In what light then must he have thought of that woman's mother?
And so, with saddened heart, but subdued anger, she continued to gaze through the window till all without was dusk and dark.
There can be to a woman no remembrance of age so strong as that of seeing a daughter go forth to the world a married woman.

If that does not tell the mother that the time of her own youth has passed away, nothing will ever bring the tale home.

It had not quite come to this with Lady Desmond;--Clara was not going forth to the world as a married woman.

But here was one now who had judged her as fit to be so taken; and this one was the very man of all others in whose estimation Lady Desmond would have wished to drop a few of the years that encumbered her.
She was not, however, a weak woman, and so she performed her task.
She had candles brought to her, and sitting down, she wrote a note to Owen Fitzgerald, saying that she herself would call at Hap House at an hour named on the following day.
She had written three or four letters before she had made up her mind exactly as to the one she would send.

At first she had desired him to come to her there at Desmond Court; but then she thought of the danger there might be of Clara seeing him;--of the danger, also, of her own feelings towards him when he should be there with her, in her own house, in the accustomed way.