But it was not going to be a joke to hurt them.

Was that what came of violating the canons?
Was the hurt to one's friends the punishment one got for it?
"You can't cauterize the wounds with the story of the dog's hard life," Wayne had said of poor little unpetted--and because unpetted, unpettable--Pet.
Was Watts the real philosopher when he said "things was as they was"?
She was bewildered.

She was in a country where she could not find her way.

She needed a guide.

Her throat grew tight, her eyes hot, at thought of how badly she needed her guide.
Then, perhaps in self-defense, she saw her friend Captain Prescott, not as a victim of the violation of canons, but as a violator of them himself.