Hawthorne Maypole of merrymount, odd quote?

In the midst of the joy, Edith senses that there can be nothing happier than the present moment--that all will go downhill from this moment. Although dancing around the maypole, she is already infected (as it were) with the Puritan consciousness than misery and sternness are real but happiness illusory. The story confirms this judgment when at the end their vanities and long hair are cut short and they enter the sad world of the fallen--steeped in sin. Edith senses this defeat in the midst of her supposed gaiety. The Fall is a characteristic of the world at large.