I bid you think of the promise which you gave me; and I tell you that as I loved you then with all my heart, so do I love you at this moment; so shall I love you always.

Now I will not hinder you any longer." And then he opened the door for her, and she passed on, bowing to him, and muttering some word of farewell that was inaudible.
He stood for a moment with the door in his hand, meditating whether he might not say good morning to the countess without returning into the room; but as he so stood she called him.

"Mr.Fitzgerald," she said; and so he therefore came back, and once more closed the door.
And then he saw that the countenance of Lady Desmond was much changed.

Hitherto she had been every inch the countess, stern and cold and haughty; but now she looked at him as she used to look in those old winter evenings when they were accustomed to talk together over the evening fire in close friendliness, while she, Lady Desmond, would speak to him in the intimacy of her heart of her children, Patrick and Clara.
"Mr.Fitzgerald," she said, and the tone of her voice also was changed.

"You are hardly fair to us; are you ?" "Not fair, Lady Desmond ?" "No, not fair.