udgment had rejected him altogether long before an idea had at
all presented itself to her that Herbert Fitzgerald could become her
suitor. Nor had this been done wholly in obedience to her mother's
mandate. She had realized in her own mind the conviction that Owen
Fitzgerald was not a man with whom any girl could at present safely
link her fortune. She knew well that he was idle, dissipated, and
extravagant; and she could not believe that these vices had arisen
only from his banishment from her, and that they would cease and
vanish whenever that banishment might cease.

Messages came to her, in underhand ways--ways well understood in
Ireland, and not always ignored in England--to the effect that all
his misdoings arose from his unhappiness; that he drank and gambled
only because the gates of Desmond Court were no longer open to him.
There was that in Clara's heart which did for a while predispose her
to believe somewhat of this, to hope that it might not be altogether
false. Could any girl loving such a man not have had some such hope?
But then the stories of these revelries became worse and worse,
and it was dinned into her ears that these doings had been running
on in all their enormity before that day of his banishment. And
so, silently and sadly, with no outspoken word either to mother or
brother, she had resolved to give him up.

There was no necessity to her for any outspoken word. She had
promised her mother to hold no intercourse with the man; and she
had kept and would keep her promise. Why say more about it? How she
might have reconciled her promise to her mother with an enduring
engagement, had Owen Fitzgerald's conduct allowed her to regard her
engagement as enduring,--that had been a sore trouble to her while
hope had remained; but now no hope remained, and that trouble was
over.

And then Herbert Fitzgerald had come across her path, and those
sweet, loving, kind Fitzgerald girls, who were always ready to cover
her with such sweet caresses, with whom she had known more of the
happiness of friendliness than ever she had felt before. They threw
themselves upon her like sisters, and she had never before enjoyed
sisterly treatment. He had come across her path; and from the first
moment she had become conscious of his admiration.

She knew herself to be penniless, and dreaded that she should be
looked upon as wishing to catch the rich heir. But every one had
conspired to throw them together. Lady Fitzgeral