special wish of the person consulting her; because
it would be agreeable, she judged that it would be wrong. She was most
sincerely anxious for her poor dependents, but she tormented them most
cruelly. When Biddy Finn wished to marry, Lady Selina told her it
was her duty to put a restraint on her inclinations; and ultimately
prevented her, though there was no objection on earth to Tony Mara;
and when the widow Cullen wanted to open a little shop for soap and
candles, having eight pounds ten shillings left to stock it, after the
wake and funeral were over, Lady Selina told the widow it was her duty
to restrain her inclination, and she did so; and the eight pounds ten
shillings drifted away in quarters of tea, and most probably, half
noggins of whiskey.

In the same way, she could not bring herself to think that Fanny was
doing right, in following the bent of her dearest wishes--in marrying
this man she loved so truly. She was weak; she was giving way to
temptation; she was going back from her word; she was, she said, giving
up her claim to that high standard of feminine character, which it
should be the proudest boast of a woman to maintain.

It was in vain that her mother argued the point with her in her own
way. "But why shouldn't she marry him, my dear," said the countess,
"when they love each other--and now there's plenty of money and all
that; and your papa thinks it's all right? I declare I can't see the
harm of it."

"I don't say there's harm, mother," said Lady Selina; "not absolute
harm; but there's weakness. She had ceased to esteem Lord Ballindine."

"Ah, but, my dear, she very soon began to esteem him again. Poor dear!
she didn't know how well she loved him."

"She ought to have known, mamma--to have known well, before she
rejected him; but, having rejected him, no power on earth should have
induced her to name him, or even to think of him again. She should have
been dead to him; and he should have been the same as dead to her."

"Well, I don't know," said the countess; "but I'm sure I shall be
delighted to see anybody happy in the house again, and I always liked
Lord Ballindine myself. There was never any trouble about his dinners
or anything."

And Lady Cashel was delighted. The grief she had felt at the abrupt
termination of all her hopes with regard to her son had been too
much for her; she had been unable even to mind her worsted-work, and
Griffiths had failed to comfort her; but from the moment