The Bridge of San Luis Rey

by Thornton Wilder

missing (as most readers do) the whole purport of literature, which is the notation of the heart.

She saw that the people of this world moved about in an armour of egotism, drunk with self-gazing, athirst for compliments, hearing little of what was said to them, unmoved by the accidents that befell their closest friends, in dread of all appeals that might interrupt their long communion with their own desires.