power over a child
as public opinion permits her to use. "Mother, it was you who brought
us together, and you cannot separate us now." That had always been
Clara's argument, leaving the countess helpless, except as far as she
could work on Herbert's generosity. That she had tried,--and, as we
have seen, been foiled there also. If only she could have taken her
daughter away while the Castle Richmond family were still mersed in
the bitter depth of their suffering,--at that moment when the blows
were falling on them! Then, indeed, she might have done something;
but she was not like other titled mothers. In such a step as this she
was absolutely without the means.

Thus talking together they remained closeted for a most
unconscionable time. Clara had had her purpose to carry out, and to
Herbert the moments had been too precious to cause him any regret as
they passed. But now at last a knock was heard at the door, and Lady
Desmond, without waiting for an answer to it, entered the room. Clara
immediately started from her seat, not as though she were either
guilty or tremulous, but with a brave resolve to go on with her
purposed plan.

"Mamma," she said, "it is fixed now; it cannot be altered now."

"What is fixed, Clara?"

"Herbert and I have renewed our engagement, and nothing must now
break it, unless we die."

"Mr. Fitzgerald, if this be true your conduct to my daughter has been
unmanly as well as ungenerous."

"Lady Desmond, it is true; and I think that my conduct is neither
unmanly nor ungenerous."

"Your own relations are against you, sir."

"What relations?" asked Clara, sharply.

"I am not speaking to you, Clara; your absurdity and romance are so
great that I cannot speak to you."

"What relations, Herbert?" again asked Clara; for she would not for
the world have had Lady Fitzgerald against her.

"Lady Desmond has, I believe, seen my Aunt Letty two or three times
lately; I suppose she must mean her."

"Oh," said Clara, turning away as though she were now satisfied. And
then Herbert, escaping from the house as quickly as he could, rode
home with a renewal of that feeling of triumph which he had once
enjoyed before when returning from Desmond Court to Castle Richmond.

On the next day Herbert started for London. The parting was sad
enough, and the occasion of it was such that it could hardly be
otherwise. "I am quite sure of one thing," he said to his sister
Emmeline, "I shall never see Castle Richmond