"Anything—in heaven or earth."
"But it is a thing not usually spoken of as I want to speak of it. It may seem indecent. You won't be disgusted, or think me wanting in respect or in modesty?"
"Surely not," Lady Calmady answered quietly, yet a certain trembling took her, a nervousness as in face of the unknown. This strong, young creature developed forces, presented aspects, in his present feverish mood, with which she felt hardly equal to cope.
"Mother, I—I want to marry."
"I, too, have thought of that," she said.
"You don't consider that I am debarred from marriage?"
"Oh, no, no!" Katherine cried, a little sob in her voice.
He looked at her steadily, with those profoundly desolate eyes.
"It would not be wrong? It would not be otherwise than honourable?" he asked.
If doubts arose within Katherine of the answer to that question, she crushed them down passionately.