and
bright thoughts within his brain. It was utterly wrong that a man
constituted as he was should commence life by living alone in a large
country-house. But those who spoke ill of him should have remembered
that this was his misfortune rather than his fault. Some greater
endeavour might perhaps have been made to rescue him from evil ways.
Very little such endeavour was made at all. Sir Thomas once or
twice spoke to him; but Sir Thomas was not an energetic man; and
as for Lady Fitzgerald, though she was in many things all that was
excellent, she was far too diffident to attempt the reformation of a
headstrong young man, who after all was only distantly connected with
her.

And thus there was no such attempt, and poor Owen became the subject
of ill report without any substantial effort having been made to save
him. He was a very handsome man--tall, being somewhat over six feet
in height--athletic, almost more than in proportion--with short,
light chestnut-tinted hair, blue eyes, and a mouth perfect as that
of Phoebus. He was clever, too, though perhaps not educated as
carefully as might have been: his speech was usually rapid, hearty,
and short, and not seldom caustic and pointed. Had he fallen among
good hands, he might have done very well in the world's fight; but
with such a character, and lacking such advantages, it was quite as
open to him to do ill. Alas! the latter chance seemed to have fallen
to him.

For the first year of his residence at Hap House, he was popular
enough among his neighbours. The Hap House orgies were not commenced
at once, nor when commenced did they immediately become a subject of
scandal; and even during the second year he was tolerated;--tolerated
by all, and still flattered by some.

Among the different houses in the country at which he had become
intimate was that of the Countess of Desmond. The Countess of Desmond
did not receive much company at Desmond Court. She had not the means,
nor perhaps the will, to fill the huge old house with parties of her
Irish neighbours--for she herself was English to the backbone. Ladies
of course made morning calls, and gentlemen too, occasionally; but
society at Desmond Court was for some years pretty much confined to
this cold formal mode of visiting. Owen Fitzgerald, however, did
obtain admittance into the precincts of the Desmond barracks.

He went there first with the young earl, who, then quite a boy, had
had an ugly tumble from his pony in t