The question below refers to the selection "the duchess and the jeweller" by virginia woolf.
why does the duchess invite oliver to her estate?

Even the insistent cough of the woman next to him wasn't enough to draw his eyes away from the tiny type of the ancient book its pages were brittle and felt like they could crumble at the slightest disturbance he noticed the musty odor if each page as he carefully it over.

What does"after getting my report card i knew it was time to hit the books mean

What is the independent cause in this sentence? "if the poem is about going mad when love is lost, what would happen if love didn't die? "