; and then the
hands dropped from him. "You will understand at any rate that Hap
House will not be a fitting residence for me."

"I hate the whole country," said she, "the whole place hereabouts.
I have never been happy here. Happy! I have never been other than
unhappy. I have been wretched. What would I not give to leave it
also?"

"To you it cannot be intolerable as it will be to me. You have known
so thoroughly where all my hopes were garnered, that I need not tell
you why I must go from Hap House. I think that I have been wronged,
but I do not desire that others should think so. And as for you and
me, Lady Desmond, though we have been enemies, we have been friends
also."

"Enemies!" said she, "I hope not." And she spoke so softly, so
unlike her usual self, in the tones so suited to a loving, clinging
woman, that though he did not understand it, he was startled at
her tenderness. "I have never felt that you were my enemy, Mr.
Fitzgerald; and certainly I never was an enemy to you."

"Well; we were opposed to each other. I thought that you were robbing
me of all I valued in life; and you, you thought--"

"I thought that Clara's happiness demanded rank and wealth and
position. There; I tell you my sins fairly. You may say that I was
mercenary if you will,--mercenary for her. I thought that I knew what
would be needful for her. Can you be angry with a mother for that?"

"She had given me a promise! But never mind. It is all over now. I
did not come to upbraid you, but to tell you that I now know how it
must be, and that I am going."

"Had you won her, Owen," said the countess, looking intently into his
face, "had you won her, she would not have made you happy."

"As to that it was for me to judge--for me and her. I thought
it would, and was willing to peril all in the trial. And so was
she--willing at one time. But never mind; it is useless to talk of
that."

"Quite useless now."

"I did think--when it was as they said in my power to give him back
his own,--I did think;--but no, it would have been mean to look for
payment. It is all over, and I will say nothing further; not a word.
I am not a girl to harp on such a thing day after day, and to grow
sick with love. I shall be better away. And therefore I am going, and
I have now come to say good-bye, because we were friends in old days,
Lady Desmond."

Friends in old days! They were old days to him, but they were no more
than the other day to her. It was as