Castle Richmond | Page 6

she was
in many things all that was excellent, she was far too diffident to
attempt the reformation of a headstrong young man, who after all was
only distantly connected with her.
And thus there was no such attempt, and poor Owen became the subject
of ill report without any substantial effort having been made to save
him. He was a very handsome man--tall, being somewhat over six feet
in height--athletic, almost more than in proportion--with short, light
chestnut-tinted hair, blue eyes, and a mouth perfect as that of Phoebus.
He was clever, too, though perhaps not educated as carefully as might
have been: his speech was usually rapid, hearty, and short, and not
seldom caustic and pointed. Had he fallen among good hands, he might
have done very well in the world's fight; but with such a character, and
lacking such advantages, it was quite as open to him to do ill. Alas! the
latter chance seemed to have fallen to him.
For the first year of his residence at Hap House, he was popular enough
among his neighbours. The Hap House orgies were not commenced at
once, nor when commenced did they immediately become a subject of
scandal; and even during the second year he was tolerated;--tolerated
by all, and still flattered by some.
Among the different houses in the country at which he had become
intimate was that of the Countess of Desmond. The Countess of
Desmond did not receive much company at Desmond Court. She had
not the means, nor perhaps the will, to fill the huge old house with
parties of her Irish neighbours--for she herself was English to the
backbone. Ladies of course made morning calls, and gentlemen too,
occasionally; but society at Desmond Court was for some years pretty

much confined to this cold formal mode of visiting. Owen Fitzgerald,
however, did obtain admittance into the precincts of the Desmond
barracks.
He went there first with the young earl, who, then quite a boy, had had
an ugly tumble from his pony in the hunting-field. The countess had
expressed herself as very grateful for young Fitzgerald's care, and thus
an intimacy had sprung up. Owen had gone there once or twice to see
the lad, and on those occasions had dined there; and on one occasion, at
the young earl's urgent request, had stayed and slept.
And then the good-natured people of Muskerry, Duhallow, and
Desmond began, of course, to say that the widow was going to marry
the young man. And why not? she was still a beautiful woman; not yet
forty by a good deal, said the few who took her part; or at any rate, not
much over, as was admitted by the many who condemned her. We, who
have been admitted to her secrets, know that she was then in truth only
thirty-eight. She was beautiful, proud, and clever; and if it would suit
her to marry a handsome young fellow with a good house and an
unembarrassed income of eight hundred a-year, why should she not do
so? As for him, would it not be a great thing for him to have a countess
for his wife, and an earl for his stepson?
What ideas the countess had on this subject we will not just now
trouble ourselves to inquire. But as to young Owen Fitzgerald, we may
declare at once that no thought of such a wretched alliance ever entered
his head. He was sinful in many things, and foolish in many things. But
he had not that vile sin, that unmanly folly, which would have made a
marriage with a widowed countess eligible in his eyes, merely because
she was a countess, and not more than fifteen years his senior. In a
matter of love he would as soon have thought of paying his devotions
to his far-away cousin, old Miss Barbara Beamish, of Ballyclahassan,
of whom it was said that she had set her cap at every unmarried man
that had come into the west riding of the county for the last forty years.
No; it may at any rate be said of Owen Fitzgerald, that he was not the
man to make up to a widowed countess for the sake of the reflected
glitter which might fall on him from her coronet.
But the Countess of Desmond was not the only lady at Desmond Court.
I have before said that she had a daughter, the Lady Clara, the heroine
of this coming story; and it may be now right that I should attempt

some short description of her; her virtues and faults, her merits and
defects. It shall be very short; for let an author describe as he will, he
cannot by such course paint the characters of his personages on the
minds of his readers.