"I am not so wounded," Burr is quick to say. "I'll be recovered in a day or two. I worry more for Alexander." What Alexander thinks, will think, and how he'll cope. Burr's been wounded worse before, during the war. They'd thought him lost, after the battle of Monmouth, and he'd still never really recovered. Sensitive to the temperature in a way not dissimilar to how Alexander was sensitive to the seasons. "He can't challenge Jefferson like that again, but I fear he will be beyond reason." He doesn't see a way they can go on in their current positions, he means. Even this most recent convulsion had the potential to dissolve the union beyond repair. Anything else would be--

"I thank you, I shall ask a room to be prepared," Burr says. "You should to your own rest as well," Burr says. "I can see already how Hamilton's struggles have injured you," and Washington already was not in the best health, before. He doesn't know to what extent Hamilton has been restrained. But he feels that guilt keenly--to be the center of such an upset, and to have called on Washington to resolve it, aware even of Washington's recent fragility.

Maybe the guilt shows. But it is better that than shame.