And she tried to say by letter all that it behoved her to say, so that there need be no meeting.

But in this she failed.

One letter was stern and arrogant, and the next was soft-hearted, so that it might teach him to think that his love for Clara might yet be successful.

At last she resolved to go herself to Hap House; and accordingly she wrote her letter and despatched it.
Fitzgerald was of course aware of the subject of the threatened visit.

When he determined to make his proposal to Clara, the matter did not seem to him to be one in which all chances of success were desperate.