Such phrases as "selling your soul," "putting a woman of that type in our sainted mother's place," "mingling the blood of a foreign dancing-woman with our own," jangled against each other in his mind.
Had he really been guilty of a sin against his conscience--satisfied his desires irrespective of all sense of duty?
He began to think he had, and to wonder in a disturbed fashion if God thought so too.

What was it Catherine had said?
_"God has indeed taken your punishment into His own Hands."_ Hugh was only too well aware of the facts which gave the speech its trenchant significance.

He himself had inherited owing to the death of an elder brother in early childhood.

But there was no younger brother to step into his own shoes, and failing an heir in the direct line of succession the title and entailed estate would of necessity go to Rupert Vallincourt, a cousin--a gay and debonair young rake of much charm of manner and equal absence of virtue.

From both Catherine's and Hugh's point of view he was the last man in the world fitted to become the head of the family.