He had already asked and obtained de Lescure's permission.

The brother gave it, not absolutely unwillingly, but with strong advice to Henri to take no new cares upon himself during the present crisis, and declaring that he would use no influence with his sister, either one way or the other.
Marie, with a woman's instinct, anticipated the nature of Henri's two words, and in a moment resolved on the answer she would give him: if her lover was generous, so would she be; she would never consent to link herself to him at a moment when the union could only be to him a source of additional cares and new sorrow.
Henri soon made his request: he did not do it, as he would have done in happier times; kneeling at her feet, and looking into her eyes for that love, which he might well know he should find there: he had not come to talk of the pleasures and endearments of affection, and to ask for her hand as the accomplishment of all his wishes; but he spoke of their marriage as a providential measure, called for by the calamitous necessities of the moment, and in every argument which he used, he appealed to Agatha to support him.
"No, Henri," said Marie, after she had already answered him with a faint, but what she intended to be a firm denial.

"No, it must not, cannot, ought not be so.

I am, I know, somewhat de trop in this tragedy we are playing.

There are you and Charles, two good knights and true, and each of you has a lady whom it is his duty to protect.