He ought to know the truth and he ought to know it at once: nothing else mattered.

She reflected in her terror: "If I don't begin right off, he will be asking me to begin, and that will be worse than ever." She was like one who, having boastfully undertaken to plunge into deep, cold water from a height, has climbed to the height, and measured the fearful distance, and is sick, and dares not leap, but knows that he must leap.
"I suppose you know Miss Gailey is practically starving," she said abruptly, harshly, staring at the gutter.
She had leapt.

Life seemed to leave her.

She had not intended to use such words, nor such a tone.

She certainly did not suppose that he knew about Miss Gailey's condition.