The analyses of a text #1

The protagonist, Philip, who was born with a club foot, moved in with his uncle Mr. Carey, the Vicar of Blackstable after his mother's death.
He came to Paris to become a painter.
He had had love affair with Mr. Carey's acquaintance, Miss Wilkins at Blackstable.

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It was more than a year now since he had seen Miss Wilkinson, and during his first weeks in Paris he had been too busy to answer a letter she had written to him just before he left Blackstable. When another came, knowing it would be full of reproaches and not being just then in the mood for them, he put it aside, intending to open it later; but he forgot and did not run across it till a month afterwards, when he was turning out a drawer to find some socks that had no holes in them. He looked at the unopened letter with dismay. He was afraid that Miss Wilkinson had suffered a good deal, and it made him feel a brute; but she had probably got over the suffering by now, at all events the worst of it. It suggested itself to him that women were often very emphatic in their expressions. These did not mean so much as when men used them. He had quite made up his mind that nothing would induce him ever to see her again. He had not written for so long that it seemed hardly worth while to write now. He made up his mind not to read the letter.
[Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham]
1. I'd like to know if "the worst of it" refers to "she had probably got over the suffering by now."
2. And I'd like to know if "that" means "because."
Thank you in advance for your help