It was her own evil assumptions that had done her in. She hadn’t even considered the third possible explanation for his strange behavior—that he was … - M. K. Hobson

They say that they're a punishment on godly people for allowing sin to walk the earth unanswered—
"Who is this 'they' you're always referring to?" Stanton glared at Rose, his eyes gleaming with unhidden malice. "Your mongoloid Aunt Kindy? Your drunken Uncle Sal? Or are you talking about the slack-jawed hacks who bang out those dime novels for a bottle of whiskey and the price of a flophouse?"
Rose stared at him, her mouth open in astonishment. But Stanton pressed on, his voice flat and awful.
"Or maybe you're just using the word 'they' as so many pea-brained idiots use it, as a cowardly rhetorical device, an excuse to say the things you really believe without giving anyone the chance to judge you for the narrow-minded, stupid creature you are."

Nothing is ever what you want it to be. The harder you grab for it, the more deeply it cuts. And it mocks you for being foolish enough to reach for it at all. You come to fear touching anything at all, because you know that if you do, it will become terrible.

Before the sun went down again, she realized, she would be in New York. The thought sent a nervous thrill through her entire body. Her throat was tight, her heart suddenly racing.