Had she by her self-mortification done aught to pleasure those dear ones who slept their last sleep?
It had been the predominant feature of her morbid passion to believe that piety demanded such a sacrifice.

Grief may reach such a point that to share the uttermost fate of the beloved one seems blessedness; in Emily's mind that moment of supreme agony had been protracted till unreasoning desire took to itself the guise of duty.

Duty so represented cannot maintain its sanction when the wounds of nature grow towards healing.
She strove with herself.

The reaction she was experiencing seemed to her a shameful weakness.

Must she cease to know the self-respect which comes of conscious perseverance in a noble effort?
Must she stand self-condemned, an ignoble nature, incapable of anything good and great--and that, after all her ambitions?
Was she a mere waif, at the mercy of the currents of sense?
Never before had she felt this condemnation of her own spirit.