"Upon my word, she's a handsome woman still," said a third.

"And what title will you get when you marry her, Fitz ?" asked a fourth, who was rather ignorant as to the phases under which the British peerage develops itself.
Fitzgerald pshawed, and pished, and poohed; and then, breaking away from them, rode home.

He felt that he must at any rate put an end to this annoyance about the countess, and that he must put an end also to his state of doubt about the countess's daughter.

Clara had been kind and gracious to him in the first part of the evening; nay, almost more than gracious.

Why had she been so cold when he went up to her on that last occasion?
why had she gathered herself like a snail into its shell for the rest of the evening?
The young earl had also been at the party, and had exacted a promise from Owen that he would be over at Desmond Court on the next day.