He had insisted on Dannie drinking with him, and wanted to fight when he would not.

He addressed the bottle, and Dannie, as the Sovereign Alchemist by turns, and "transmuted the leaden metal of life into pure gold" of a glorious drunk, until his craving was satisfied.

Then he came back to work and reason one morning, and by the time Mary was about enough to notice him, he was Jimmy at his level best, and doing more than he had in years to try to interest and please her.
Mary had fully recovered, and appeared as strong as she ever had been, but there was a noticeable change in her.

She talked and laughed with a gayety that seemed forced, and in the midst of it her tongue turned bitter, and Jimmy and Dannie fled before it.
The gray hairs multiplied on Dannie's head with rapidity.

He had gone to the doctor, and to Mary's sister, and learned nothing more than the nurse could tell him.