Why could not that moment of insight have come earlier to Colonel Gaylord, have come in time to save him from his mistakes?
I passed out of doors again, pondering somewhat bitterly the exigencies of human life.

The bright spring morning with its promise of youth and joy seemed jarringly out of tune.

The beauty was but surface deep, I told myself pessimistically; underneath it was a cruel world.

Before me in the garden path, a jubilant robin was pulling an unhappy angle worm from the ground, and a little farther on, under a blossoming apple tree, the kitchen cat was breakfasting on a baby robin.

The double spectacle struck me as significant of life.