Owen Fitzgerald could never be more than a little squire, but Herbert would be a baronet.

Owen's utmost ambition would be to live at Hap House all his life, and die the oracle of the Duhallow hunt; but Herbert would be a member of Parliament, with a house in London.

A daughter of the house of Desmond might marry the heir of Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, and be thought to have done well; whereas, she would disgrace herself by becoming the mistress of Hap House.

Lady Desmond, therefore, had been delighted to see this intimacy.
It had been in no spirit of fault-finding that she had remarked to her daughter as to her use of that Christian name.

What would be better than that they should be to each other as Herbert and Clara?
But the cautious mother had known how easy it would be to frighten her timid fawn-like child.