How then was she to give this other pledge to her mother?
"You do not mean to say that you hesitate ?" said Lady Desmond, looking as though she were thunderstruck at the existence of such hesitation.

"You do not wish me to suppose that you intend to persevere in such insanity?
Clara, I must have from you a distinct promise,--or--" What might be the dreadful alternative the countess did not at that minute say.

She perhaps thought that her countenance might be more effective than her speech, and in thinking so she was probably right.
It must be remembered that Clara Desmond was as yet only seventeen, and that she was young even for that age.

It must be remembered also, that she knew nothing of the world's ways, of her own privileges as a creature with a soul and heart of her own, or of what might be the true extent of her mother's rights over her.

She had not in her enough of matured thought to teach her to say that she would make no promise that should bind her for ever; but that for the present, in her present state, she would obey her mother's orders.