e highest commoners in Ireland; they were gentlefolks of the
first water, and walked openly before the world accordingly, proving
their claim to gentle blood by gentle deeds and honest conduct.
Perhaps she did think too much of the Fitzgeralds of Castle Richmond;
but the sin was one of which no recording angel could have made much
in his entry. That she was a stupid old woman, prejudiced in the
highest degree, and horribly ignorant of all the world beyond her own
very narrow circle,--even of that, I do not think that the recording
angel could, under the circumstances, have made a great deal.

And now how was her family pride affected by this horrible
catastrophe that had been made known to her? Herbert the heir, whom
as heir she had almost idolized, was nobody. Her sister-in-law, whom
she had learned to love with the whole of her big heart, was no
sister-in-law. Her brother was one, who, in lieu of adding glory to
the family, would always be regarded as the most unfortunate of the
Fitzgerald baronets. But with her, human nature was stronger than
family pride, and she loved them all, not better, but more tenderly
than ever.

The two ladies were closeted together for about two hours; and then,
when the door was opened, Aunt Letty might have been seen with her
bonnet much on one side, and her poor old eyes and cheeks red with
weeping. The countess, too, held her handkerchief to her eyes as she
got back into her pony carriage. She saw no one else there but Aunt
Letty; and from her mood when she returned to Desmond Court it might
be surmised that from Aunt Letty she had learned little to comfort
her.

"They will be beggars!" she said to herself--"beggars!"--when the
door of her own room had closed upon her. And there are few people in
the world who held such beggary in less esteem than did the Countess
of Desmond. It may almost be said that she hated herself on account
of her own poverty.

CHAPTER XXIX.

ILL NEWS FLIES FAST.

A dull, cold, wretched week passed over their heads at Castle
Richmond, during which they did nothing but realize the truth
of their position; and then came a letter from Mr. Prendergast,
addressed to Herbert, in which he stated that such inquiries as
he had hitherto made left no doubt on his mind that the man named
Mollett, who had lately made repeated visits at Castle Richmond, was
he who had formerly taken the house in Dorsetshire under the name of
Talbot. In his packet Mr. Prenderga