The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
The Ned M'Keown Stories: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“In this way he lived for some years--was now a man of great larning
himself--could spake the seven _langidges_, and it would delight your
ears to hear how high-flown and Englified he could talk. All the world
wondered where he got his wealth; but as he was kind and charitable
to every one that stood in need of assistance, the people said that
wherever he got it it couldn't be in better hands. At last he began to
look about him for a wife, and the only one in that part of the country
that would be at all fit for him, was the Honorable Miss Bandbox, the
daughter of a nobleman in the neighborhood. She indeed flogged all the
world for beauty; but it was said that she was proud and fond of wealth,
though, God he knows, she had enough of that any how. Jack, however, saw
none of this; for she was cunning enough to smile, and simper, and look
pleasant, whenever he'd come to her father's. Well, begad, from one
thing, and one word, to another, Jack thought it was best to make up to
her at wanst, and try if she'd accept of him for a husband; accordingly
he put the word to her like a man, and she, making as if she was
blushing, put her fan before her face and made no answer. Jack, however,
wasn't to be daunted; for he knew two things worth knowing, when a man
goes to look for a wife: the first is--that 'faint heart never won fair
lady,' and the second--that 'silence gives consint;' he, therefore,
spoke up to her in fine English, for it's he that knew how to speak now,
and after a little more fanning and blushing, by jingo, she consinted.
Jack then broke the matter to her father, who was as fond of money as
the daughter, and only wanted to grab at him for the wealth.
“When the match was a making, says ould Bandbox to Jack, 'Mr. Magennis,'
says he, (for nobody called him Jack now but his mother)--'these two
things you must comply with, if you marry my daughter, Miss Gripsy:--you
must send away your mother from about you, and pull down the cabin in
which you and she used to live; Gripsy says that they would jog her
memory consarning your low birth and former poverty; she's nervous
and high-spirited, Mr. Magennis, and declares upon her honor that
she couldn't bear the thoughts of having the delicacy of her feeling
offinded by these things.'
“'Good morning to you both,' says Jack, like an honest fellow as he
was, 'if she doesn't marry me except on these conditions, give her my
compliments, and tell her our courtship is at an end.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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