"Have you given him any promise, Clara?"

"Not a promise, mamma."

"Not a promise! What then? Have you professed any regard for him?"
But upon this Clara was again silent.

"Then I suppose I must believe that you have professed a regard for
him--that you have promised to love him?"

"No, mamma; I have not promised anything. But when he asked me, I--I
didn't--I didn't refuse him."

It will be observed that Lady Desmond never once asked her daughter
what were her feelings. It never occurred to her to inquire, even
within her own heart, as to what might be most conducive to her
child's happiness. She meant to do her duty by Clara, and therefore
resolved at once to put a stop to the whole affair. She now desisted
from her interrogatories, and sitting silent for a while, looked out
into the extent of flat ground before the house. Poor Clara the
while sat silent also, awaiting her doom.

"Clara," said the mother at last, "all this must of course be made
to cease. You are very young, very young indeed, and therefore I do
not blame you. The fault is with him--with him entirely."

"No, mamma."

"But I say it is. He has behaved very badly, and has betrayed the
trust which was placed in him when he was admitted here so