At the moment when his soul brimmed with bitterness and disgust, when his spirit was darkened, he encountered a woman, a stranger... who showed gratitude for this proposal of a special union. She was an invalid, marked for death, eaten away by cancer as Kleist was eaten away by the fatigue of life, and though herself incapable of making a forceful resolution, she was exalted by his passion and agreed to journey with him into the abyss.