He was suffering from the loss of an illusion.

Do you know, André, I sometimes think that you have no heart.' 'Presumably because I sometimes betray intelligence.

There remained the sea, which is free to all, and particularly alluring to those who feel themselves at war with humanity.

He was suffering from the loss of an illusion.

But I like my madness. There is a thrill in it unknown to such sanity as yours. ~ Book 1, Chapter 9.

In endeavor itself there is a certain dynamic entertainment, affording an illusion of useful purpose. With achievement the illusion is dispelled. Man's greatest accomplishment is to produce change. The only good in life is study, because study is an endeavor that never reaches fulfillment. It busies a man to the end of his days, and it aims at the only true reality in all this world of shams and deceits.

An intelligent observation of the facts of human existence will reveal to shallow-minded folk who sneer at the use of coincidence in the arts of fiction and drama that life itself is little more than a series of coincidences.