At the beginning of Chapter 4, the narrator foreshadows May's death with a chilling description:
[...] May Bartram sat, for the first time in the year, without a fire; a fact that, to Marcher’s sense, gave the scene of which she formed part a smooth and ultimate look, an air of knowing, in its immaculate order and cold meaningless cheer, that it would never see a fire again. Her own aspect—he could scarce have said why—intensified this note. Almost as white as wax, with the marks and signs in her face as numerous and as fine as if they had been etched by a needle, with soft white draperies[...]
This scene foreshadows her death in a few different ways. First, there is no fire in the hearth, and the narrator says that May seems to know that she will "never see a fire again." This indicates that she will live for less than a year. Second, her skin is "as white as wax," a simile that suggests her illness and imminent death. Third, the story's diction changes slightly to include many words that allude to death, including "sadness," "ultimate," "cold," and "meaningless." These three elements combine to foreshadow May's death, and accordingly, she ends up dying from a blood disorder soon afterward, taking her love for Marcher to the grave. This moment of foreshadowing also marks a downturn in the text's mood and reflects the themes of love and loss while anticipating Marcher's regret at never having loved May.
