I think's nearest the mark."
"Four hundred a year! And I don't suppose you owe a penny in the world!"
"Not much—unless the last gale [10] to your lordship—and we never pay that till next May."
"And so you're going to marry Anty Lynch!" again repeated Frank, as though he couldn't bring himself to realise the idea; "and now, Martin, tell me all about it,—how the devil you managed it—when it's to come off—and how you and Barry mean to hit it off together when you're brothers. I suppose I'll lose a good tenant any way?"
"Not av' I'm a good one, you won't, with my consent, my lord."
"Ah! but it'll be Anty's consent, now, you know. She mayn't like Toneroe. But tell me all about it. What put it into your head?"
"Why, my lord, you run away so fast; one can't tell you anything. I didn't say I was going to marry her—at laist, not for certain;—I only said I might do worse."
"Well then; are you going to marry her, or rather, is she going to marry you, or is she not?"
"Why, I don't know. I'll tell your lordship just how it is. You know when old Sim died, my lord?"
"Of course I do. Why, I was at Kelly's Court at the time."
"So you were, my lord; I was forgetting. But you went away again immediately, and didn't hear how Barry tried to come round his sisther, when he heard how the will went; and how he tried to break the will and to chouse her out of the money."
"Why, this is the very man you wouldn't let me call a rogue, a minute or two ago!"
"Ah, my lord! that was just before sthrangers; besides, it's no use calling one's own people bad names. Not that he belongs to me yet, and may-be never will. But, between you and I, he is a rogue, and his father's son every inch of him."
"Well, Martin, I'll remember. I'll not abuse him when he's your brother-in-law. But how did you get round the sister?—That's the question."
"Well, my lord, I'll tell you. You know there was always a kind of frindship between Anty and the girls at home, and they set her up to going to old Moylan—he that receives the rents on young Barron's property, away at Strype. Moylan's uncle to Flaherty, that married mother's sister. Well, she went to him—he's a kind of office at Dunmore, my lord."
"Oh, I know him and his office! He knows the value of a name at the back of a bit of paper, as well as any one."
"May-be he does, my lord; but he's an honest old fellow, is Moylan, and manages a little for mother."
"Oh, of course he's honest, Martin, because he belongs to you. You know Barry's to be an honest chap, then."
"And that's what he niver will be the longest day he lives! But, however, Moylan got her to sign all the papers; and, when Barry was out, he went and took an inventhory to the house, and made out everything square and right, and you may be sure Barry'd have to get up very 'arly before he'd come round him. Well, after a little, the ould chap came to me one morning, and asked me all manner of questions—whether I knew Anty Lynch? whether we didn't used to be great friends? and a lot more. I never minded him much; for though I and Anty used to speak, and she'd dhrank tay on the sly with us two or three times before her father's death, I'd never thought much about her."
"Nor wouldn't now, Martin, eh? if it wasn't for the old man's will."
"In course I wouldn't, my lord. I won't be denying it. But, on the other hand, I wouldn't marry her now for all her money, av' I didn't mane to trate her well. Well, my lord, after beating about the bush for a long time, the ould thief popped it out, and told me that he thought Anty'd be all the betther for a husband; and that, av' I was wanting a wife, he b'lieved I might suit myself now. Well, I thought of it a little, and tould him I'd take the hint. The next day he comes to me again, all the way down to Toneroe, where I was walking the big grass-field by myself, and began saying that, as he was Anty's agent, of course he wouldn't see her wronged. 'Quite right, Mr. Moylan,' says I; 'and, as I mane to be her husband, I won't see her wronged neither.' 'Ah! but,' says he, 'I mane that I must see her property properly settled.' 'Why not?' says I, 'and isn't the best way for her to marry? and then, you know, no one can schame her out of it. There's lots of them schamers about now,' says I. 'That's thrue for you,' says he, 'and they're not far to look for,'—and that was thrue, too, my lord, for he and I were both schaming about poor Anty's money at that moment. 'Well,' says he, afther walking on a little, quite quiet, 'av' you war to marry her.'—'Oh, I've made up my mind about that, Mr. Moylan,' says I. 'Well, av' it should come to pass that you do marry her—of course you'd expect to have the money settled on herself?' 'In course I would, when I die,' says I. 'No, but,' says he, 'at once: wouldn't it be enough for you to have a warm roof over your head, and a leg of mutton on the table every day, and no work to do for it?' and so, my lord, it came out that the money was to be settled on herself, and that he was to be her agent."
"Well, Martin, after that, I think you needn't go to Sim Lynch, or Barry, for the biggest rogues in Connaught—to be settling the poor girl's money between you that way!"
"Well, but listen, my lord. I gave in to the ould man; that is, I made no objection to his schame. But I was determined, av' I ever did marry Anty Lynch, that I would be agent and owner too, myself, as long as I lived; though in course it was but right that they should settle it so that av' I died first, the poor crature shouldn't be out of her money. But I didn't let on to him about all that; for, av' he was angered, the ould fool might perhaps spoil the game; and I knew av' Anty married me at all, it'd be for liking; and av' iver I got on the soft side of her, I'd soon be able to manage matthers as I plazed, and ould Moylan'd soon find his best game'd be to go asy."
"Upon my soul, Martin, I think you seem to have been the sharpest rogue of the two! Is there an honest man in Connaught at all, I wonder?"
"I can't say rightly, just at present, my lord; but there'll be two, plaze God, when I and your lordship are there."
"Thank ye, Kelly, for the compliment, and especially for the good company. But let me hear how on earth you ever got face enough to go up and ask Anty Lynch to marry you."
"Oh!—a little soft sawther did it! I wasn't long in putting my com'ether on her when I once began. Well, my lord, from that day out—from afther Moylan's visit, you know—I began really to think of it. I'm sure the ould robber meant to have asked for a wapping sum of money down, for his good will in the bargain; but when he saw me he got afeard."
"He was another honest man, just now!"
"Only among sthrangers, my lord. I b'lieve he's a far-off cousin of your own, and I wouldn't like to spake ill of the blood."
"God forbid! But go on, Kelly."
"Well, so, from that out, I began to think of it in arnest. The Lord forgive me! but my first thoughts was how I'd like to pull down Barry Lynch; and my second that I'd not demane myself by marrying the sisther of such an out-and-out ruffian, and that it wouldn't become me to live on the money that'd been got by chating your lordship's grandfather."
"My lordship's grandfather ought to have looked after that himself. If those are all your scruples they needn't stick in your throat much."
"I said as much as that to myself, too. So I soon went to work. I was rather shy about it at first; but the girls helped me. They put it into her head, I think, before I mentioned it at all. However, by degrees, I asked her plump, whether she'd any mind to be Mrs. Kelly? and, though she didn't say 'yes,' she didn't say 'no.'"
"But how the devil, man, did you manage to get at her? I'm told Barry watches her like a dragon, ever since he read his father's will."
"He couldn't watch her so close, but what she could make her way down to mother's shop now and again. Or, for the matter of that, but what I could make my way up to the house."
"That's true, for what need she mind Barry, now? She may marry whom she pleases, and needn't tell him, unless she likes, until the priest has his book ready."
"Ah, my lord! but there's the rub. She is afraid