"Take her, Mr. Keegan! Do you think I'd be offering her that way to any huckster in Carrick that wanted a hundred pound;--or that she would put up with the like of that?--Bad as we are, we an't come to that yet." "There you go with your family pride, Thady; but family pride won't feed you, and the offer I've made will; so you'd better bring the old man round to accept it." "Make it L80 a year for my father, and L250 for Feemy, and I'll do the best I can." "Not a penny more than I offered. Indeed, Mr. Flannelly would get the property cheaper if he sold it the regular way under the mortgage, so that he doesn't care about it: only he'd sooner you got the difference than strangers.--Well, you won't get the old man to take the offer--eh?" "I can't advise him to sell his property, and his house, and everything, so for nothing." "Then you know we must sell it for him." "Will you give me till Monday," said Thady, "till I ask some friend what I ought to do?" "Some friend;--what friend do you want to be asking--some attorney? Dolan, I suppose, who of course would tell you not to part with the property, that he might make a penny of it. No, Master Thady, that won't do; either yes or no--no or yes; I don't care which; but an answer, if you please, as Flannelly is determined he will do something." "It's no lawyer I want to spake to, Mr. Keegan; I've had too much of lawyers; but it's my friend, Father John." "What, the priest! thank ye for nothing; I'll have no d----d priest meddling; and to tell you the truth at once, it's either now or never. And think where your father 'll be if the house is sold over his head, before he has a place to stretch himself in." "Oh! you know, and I know, you can't sell it out of hand, in that way,--all at once." "'Deed but we can though; and, by G----d, if you mean to be stiff about it, you shall be out of the place before the May rents become due." "Would you want me to go and sell all that's left in the family, without giving me a day to consider?--without asking my friends what's best to do for the old man, and for poor Feemy? Surely, Mr. Keegan--" "Surely, nonsense. You see how it is; I want to give Flannelly an answer; he's not asking anything of you--he's offering a provision to you all, which you might go far to look for if the law takes its course,--as of course it will do if you oppose his offer. But perhaps you're thinking we can't sell the estate; and from the old man's state, because he's not _compos_, you can get Ballycloran into your own hands. If that's the game you're playing, you'll soon find yourself in the wrong box, my lad." "It's not of myself I'm thinking; and it's only you, and such as you, would be saying so of me. But supposing now, the owld man consinted to this bargain,--how would he be sure of his money?"