If I am not mistaken, she is driving herself half-crazy with introspection and self-will.

You must not give way to this morbid desire to increase her own wretchedness.

She needs firmness as well as kindness.' Miss Locke looked at me wistfully a moment.
'What am I to do?
She would fret herself into a fever if I crossed her whims.

Directly you have left the house she will be asking for that wire blind again, though it would do her poor eyes good to see the thrushes feeding on the lawn, and there is the little robin that comes to us every winter and taps at the window for crumbs; but she would shut them all out,--birds, and sunshine, and flowers.' 'Just as she would shut out her Father's love, if she could; but it is all round her, and no inward or outward darkness can hinder that.

Miss Locke, you must be very firm.