His moods are known to me.

But no, he was precise; her report of him strikes the ear as credible, in spite of the marvel it insists on our swallowing.
"'Lord Fleetwood had asked me to marry him." Neither assurance nor bashfulness; newspaper print; aid an undoubting air of contentment.
'Imagine me hearing it.
'"To be his wife ?" '"He said wife." '"And you replied ?" '"I--said I would." '"Tell me all ?" '"He said we were plighted." 'Now, "wife" is one of the words he abhors; and he loathes the hearing of a girl as "engaged." However, "plighted" carried a likeness.
'I pressed her: "My dear Carinthia, you thought him in earnest ?" '"He was." '"How do you judge ?" '"By his look when he spoke." '"Not by his words ?" "'I repeat them to you." 'She has repeated them to me here in my bedroom.

There is no variation.
She remembers every syllable.

He went so far as to urge her to say whether she would as willingly utter consent if they were in a church and a clergyman at the altar-rails.
'That was like him.
'She made answer: "Wherever it may be, I am bound, if I say yes." 'She then adds: "He told me he joined hands with me." '"Did he repeat the word 'wife' ?" '"He said it twice." 'I transcribe verbatim scrupulously.

There cannot be an error, Chillon.
It seems to show, that he has embraced the serious meaning of the word--or seriously embraced the meaning, reads' better.