process of reconstruction and idealisation was
going on in the mind of Madame Mairet. Her grief longed to convince
itself that after all there had been a holy cause, and the dead man
was no longer there to help her to bear the truth. Where two stand
together there may be joy in the most terrible truths, but when one is
alone they are mortal.

Clerambault understood it all, and his quick sympathies warned him of
the pain he caused and shared; for he made the suffering of this woman
his own. He nearly reached the point of approving her revolt against
himself, for he knew her deep hidden sorrow, and that the truth that
he brought was powerless to help it--still worse, it added one evil
more....

Insoluble problem! Those who are bereaved cannot dispense with the
murderous delusions of which they are the victims, and if these are
torn away their suffering becomes intolerable. Families that have lost
sons, husbands, and fathers, must needs believe that it was for a
just and holy cause, and statesmen are forced to continue to deceive
themselves and others. For if this were to cease, life would be
insupportable to themselves and to those whom they govern. How
unfortunate is Man; he is the prey of his own ideas, has given up
everything to them, and finds that each day he must continue to give
more, lest the gulf open under his feet and he be swallowed up in it.
After four years of unheard-of pain and ruin, can we possibly admit
that it was all for nothing? That not only our victory will be more
ruinous still, but that we ought not to have expected anything else;
that the war was absurd, and we, self-deceivers?... Never! we would
rather die to the last man. When one man finds that he has thrown away
his life, he sinks down in despair. What would it be in the case of a
nation, of ten nations, or of civilisation as a whole?...

Clerambault heard the cry that went up from the multitude: "Life, at
any cost! Save us, no matter how!"

"But, you do not know how to save yourselves. The road you follow only
leads on to fresh catastrophes, to an infinite mass of suffering."

"No matter how frightful they are, not as bad as what you offer us.
Let us die with our illusions, rather than live without them. Such a
life as that, is a death in life!"

* * * * *

"_He who has deciphered the secret of life and found the answer_,"
says the disenchanted, but harmonious voice of Amiel, "_is no longer
bound on th