He might give himself up to the delirium of
that joy, since there was no more of earth to contaminate it. But the
horror of it! The anguish for her as well as for him! Not by fire! His
thoughts whirled in his brain like sparks caught in a hurricane. He
scarcely knew where he was or what had happened to him. Only he was
acutely aware of the acrid smoke, of how it increased, constantly more
dense and stifling.
However the mind may for a moment be turned aside from its usual way by
circumstances, habit is quick to reassert itself. The habitual
constrains men even in the midst of events the most startling. The mind
of Wynne had been too long bred in priestly forms not to turn to the
religious view here in the face of death. His conscience cried out that
he might be responsible for the peril and disaster which had come upon
them. With the unconscious egotism of the devotee, he felt that heaven
had been avenging the impiousness of his sin. He had dared to trifle
with his sacred calling, to look back to the loves of the world and of
the flesh, and swift destruction had overtaken him. And Berenice had
been crushed by the divine vengeance which had so deservedly fallen on
him.
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