"Why everything. It was his visit that she couldn't stand--it was what
then took place that simply killed her."
"Oh!" Kate seriously breathed. But she had turned pale, and he saw
that, whatever her degree of ignorance of these connexions, it wasn't
put on. "Mrs. Stringham hasn't said _that_."
He observed none the less that she didn't ask what had then taken
place; and he went on with his contribution to her knowledge. "The way
it affected her was that it made her give up. She has given up beyond
all power to care again, and that's why she's dying."
"Oh!" Kate once more slowly sighed, but with a vagueness that made him
pursue.
"One can see now that she was living by will--which was very much what
you originally told me of her."
"I remember. That was it."
"Well then her will, at a given moment, broke down, and the collapse
was determined by that fellow's dastardly stroke. He told her, the
scoundrel, that you and I are secretly engaged."