sister; and his tone was hardly as gracious as was usual with him.

This want of kindliness at the present moment grated on Owen's ears;
but he resolved at once to tell the whole story out, and then leave
it to the earl to take it in dudgeon or in brotherly friendship as
he might please.

"Desmond," said he, "can you not guess what has passed between me
and your sister?"

"I am not good at guessing," he answered, brusquely.

"I have told her that I loved her, and would have her for my wife;
and I have asked her to love me in return."

There was an open manliness about this which almost disarmed the
earl's anger. He had felt a strong attachment to Fitzgerald, and was
very unwilling to give up his friendship; but, nevertheless, he had
an idea that it was presumption on the part of Mr. Fitzgerald of Hap
House to look up to his sister. Between himself and Owen the earl's
coronet never weighed a feather; he could not have abandoned his
boy's heart to the man's fellowship more thoroughly had that man
been an earl as well as himself. But he could not get over the
feeling that Fitzgerald's worldly position was beneath that of his
sister;--that such a marriage on his sister's part would be a
mesalliance. Doubting, therefore, and in some sort dismayed--and in
some sort also angry--he did not at once give any reply.

"Well, Desmond, what have you to say to it? You are the head of her
family, and young as you are, it is right that I should tell you."