Thora thought for a moment, and then said, "If you mean that you have come to say that after all I must fulfil my promise, it is unnecessary, because I intend to do so."
"Will that be right, Thora?"
"It may not be right to Oscar, perhaps, or to myself----"
"I'm not thinking about Oscar now, and I'm not thinking about you--I'm thinking about myself--will it be right to me?"
"What more can I do, Magnus? It wasn't altogether my fault that I gave you my word, but I did give it, and I am trying to keep it."
"Would it be right to marry me--seeing, as you said yourself, you do not care for me?"
Thora dropped her head.
"You said yesterday that before a girl should marry a man she ought to love him with all her heart and soul and strength. Wouldn't it be wrong to marry me while you loved somebody else like that? Is that what you call making amends, Thora?"
"I was only trying to do what was right, Magnus; but if you think it would be wrong to marry you, then I will never marry at all. Never!"
"What good will that be to me, Thora? Five years, ten years, twenty years hence, what good will it be to me that because you had given me your word, and could not keep it, you are living a lonely life somewhere?"