The Well of Loneliness

Barbara's fight against death was so brief that it hardly seemed in the nature of a struggle. Life had left her no strength to repel this last foe -- or perhaps it was that to her he seemed friendly. Just before her death she kissed Jamie's hand and tried to speak, but the words would not come -- those words of forgiveness and love for Jamie.

Then Jamie flung herself down by the bed, and she clung there, still in that uncanny silence. Stephen never knew how they got her away while the nurse performed the last merciful duties.