"It is a plan which does not involve Thora at all, or in any way reflect upon you, therefore you need not ask me what it is. I expect to try it to-morrow, and if it succeeds the consequences will be mine--mine only--and nobody else will be blamed or affected."
Oscar bowed his head over the blank sheet of paper and said nothing.
"But before I take the step I am thinking of, I want to be sure it will be worth taking, and have the results I expect. That's why I am here now--I am here to ask you certain questions."
"What are they?" said Oscar.
"They are very intimate and personal questions, but I think I have a right to ask them, seeing what I intend to do," said Magnus, and then, in a firmer voice, "and a right to have them answered, also."
"Ask them," said Oscar.
"I want to know, first, whether, if I can liberate Thora from her promise to me, you will marry her?"
"Indeed, yes--if she will have me--yes!"
"You said yesterday, you remember, that love--mutual love--was the only basis of a true marriage. Perhaps I forgot that in my own case, but I must not forget it now. So it is not sufficient that Thora should love you; it is necessary that you should love Thora--you do love her?"
"Indeed I do."