She was gripped with a sense of suffocation and panic

She was in an anguish of sharp and penetrating remorse

She was oppressed by a dead melancholy

She was stricken to the soul

She wore an air of wistful questioning

Sheer superfluity of happiness

Sickening contrasts and diabolic ironies of life

Silence fell

Singing lustily as if to exorcise the demon of gloom

Skirmishes and retreats of conscience