Her worldly air of elderly gaiety had disappeared.

She looked a hundred.

She was almost dilapidated.

She had allowed to relax themselves the springs which held her together and ordinarily supplied her with sprightly movement.
"Come here!" she said.
When he entered the room, aghast, she shut the door.
"I suppose I ought to break it to you gently," she said shakily, "but I shall do no such thing.

It's too much to expect of any woman who has gone through what I have during these last three days.