Ethne wrote that she had, during the last months, considered all that he had said when at Glenalla and in London; she had read, too, his letters and understood that in his thoughts of her there had been no change, and that there would be none; she therefore went back upon her old argument that she would, by marriage, be doing him an injury, and she would marry him upon his return to England.
"That's rough luck, isn't it ?" said Durrance, when Calder had read the letter through.

"For here's the one thing I have always wished for, and it comes when I can no longer take it." "I think you will find it very difficult to refuse to take it," said Calder.

"I do not know Miss Eustace, but I can hazard a guess from the letters of hers which I have read to you.

I do not think that she is a woman who will say 'yes' one day, and then because bad times come to you say 'no' the next, or allow you to say 'no' for her, either.

I have a sort of notion that since she cares for you and you for her, you are doing little less than insulting her if you imagine that she cannot marry you and still be happy." Durrance thought over that aspect of the question, and began to wonder.
Calder might be right.