t care
what the countess says. And, Owen, come what come may, you shall
always have my word;" and then he stood apart, and rubbing his eyes
with his arm tried to look like a man who was giving this pledge from
his judgment, not from his impulse.

"It all depends on this, Desmond; whom does she love? See her alone,
Desmond, and talk softly to her, and find out that." This he said
thoughtfully, for in his mind "love should still be lord of all."

"By heavens! if I were her, I know whom I should love," said the
brother.

"I would not have her as a gift if she did not love me," said Owen,
proudly; "but if she do, I have a right to claim her as my own."

And then they parted, and the earl rode back home with a quieter pace
than that which had brought him there, and in a different mood. He
had pledged himself now to Owen,--not to Owen of Castle Richmond, but
to Owen of Hap House--and he intended to redeem his pledge if it were
possible. He had been so conquered by the nobleness of his friend,
that he had forgotten his solicitude for his family and his sister.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

A TALE OF A TURBOT.

It would have been Owen Fitzgerald's desire to disclaim the
inheritance which chance had put in his way in absolute silence, had
such a course been possible to him. And, indeed, not being very well
conversant with matters of business, he had thought for a while that
this might be done--or at any rate something not far different from
this. To those who had hitherto spoken to him upon the subject, to
Mr. Prendergast, Mr. Somers, and his cousin, he had disclaimed the
inheritance, and that he had thought would have sufficed. That Sir
Thomas should die so quickly after the discovery had not of course
been expected by anybody; and much, therefore, had not been thought
at the moment of these disclaimers;--neither at the moment, nor
indeed afterwards, when Sir Thomas did die.

Even Mr. Somers was prepared to admit that as the game had been
given up,--as his branch of the Fitzgeralds, acting under the advice
of their friend and lawyer, admitted that the property must go
from them--even he, much as he contested within his own breast the
propriety of Mr. Prendergast's decisions, was fain to admit now that
it was Owen's business to walk in upon the property. Any words which
he may have spoken on the impulse of the moment were empty words.
When a man becomes heir to twelve thousand a year, he does not give
it up in a freak of