"Still—I would marry him."
"Nothing would dissuade you?"
"Nothing."
"The inquisition is over."
It was the old woman who spoke. Her face was as impassive as ever, but Martha Slawson noticed that her tiny, emaciated fingers clutched the arms of her chair with a vise-like grip.
"For all the world like a bird I seen last Spring," Martha mused, "which somethin' had broke its wing, an' its claws was holdin' on fierce, for dear life, to the branch o' the bush it was clingin' to—as if that'd save it!"
"May I go now?"
As Katherine made the appeal, she turned toward her grandmother, but her eyes were kept resolutely averted.
Mr. Norris raised a detaining hand. "One moment, please. I assume you entertain no doubt of Madam Crewe's mental competency? That she is of sound mind, capable of acting rationally on her own behalf? That any will and testament she might choose to execute at this time would be above suspicion of mistake, fraud, or undue influence?"
For a moment Katherine seemed to consider. Then her lip curled.