"Mrs. Connell," said he, "I will be brief with you. The most I can give
her is three hundred pounds, and even that by struggling and borrowing:
I will undertake to pay it as you say--on the nail! for I am really
anxious that my niece should be connected with so worthy and industrious
a family. What do you say?"
"I'm willin' enough," replied Peter. It's not asy to get that and a
Catholic girl."
"There's some thruth in what you say, aroon, sure enough," observed
Ellish; "an' if his Reverence puts another hundhre to it, why, in
the name of goodness, let them go together. If you don't choose that,
Docthor, never breathe the subject to me agin. Dan's not an ould man
yit, an' has time enough to get wives in plenty."
"Come," replied the priest, "there's my hand, it's a bargain; although
I must say there's no removing you from your point. I will give four
hundred, hook or crook; but I'll have sad scrambling to get it together.
Still I'll make it good."
"Down on the nail?" inquired Ellish.
"Ay! ay! Down on the nail," replied the priest.
"Well, in the name o' Goodness, a bargain be it," said Peter; "but, upon
my credit, Ellish, I won't have the bag-pipes burnt, anyhow. Faith, I
must hear an odd tune, now an' thin, when I call to see the childhre."
"Pether, acushla, have sinse.
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