As she quieted under its influence, the disappointed listeners, now tip-toeing carefully from the room, heard her murmur in final appeal: "Cannot Adelaide spare one minute from--from her company downstairs, to wish me health and kiss me good night ?" Was it weakness, or a settled inability to remember anything but that which filled her own mind?
It proved to be a settled inability to take in any new ideas or even to remember much beyond the completion of that dinner.

As the days passed and news of her condition came to me from time to time, I found that she had not only forgotten what had passed between herself and the rest of the family previous to their departure for the club-house, but all that had afterwards occurred at The Whispering Pines, even to her own presence there and the ride home.

She could not even retain in her mind for any appreciable length of time the idea of Adelaide's death.

Even after Dr.Carpenter, with infinite precautions, revealed to her the truth--not that Adelaide had been murdered, but that Adelaide had passed away during the period of her own illness, Carmel gave but one cry of grief, then immediately burst forth in her old complaint that Adelaide neglected her.

She had lost her happiness and hope, and Adelaide would not spare her an hour.
This expression, when I heard of it, convinced me, as I believe it did some others, that her act of self-denial in not humouring my whim and flying from home and duty that night, had made a stronger impression on her mind than all that came after.
She never asked for Arthur.