“He had been rash, been stupid, had gone out too soon, stayed out too long. He oughtn’t to have exposed himself to strangers, he ought to have taken his servant. He felt as if he had fallen into a hole too deep to descry any little patch of heaven.”
James, Henry. “The Middle Years.” (pg. 345).
James’s description of how Decombe feels about his illness brings insight to how defeated the main character is. The continuous drawl of self scolding for simply going out details how much Decombe has fallen from the peak of his career.