"I have no answer."
"Did you love that other woman?"
It took all his courage to reply. "I am not fit to answer," said he.
"And you would love me, too, for a time and in a way?"
"I will not answer. I will not trifle."
"And I am to think Mr. Law better than himself, better than other men; since you say no man dare ask actual justice?"
"Worse than other men, and yet a man. A man—my God! Lady Catharine—a man unworthy, yet a man seized fatally of that love which neither life nor death can alter!"
As one fascinated, Lady Catharine sat looking at him. "Then," said she, "any man may say to any woman—Mr. Law says to me—'I have cared for such, and so many other women to the extent, let us say, of so many pounds sterling. But I love you to the extent of twice as many pounds, shillings and pence?' Is that the dole we women may expect, Mr. Law?"
"Have back your own words!" he cried. "Nothing is enough but all! And as God witnesseth in this hour, I have loved you with all my heart-beats, with all my prayers. I call upon you now, in the name of that love I know you once bore me—"
Upon the face of the Lady Catharine there blazed the red mark of the shame of Knollys. Covering her face with her hands, she suddenly bent forward, and from her lips there broke a sob of pain.