Everything hangs by a thread.

Suppose I tell her the marriage was a mockery; suppose she is indignant with me and with him for the deception--and then?
Otherwise, suppose she is not indignant but forgives all; he is bound to marry her; and honour constrains me to urge him thereto, in spite of what he protests, and to smooth the way to this issue by my method of informing her.

I have meant to tell her the last month--ever since she has been strong enough to bear such tidings; but I have been without the power--the moral force.

Surely I must write, and get him to come and assist me.
March 14 .-- She continually wonders why he does not come, the five months of his enforced absence having expired; and still more she wonders why he does not write oftener.

His last letter was cold, she says, and she fears he regrets his marriage, which he may only have celebrated with her for pity's sake, thinking she was sure to die.