She felt that it was hard, for she knew that he had done that which entitled her to regard her pledge to him as at an end; but the circumstances were such that she could not excuse herself.
"Am I to understand," said Owen Fitzgerald, "that all that has passed between us is to go for nothing?
that such promises as we have made to each other are to be of no account?
To me they are sacred pledges, from which I would not escape even if I could." As he then paused for a reply, she was obliged to say something.
"I hope you have not come here to upbraid me, Mr.Fitzgerald." "Clara," he continued, "I have passed the last year with perfect reliance upon your faith.

I need hardly tell you that it has not been passed happily, for it has been passed without seeing you.

But though you have been absent from me, I have never doubted you.

I have known that it was necessary that we should wait--wait perhaps till years should make you mistress of your own actions: but nevertheless I was not unhappy, for I was sure of your love." Now it was undoubtedly the case that Fitzgerald was treating her unfairly; and though she had not her wits enough about her to ascertain this by process of argument, nevertheless the idea did come home to her.

It was true that she had promised her love to this man, as far as such promise could be conveyed by one word of assent; but it was true also that she had been almost a child when she pronounced that word, and that things which had since occurred had entitled her to annul any amount of contract to which she might have been supposed to bind herself by that one word.