed meaningless....
The next symptom was a sense of terror, comparable only to that which
she had succeeded in crushing down as she stood on the stairs four or
five hours before. That, however, had been external to her; she had
entered it.
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