s were to be given by Herbert at the spot on the following
morning.

"We can go with you to Berryhill, I suppose, can't we?" said Mary.

"I shall be in a great hurry," said Herbert, who clearly did not wish
to be encumbered by his sisters on this special expedition.

"And why are you to be in such a hurry to-morrow?" asked Aunt Letty.

"Well, I shall be hurried; I have promised to go to Clady again, and
I must be back here early, and must get another horse."

"Why, Herbert, you are becoming a Hercules of energy," said his
father, smiling: "you will have enough to do if you look to all the
soup kitchens on the Desmond property as well as our own."

"I made a sort of promise about this particular affair at Clady, and
I must carry it out," said Herbert.

"And you'll pay your devoirs to the fair Lady Clara on your way home
of course," said Mary.

"More than probable," he replied.

"And stay so late again that you'll hardly be here in time for
dinner," continued Mary: to which little sally her brother vouchsafed
no answer.

But Emmeline said nothing. Lady Clara was specially her friend, and
she was too anxious to secure such a sister-in-law to make any joke
upon such a subject.

On that occasion nothing more was said about it; but Sir Thomas hoped
within his heart that his wife was right in prophesying that his son
would do nothing sudden in this matter.

On the following morning young Fitzgerald gave the necessary orders
at Berryhill very quickly, and then coming back remounted another
horse without going into the house. Then he trotted off to Clady,
passing the gate of Desmond Court without calling; did what he had
promised to do at Clady, or rather that which he had made to stand as
an excuse for again visiting that part of the world so quickly; and
after that, with a conscience let us hope quite clear, rode up the
avenue at Desmond Court. It was still early in the day when he got
there, probably not much after two o'clock; and yet Mary had been
quite correct in foretelling that he would only be home just in time
for dinner.

But, nevertheless, he had not seen Lady Desmond. Why or how it had
occurred that she had been absent from the drawing-room the whole of
the two hours which he had passed in the house, it may be unnecessary
to explain. Such, however, had been the fact. The first five minutes
had been passed in inquiries after the bruise, and, it must be owned,
in a surgical inspection of the still dis