It is a thousand pities that his life must be sacrificed to the memory of a woman who was always beyond his reach, even while she lived." Perhaps if they had talked more openly I should have been less interested in the Cardews; but the mystery which hung about Brosna and its owners for me had had the effect as I grew up of stimulating my curiosity about them.

And now that I knew I did not feel called upon to hate them.

Even if Irene Cardew had played fast and loose between Jasper Tuite and Uncle Luke there was no reason for hating her brother, who must have been but a boy at the time.

I wondered if Irene had been like her brother Anthony, had worn in her delicacy the look of a rapier, a flame, of something bright and upstanding and alive with energy.
Since I might meet Richard Dawson and had no hope of meeting Anthony Cardew, I walked much those days within our own walls, which gave me space enough for Aghadoe park-walls are four miles in length.
But most often I found myself taking the path that led to the postern gate as though the place had some pleasant, dreamy association for me.
One day I had the whim to creep again within the little glade where Anthony Cardew had come to my help.

It was now all hung about with wild roses and woodbine and was very sweet, and far overhead the trees met in a light, springing roof of green, more beautiful than any cathedral.
It had grown dark, and as I stood in the glade the rain pattered on the leaves overhead, but not a drop reached me.