The old proprietresses and housekeepers, of course, had
never heard of fatality; but inwardly, with the soul, they sensed
its mysterious presence in the inevitable calamities of that
terrible year.
And, truly, everywhere in life where people are bound by common
interests, blood relationship, or the benefits of a profession
into close, individualized groups--there inevitably can be
observed this mysterious law of sudden accumulation, of a piling
up, of events; their epidemicity, their strange succession and
connectedness, their incomprehensible lingering. This occurs, as
popular wisdom has long ago noted, in isolated families, where
disease or death suddenly falls upon the near ones in an
inevitable, enigmatic order. "Misfortune does not come alone."
"Misfortune without waits--open wide the gates." This is to be
noticed also in monasteries, banks, governmental departments,
regiments, places of learning and other public institutions, where
for a long time, almost for decades, life flows evenly, like a
marshy river; and, suddenly, and after some altogether
insignificant incident or other, there begin transfers, changes in
positions, expulsions from service, losses, sicknesses.
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