Dan, thanks. Is there a subject for the verb "reach"?

For other participants--a search shows that this passage is from "The Yellow Wall-Paper," a famous story by feminist Charlotte Perkin Gilman (1860-1935). I think the idea is this: "Fate" will grant your wishes if they are reasonable, but if you ask for too much, "fate" will get angry at you and punish you instead. For example, Google finds me "Perfection is often apt to be the enemy of efficiency, and I think this is just one of those points where we mustbe careful not to ask too much of Fate, in case she may decline to give us anything at all."--Melville, Colonel Charles H., Military Hygiene and Sanitation. 1912