Would you wish to see your daughter-in-law
playin' upon the bag-pipes, when she ought to be mindin' her business,
or attendin' her childhre? No, your Reverence, the pipes must be laid
aside. I'll have no pipery connection for a son of mine."
The priest consented to this, although Peter conceded it with great
reluctance. Further preliminaries were agreed upon, and the evening
passed pleasantly, until it became necessary for Mr. Mulcahy to bid them
good-night.
When they were gone, Peter and Ellish talked over the matter between
themselves in the following dialogue:
"The fortune's a small one," said Ellish to her husband; "an' I suppose
you wondher that I consinted to take so little."
"Sure enough, I wondhered at it," replied Peter, "but, for my own
part, I'd give my son to her widout a penny o' fortune, in ordher to
be connected wid the priest; an' besides, she's a fine, handsome, good
girl--ay, an' his fill of a wife, if she had but the shift to her back."
"Four hundhre wid a priest's niece, Pether, is before double the money
wid any other. Don't you know, that when they set up for themselves,
he can bring the custom of the whole parish to them? It's unknown the
number o' ways he can sarve them in. Sure, at stations an' weddins,
wakes, marriages, and funerals, they'll all be proud to let the priest
know that they purchased whatever they wanted from his niece an' her
husband.
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