Of course some of us had some geography in school and had studied maps, but a school map is a terribly uncommunicative thing. - Robertson Davies

As for an afterlife, there has been a general decline in the general acceptance of it as a certainty, and though a few rationalists may be pleased, to many people this has added a new terror to death. We are reluctant, in the main, to consider the disappearance of ourselves and consequently all we feel and know. Every man's death is, literally, the end of a world if he dies without hope. We have exchanged Gone Elsewhere for Gone Nowhere.

What is meant to be heard is necessarily more direct in expression, and perhaps more boldly coloured, than what is meant for the reader.

Anna, who has always been devout, knows well that Despair is a mortal sin, and now she knows that it is a luxury, as well.