That granted, as a tempest-driven sea it would submerge her.

In the welter of the present, she clutched at the high dignities and distinctions of the past as at a lifebelt.

Not vulgarly, in a spirit of self-aggrandizement; but in the simple interests of self-preservation, as a means of keeping endangered sanity afloat.

For the distinctions and dignities of that period were real too, just as uncontrovertible a contribution to her knowledge of men and of things, just as vital an element in her experience, as chaos let loose on her now.

The one in no degree invalidated the truth or actuality of the other.
But to keep this in mind, to remember it all the time, while imagination galloped with fever brought on by chill and exposure, and reason wandered, losing touch with plain commonsense through the moral shock she had sustained, was difficult to the point of impossibility.