She died on a windy gray day in March when the sky was full of darting crows and the world lay prostrate and defeated after winter. Peter Lake was at her side and it ruined him forever. It broke him as he had not ever imagined he could have been broken. He would never again be young, or able to remember what it was like to be young. What he had once taken to be pleasures would appear to him in his defeat as hideous and deserved punishments for reckless vanity.

Summary

This quote depicts the scene of a woman's death in a melancholic setting, symbolizing the end of youth and the impact it has on Peter Lake. The vivid imagery of the windy gray day and darting crows suggests a somber atmosphere. While Peter Lake is with her during her passing, the experience profoundly changes him. It shatters his previous idealized perception of youth and pleasure, leaving him forever altered and unable to reminisce about his own youthful days. Any joys he once enjoyed appear as cruel punishments now, serving as a consequence for his past carelessness and vanity.

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