t, had never granted any to
him. What Owen wanted,--or what he told himself that he wanted,--was
justice. It was his duty as a just man to abstain from taking hold of
those acres, and he was prepared to do his duty. But it was equally
Herbert's duty as a just man to abstain from taking hold of Clara
Desmond, and he was resolved that he would never be Herbert's friend
if Herbert did not perform that duty. And then, though he felt
himself bound to give up the acres,--though he did regard this as an
imperative duty, he nevertheless felt also that something was due
to him for his readiness to perform such a duty,--that some reward
should be conceded to him; what this reward was to be, or rather what
he wished it to be, we all know.

Herbert had utterly refused to engage in any such negotiation; but
Owen, nevertheless, would not cease to think that something might yet
be done. Who was so generous as Clara, and would not Clara herself
speak out if she knew how much her old lover was prepared to do for
this newer lover? Half a dozen times Owen made up his mind to explain
the whole thing to Mr. Prendergast; but when he found himself in the
presence of the lawyer, he could not talk about love. Young men are
so apt to think that their seniors in age cannot understand romance,
or acknowledge the force of a passion. But here they are wrong, for
there would be as much romance after forty as before, I take it, were
it not checked by the fear of ridicule. So Owen stayed a week in
London, seeing Mr. Prendergast every day; and then he returned to Hap
House.

In the mean time life went on at a very sad pace at Desmond Court.
There was no concord whatever between the two ladies residing there.
The mother was silent, gloomy, and sometimes bitter, seldom saying a
word about Herbert Fitzgerald or his prospects, but saying that word
with great fixity of purpose when it was spoken. "No one," she said,
"should attribute to her the poverty and misery of her child. That
marriage should not take place from her house, or with her consent."
And Clara for the most part was silent also. In answer to such words
as the above she would say nothing; but when, as did happen once or
twice, she was forced to speak, she declared openly enough that no
earthly consideration should induce her to give up her engagement.

And then the young earl came home, brought away from his school in
order that his authority might have effect on his sister. To speak
the tr