He has proposed to me." The mother's arm now encircled the daughter lovingly, and the mother's lips were pressed to the daughter's forehead.

"Herbert Fitzgerald has asked you to be his wife, has he?
And what answer has my bonny bird deigned to make to so audacious a request ?" Lady Desmond had never before spoken to her daughter in tones so gracious, in a manner so flattering, so caressing, so affectionate.
But Clara would not open her heart to her mother's tenderness.

She could not look into her mother's face, and welcome her mother's consent with unutterable joy, as she would have done had that consent been given a year since to a less prudent proposition.

That marriage for which she was now to ask her mother's sanction would of course be sanctioned.

She had no favour to beg; nothing for which to be grateful.