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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: head of the profession, for hadn't that very talk made it clear
that the late accomplished lady was the influence that ruled his
life? What catastrophe could be more cruel than the extinction of
such an influence? This was to be exactly the tone taken by St.
George in answering his young friend upwards of a month later. He
made no allusion of course to their important discussion. He spoke
of his wife as frankly and generously as if he had quite forgotten
that occasion, and the feeling of deep bereavement was visible in
his words. "She took everything off my hands - off my mind. She
carried on our life with the greatest art, the rarest devotion, and
I was free, as few men can have been, to drive my pen, to shut
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