Hamilton suggests that North's love for Genevieve Genevra Fairfield may have been requited if not for the interference of her mother, stating that "it is possible that had Genevra been left to herself a union with North might have resulted." However, Hamilton admits that "Genevra's mental illness, as her mother obviously intimates, may have been so severe as to prohibit any thought of marriage and the very impossibility of responding to North's passion may have hastened the final tragedy."