hing for me was to go there openly, having
announced my intention, and tell them both, mother and daughter,
that I hold myself as engaged to Lady Clara, and that I hold her as
engaged to me."

"That is absurd nonsense. She cannot be engaged to two persons."

"Anything that interferes with you, you will of course think absurd.
I think otherwise. It is hardly more than twelve months since she and
I were walking there together, and then she promised me her love. I
had known her long and well, when you had hardly seen her. I knew her
and loved her; and what is more, she loved me. Remember, it is not I
only that say so. She said it herself, and swore that nothing should
change her. I do not believe that anything has changed her."

"Do you mean to say that at present she cares nothing for me? Owen,
you must be mad on this matter."

"Mad; yes, of course; if I think that any girl can care for me while
you are in the way. Strange as it may appear, I am as mad even as
that. There are people who will not sell themselves even for money
and titles. I say again, that I do not believe her to be changed.
She has been weak, and her mother has persuaded her. To her mother,
rank and money, titles and property, are everything. She has sold
her daughter, and I have come to ask you, whether, under such
circumstances, you intend to accept the purchase."

In his ordinary mood Herbert Fitzgerald was by no means a quarrelsome
man. Indeed we may go further than that, and say that he was very
much the reverse. His mind was argumentative rather than impulsive,
and in all matters he was readier to persuade than overcome. But his
ordinary nature had been changed. It was quite new with him to be
nervous and fretful, but he was so at the present moment. He was
deeply concerned in the circumstances around him, but yet had been
allowed no voice in them. In this affair that was so peculiarly his
own,--this of his promised bride, he was determined that no voice
should be heard but his own; and now, contrary to his wont, he was
ready enough to quarrel with his cousin.

Of Owen we may say, that he was a man prone to fighting of all sorts,
and on all occasions. By fighting I do not mean the old-fashioned
resource of putting an end to fighting by the aid of two pistols,
which were harmless in nineteen cases out of twenty. In saying that
Owen Fitzgerald was prone to fight, I do not allude to fighting of
that sort; I mean that he was impulsive, and ever a