You may think that what I did next was scheming, devious.  Pippin, let me tell you something about despair.  I loved my husband very much. The years we spent together were the happiest years of my life.  And then one day he was struck by fever: and when his hand went cold in mine, I felt my life, too, was over. I was overcome by the deepest despair. I took to my bed for five days. On the sixth day I got up. There were things to be done. An estate to be run. A boy to raise...Pippin, this is such a large estate. I'm all alone here and I can't do all this work by myself. Couldn't you please help me?