Poor Kate, although brave, too, had at first almost given up hope,
when, a few days after her arrival at Quebec, she learned the fatal
intelligence contained in the letter already referred to; but soon
perceiving, as he did, that nothing was to be achieved by useless
murmuring or hopeless inactivity, she shook herself, as free as her
strength would permit, from the dreadful incubus of the sorrow that
bowed her to the earth, and turned whatever talents she possessed to
good account; working night and day to accomplish the great and only
desire of her heart, and trusting to heaven for the rest. In this way
her constant and unwearied exertions lightened much of the load that
could not have failed under less favorable promptings, to have crushed
her completely, and have, in all human probability, consigned her to a
premature grave.