If there be tears, will not that be better than sorrow, and disgrace, and ruin ?" Among evils there must always be a choice; and the Earl thought that a broken promise was the lightest of those evils to a choice among which his nephew had subjected himself.
And so the interview was over, and there had been no quarrel.

Fred Neville had given the Earl a positive promise that he would not marry Kate O'Hara,--to whom he had sworn a thousand times that she should be his wife.

Such a promise, however,--so he told himself--is never intended to prevail beyond the lifetime of the person to whom it is made.

He had bound himself not to marry Kate O'Hara while his uncle lived, and that was all.
Or might it not be better to take his uncle's advice altogether and tell the truth,--not to Kate, for that he could not do,--but to Mrs.O'Hara or to Father Marty?
As he thought of this he acknowledged to himself that the task of telling such a truth to Mrs.O'Hara would be almost beyond his strength.

Could he not throw himself upon the priest's charity, and leave it all to him?
Then he thought of his own Kate, and some feeling akin to genuine love told him that he could not part with the girl in such fashion as that.