When He Was There

           He called it "going into the tunnel", an expression of his own, for private use, which he never used in talking to anyone else, least of all his wife. He knew exactly what it meant, and what it was like to be in the tunnel ; yet, curiously, when he was there he never allowed himself to admit the fact, except for occasional brief instants, and always too late.

Georges Simenon
Red Lights (The Hitch Hiker)
1957