Caring for Edith was nothing; she could not help but care for her.

She had promised Walter that she would be a good wife to him, and she had vowed to herself that she would live her spiritual life apart.
Was that being a good wife to him?
To divorce her soul, her best self, from him?
If she confined her duty to the preservation of the mere material tie, what would she make of herself?
Of him?
It came to her that his need of her was deeper and more spiritual than that.

She argued that there must be something fine in him, or he never would have appreciated _her_.

That other woman didn't count; she had thrust herself on him.

When it came to choosing, he had chosen a spiritual woman! (Anne had no doubt that she was what she aspired to be.) And since all things were divinely ordered, Walter's choice was really God's will.