whatever had been made.

As this first chapter is devoted wholly to the locale of my story, I
will not stop to say a word as to the persons or characters of
either of these two ladies, leaving them, as I did the Castle
Richmond family, to come forth upon the canvas as opportunity may
offer. But there is another homestead in this same barony of
Desmond, of which and of its owner--as being its owner--I will say a
word.

Hap House was also the property of a Fitzgerald. It had originally
been built by an old Sir Simon Fitzgerald, for the use and behoof of
a second son, and the present owner of it was the grandson of that
man for whom it had been built. And old Sir Simon had given his
offspring not only a house--he had endowed the house with a
comfortable little slice of land, either out from the large
patrimonial loaf, or else, as was more probable, collected together
and separately baked for this younger branch of the family. Be that
as it may, Hap House had of late years been always regarded as
conferring some seven or eight hundred a-year upon its possessor,
and when young Owen Fitzgerald succeeded to this property, on the
death of an uncle in the year 1843, he was regarded as a rich man to
that extent.

At that time he was some twenty-two years of age, and he came down
from Dublin, where his friends had intended that he should practise
as a barrister, to set up for himself as a country gentleman. Hap
House was distant from Castle Richmond about four miles, standing
also on the river Blackwater, but nearer to Mallow. It was a
pleasant, comfortable residence, too large no doubt for such a