elligence that Bob Fagan's daughter would have upwards
of three hundred thousand pounds.

It seemed a point of honor amongst this class that none should descend
to such a union, nor stoop to an alliance with the usurer. If, in the
wild orgies of after-dinner in the mad debauchery of the mess-table,
some reckless spendthrift would talk of marrying Polly Fagan, a burst of
mockery and laughter was certain to hail the proposition. In fact, any
alternative of doubtful honesty, any stratagem to defeat a creditor,
seemed a more honorable course than such a project.

There were kind friends--mayhap amongst them were some disappointed
suitors--ready to tell Polly how she was regarded by this set; and this
consciousness on her part did not assuredly add to the softness of a
manner that each day was rendering her more cold and severe; and, from
despising those of her own rank, she now grew to hate that above her.

It so chanced that my father was one of those on whom Fagan had long
speculated for a son-in-law. There was something in the careless ease
of his character that suggested the hope that he might not be very
difficult of persuasion; and, as his habits of expense required large
and prompt supplies, the Grinder made these advances with a degree of
liberality that could not fail to be flattering to a young heir.

On more than one occasion, the money was paid down before the lawyers
had completed the documents; and this confidence in my father's honor
had greatly predisposed him in Fagan's favor. The presumptuous idea of
an alliance with him would have, of course, routed such impressions, but
this never occurred to my father. It is very doubtful that he could have
brought himself to believe the thing possible. So secret had been my
father's marriage that none, even of his most intimate friends, knew
of it till within a short time before he arrived in Ireland. The great
outlay at Castle Carew of course attracted its share of gossip, but all
seemed to think that these were the preparations for an event not yet
decided on. This also was Fagan's reading of it; and he watched with
anxious intensity every step and detail of that costly expenditure in
which his now last hope was centred.

"He must come to me for all this; I alone can be the paymaster here,"
was his constant reflection, as he surveyed plans which required a
princely fortune to execute, and which no private income could possibly
have supported by a suitable style o