And were he to be told to stay away, would he not be lost to them for ever?
Of course he could desert them if he would, and then they must die.
It was going from bad to worse certainly; and not the less so because he was more than ever infatuated about the girl.

When he had calculated whether it might be possible to desert her he had been at Scroope.

He was in County Clare now, and he did not hesitate to tell himself that it was impossible.

Whatever might happen, and to whomever he might be false,--he would be true to her.

He would at any rate be so true to her that he would not leave her.