"I dare say you're right about the two children, only you might say two
dozen; but as to the living happy, that's more problematical. What do
you mean to eat and drink?"

"Eggs--potatoes and bacon--buttermilk, and potheen [21]. It's odd if I
can't get plenty of them in Mayo, if I've nothing better."

[FOOTNOTE 21: pootheen--illegal (untaxed) whiskey, "moonshine"]

"I suppose you will, Frank; but bacon won't go down well after venison;
and a course of claret is a bad preparative for potheen punch. You're
not the man to live, with a family, on a small income, and what the
d----l you'll do I don't know. You'll fortify Kelly's Court--that'll be
the first step."

"Is it against the Repealers?"

"Faith, no; you'll join them, of course: but against the sub-sheriff,
and his officers--an army much more likely to crown their enterprises
with success."

"You seem to forget, Dot, that, after all, I'm marrying a girl with
quite as large a fortune as I had any right to expect."

"The limit to your expectations was only in your own modesty; the
less you had a right--in the common parlance--to expect, the more
you wanted, and the more you ought to have looked for. Say that Miss
Wyndham's fortune clears a thousand a year of your property, you would
never be able to get along on what you'd have. No; I'll tell you what
you'll do. You'll shut up Kelly's Court, raise the rents, take a
moderate house in London; and Lord Cashel, when his party are in, will
get you made a court stick of, and you'll lead just such a life as your
grandfather. If it's not very glorious, at any rate it's a useful
kind of life. I hope Miss Wyndham will like it. You'll have to christen
your children Ernest and Albert, and that sort of thing; that's the
worst of it; and you'll never be let to sit down, and that's a bore.
But you've strong legs. It would never do for me. I could never stand
out a long tragedy in Drury Lane, with my neck in a stiff white choker,
and my toes screwed into tight dress boots. I'd sooner be a porter
myself, for he can go to bed when the day's over."

"You're very witty, Dot; but you know I'm the last man in Ireland, not
excepting yourself, to put up with that kind of thing. Whatever I may
have to live on, I shall live in my own country, and on my own
property."

"Very well; if you won't be a gold stick, there's the other
alternative: fortify Kelly's Court, and prepare for the sheriff's
officers. Of the two, there's certai