nd with whom alone he intended that Barry
should associate, were all of the masculine gender. He gave bachelor
dinner-parties to hard-drinking young men, for whom Anty was well
contented to cook; and when they--as they often, from the effect of
their potations, were perforce obliged to do--stayed the night at
Dunmore House, Anty never showed herself in the breakfast parlour,
but boiled the eggs, made the tea, and took her own breakfast in the
kitchen.

It was not wonderful, therefore, that no one proposed for Anty; and,
though all who knew the Lynches, knew that Sim had a daughter, it was
very generally given out that she was not so wise as her neighbours;
and the father and brother took no pains to deny the rumour. The
inhabitants of the village knew better; the Lynches were very generally
disliked, and the shameful way "Miss Anty was trated," was often
discussed in the little shops; and many of the townspeople were ready
to aver that, "simple or no, Anty Lynch was the best of the breed,
out-and-out."

Matters stood thus at Dunmore, when the quarrel before alluded to,
occurred, and when Sim made his will, dividing his property and died
before destroying it, as he doubtless would have done, when his passion
was over.

Great was the surprise of every one concerned, and of many who were
not at all concerned, when it was ascertained that Anty Lynch was an
heiress, and that she was now possessed of four hundred pounds
a-year in her own right; but the passion of her brother, it would
be impossible to describe. He soon, however, found that it was too
literally true, and that no direct means were at hand, by which he
could deprive his sister of her patrimony. The lawyer, when he informed
Anty of her fortune and present station, made her understand that she
had an equal right with her brother in everything in the house; and
though, at first, she tacitly acquiesced in his management, she was not
at all simple enough to be ignorant of the rights of possession, or
weak enough to relinquish them.

Barry soon made up his mind that, as she had and must have the
property, all he could now do was to take care that it should revert to
him as her heir; and the measure of most importance in effecting this,
would be to take care that she did not marry. In his first passion,
after his father's death, he had been rough and cruel to her; but he
soon changed his conduct, and endeavoured to flatter her into docility
at one moment, and to