d he would not therefore
complain. As to money, he would say nothing till something should be
said to him.

With his mother, however, the matter was different. She had said that
she would welcome Clara; and she did so. Immediately after speaking
to Sir Thomas she drove over to Desmond Court, and said soft, sweet
things to Clara in her most winning way;--said soft things also to
the countess, who received them very graciously; took Clara home to
Castle Richmond for that night, somewhat to the surprise and much to
the gratification of Herbert, who found her sitting slily with the
other girls when he came in before dinner; and arranged for her to
make a longer visit after the interval of a week or two. Herbert,
therefore, was on thoroughly good terms with his mother, and did
enjoy some of the delights which he had promised himself.

With his sisters, also, and especially with Emmeline, he was once
more in a good humour. To her he made ample apology for his former
crossness, and received ample absolution. "I was so harassed," he
said, "by my father's manner that I hardly knew what I was doing.
And even now, when I think of his evident dislike to the marriage,
it nearly drives me wild." The truth of all which Emmeline sadly
acknowledged. How could any of them talk of their father except in a
strain of sadness?

All these things did not happen in the drawing-room at Castle
Richmond without also being discussed in the kitchen. It was soon
known over the house that Master Herbert was to marry Lady Clara,
and, indeed, there was no great pretence of keeping it secret.
The girls told the duchess, as they called Mrs. Jones--of course
in confidence--but Mrs. Jones knew what such confidence meant,
especially as the matter was more than once distinctly alluded
to by her ladyship; and thus the story was told, in confidence,
to everybody in the establishment, and then repeated by them, in
confidence also, to nearly everybody out of it.

Ill news, they say, flies fast; and this news, which, going in that
direction, became ill, soon flew to Hap House.

"So young Fitzgerald and the divine Clara are to hit it off, are
they?" said Captain Donnellan, who had driven over from Buttevant
barracks to breakfast at Hap House on a hunting-morning.

There were other men present, more intimate friends of Owen than this
captain, who had known of Owen's misfortune in that quarter; and a
sign was made to Donnellan to bid him drop the subject; but