Adolf says
It was I who fed her up with praise, even when I thought her work was no good. It was I who introduced her into literary sets, and tried to make her feel herself in clover; defended her against criticism my personal intervention. I blew courage into her, kept on blowing it for so long that I got out of breath myself. I gave and gave and gave -until nothing was left for me myself. Do you know -I’m going to tell you the whole story -do you know how the thing seems to me now? One’s temperament is such an extraordinary thing, and when my artistic successes looked as though they would eclipse her -her prestige -I tried to buck her up belittling myself and representing that my art was one that was inferior to hers. I talked so much of the general insignificant rôle of my particular art, and harped on it so much, thought of so many good reasons for my contention, that one fine day I myself was soaked through and through with the worthlessness of the painter’s art; so all that was left was a house of cards for you to blow down.