MR. KEEGAN.
It will be remembered that the priest left Feemy after his stormy
interview in a somewhat irritable mood; she was still chewing the cud
of the bitter thoughts to which the events of the last few hours had
given rise, and was trying to make herself believe that her brother
and Father John and Pat Brady, and all the rest of them, were wrong
in their detestable surmises, and that her own Myles was true to her,
when another stranger called at Ballycloran; and a perfect stranger
he must have been, for he absolutely raised the lion-headed, rusty
knocker, and knocked at the door--a ceremony to which the customary
visitors of the house never dreamed of having recourse. So unusual
was this proceeding, that it frightened the sole remaining domestic,
Katty, out of all her decorum. It will be remembered that Mary Brady
had absconded with Biddy. Poor Katty did not well know how to act
under the trying emergencies of the case; she could not get to the
door of Miss Feemy's parlour, as a strange gentleman was standing
in the hall, so she ran round the house, and ascertaining that the
intruder was well in the hall, and could not see her, she clambered
up to her mistress's window, and exclaimed,
"Hist! Miss Feemy, there's a sthranger gintleman a rapping at the big
knocker, and I think it's the fat lawyer from Carrick; what'll I do
thin, Miss?"
"Why, you fool!" whispered Feemy through one of the broken panes of
glass, "go and ask him who he wants, and tell him Thady an't at
home."
So Katty dropped from the window-sill again, and went to receive the
gentleman into the house by following him in at the hall door. By the
time, however, that she had entered herself, old Larry Macdermot had
been aroused out of his lethargy by a third knocking of the stranger;
and on opening his own parlour door, was startled to see Mr. Hyacinth
Keegan, the attorney from Carrick on Shannon, standing before him.
Mr. Hyacinth Keegan requires some little introduction, as he is one
of the principal personages of my tale. As Father Cullen before
remarked, his father was a process-server living at a small town
called Drumshambo;--that is, he obtained his bread by performing
the legal acts to which Irish landlords are so often obliged to
have resort in obtaining their rent from their tenants. This
process-server was a poor man, and a Roman Catholic, but he had
managed to give his son a decent education; he had gotten him a place
as an errand boy in an attorney's office, from whence he had risen to
the dignity of clerk, and he was now, not only an attorney himself,
but a flourishing one, and a Protestant to boot. His great step in
the world had been his marriage with Sally Flannelly,--that Sally
whom Macdermot had rejected,--for from the time of his wedding he had
much prospered in all worldly things. He was a hardworking man, and
in that consisted his only good quality; he was plausible, a good
flatterer, not deficient in that sort of sharpness which made him a
successful attorney in a small provincial town, and he could be a
jovial companion, when called on to take that part. Principle had
never stood much in his way, and he had completely taught himself
to believe that what was legal was right; and he knew how to
stretch legalities to the utmost. As a convert, Mr. Keegan was very
enthusiastically attached to the Protestant religion and the Tory
party, for which he had fought tooth and nail at the last county
election.
Mr. Keegan boasted a useful kind of courage; he cared but little for
the ill name he had acquired by his practice in the country among the
poorer classes, and to do him justice, had shown pluck enough in the
dangerous duties which he sometimes had to perform; for he acted as
agent to the small properties of some absentee landlords, and for a
man of his character such duties in County Leitrim were not at that
time without risk. He had been shot at, had once been knocked off his
horse, and had received various threatening letters; but it always
turned out that he discovered the aggressor, and prosecuted and
convicted him. One man he had transported for life; in the last case,
the man who had shot at him was hung; and consequently the people
began to be afraid of Mr. Keegan.
Our friend was fond of popularity, and was consequently a bit of a
sportsman, as most Connaught attorneys are. He had the shooting of
two or three bogs, kept a good horse or two, went to all the country
races, and made a small book on the events of the Curragh. These
accomplishments all had their effect, and as I said before, Mr.
Keegan was successful. In appearance he was a large, burly man,
gradually growing corpulent, with a soft oily face, on which there
was generally a smile; and well for him that there was, for though
his smile was not prepossessing, and carried the genuine stamp of
deceit, it concealed the malice, treachery, and selfishness which
his face so plainly bore without it. His eyes were light, large,
and bright, but it was that kind of brightness which belongs to an
opaque, and not to a transparent body--they never sparkled; his mouth
was very large, and his lip heavy, and he carried a huge pair of
brick-coloured whiskers. His dress was somewhat dandified, but it
usually had not a few of the characteristics of a horse jockey; in
age he was about forty-five. His wife was some years his senior; he
had married her when she was rather falling into the yellow leaf;
and though Mr. Hyacinth Keegan was always on perfectly good and
confidential terms with his respected father-in-law, report in
Carrick on Shannon declared, that great battles took place beside
the attorney's fireside, as to who was to have dominion in the house.
The lady's temper also might be a little roused by the ill-natured
reports which reached her ears, that her handsome Hyacinth lavished
more of his attentions and gallantry abroad than at home. Such was
the visitor who now came to call at Ballycloran.
Mr. Macdermot was very much surprised, for Mr. Keegan's business with
Ballycloran was never done by personal visits. If money was received,
Thady used to call and pay it at Keegan's office; if other steps
were to be taken, he employed one of those messengers, so frequently
unwelcome at the houses of the Connaught gentry, and this usually
ended in Thady calling at Mr. Keegan's for a fresh bill for his
father to sign. Old Macdermot was therefore so surprised that he knew
not how to address his visitor. This, together with his hatred of
the man, and his customary inability to do or say anything, made him
so perplexed that he could not comprehend Mr. Keegan's first words,
which were not only conciliatory and civil, but almost affectionate.
"Ah! Mr. Macdermot, how do you do--how d'ye do? I'm glad to see
you--very glad to see you--looking so well too. Why, what a time it
is since I last had the pleasure--but then I'm so tied by the leg--so
much business, Mr. Macdermot; indeed, though I was determined to drop
in this morning as a friend, still even now I've just a word to say
on business. You see I must join business and pleasure; so if you
are not very much engaged, and could spare a minute or two, why I
have a little proposal to make to you--acting for Mr. Flannelly you
know--which I think you'll not be sorry to hear."
The attorney had been obliged to begin his story thus far in the
hall--as the old man had shown no inclination to ask him into the
parlour: nor did Larry even now move from the door; and, indeed, he
did not look as though he was a fit subject to enter on business with
an attorney. He had not shaved, or rather been shaved, since Sunday
last; his eyes, though wide open, looked as if they had very lately
been asleep, and were not quite awake; his clothes were huddled on
him, and hung about him almost in tatters; the slaver was running
down from his half open mouth, and his breath smelt very strongly of
whiskey.
Keegan, finding that his host did not seem bent on hospitality, was
edging himself into the room, when Feemy, who had heard his address
to her father, came out to the old man's relief, and told the visitor
that he was not just himself that morning--that Thady was out, but
that she would desire him to call at Mr. Keegan's office the next
day.
"Ah! Miss Feemy, and how's your pretty self this morning?--and is it
the fact what we hear down at Carrick, that we are to have a wedding
soon at Ballycloran? Ah! well, of course you wouldn't be after
telling me, but I was very glad to hear it; that I was, Miss Feemy.
But, Mr. Macdermot--it was your father, Miss Feemy, I was wishing to
see this morning, not Mr. Thady--if you could allow me ten minutes or
so--just a message from our old friend, Flannelly:"--and by this time
Keegan had wedged his way into the room, out of which any one who
knew him would be very sure he would not stir, until he had said what
he had come to say.
Larry, hobbling back after him, sat himself down in his accustomed
chair, and Feemy, as if to protect her father in her brother's
absence, followed him.
"It's very hard, then, Mr. Keegan, that you should come up here; as
if sending your processes, and latitats, and distraining, weren't
enough, but now you must--"
"Ah! my dear Sir, it's not about such disagreeable business at
all--we're done with all that. It's not about such business at
all. When I've disagreeable jobs to do--of course we must have
disagreeable jobs sometimes--why, I always send some of my
disagreeable fellows to do it; but when I've good news, why I like to
bring it myself, and that's why I rode down this morning."
Larry, stupid as he was, couldn't be talked round by the attorney so
easily.
"If it's good news you have, why shouldn't Thady hear it then? I am
sure, poor fellow, he hears enough of bad news from you one way or
another. And I tell you I can't understand business to-day, and
Flannelly's bill doesn't come round till next month--I know that; and
so, if you plaze, Thady can hear what you have to say, at Carrick,
on Saturday or Monday, or any day you plaze. Feemy, my darling, get
something for Mr. Keegan to eat. I'll be glad to see you eat a bit,
but I can't talk any more." And the old man turned himself away, and
began groaning over the fire.
"You see, Mr. Keegan, my father can't go to business this morning.
When shall I tell Thady to call down?--But wouldn't you take a glass
of--"
Wine, Feemy was going to say, but she knew she had none to offer.
"Not a taste in life of anything, thank you, Miss Feemy; not a drop,
I'm very much obliged to you: but I'm sorry to find your good father
so bent on not hearing me, as I have something to propose which he
couldn't but be glad to hear."
"Well, father, will you listen to what Mr. Keegan has to say?"
"Don't I tell you, Feemy, that the bill doesn't come round before
November? and it's very hard he won't lave me in pace till that time
comes."
"You see," continued Feemy, "that he won't hear anything; don't you
think you'd better wait and see Thady down at Carrick?"
Now this was what Mr. Keegan did not want; in fact, his wish was to
talk over Larry Macdermot to agree to something to which he feared
Thady would object; but he had had no idea the old man would be so
obstinate. He, however, was at a loss how to proceed, when Feemy
declared that Thady was seen approaching.
"Well, then, Miss Feemy, as your brother is here, and as your father
isn't just himself this morning, I might as well do my business with
him; but as it is of some importance, and as Mr. Flannelly wishes to
have your father's answer as soon as possible, he will not object, I
hope, to giving his opinion, when he shall have heard what I have to
say."
By this time Thady was before the door, and on Feemy's calling to
him, informing him that Mr. Keegan was in the house, waiting to speak
to him, he came up into the parlour.
"How do you do this morning?" said the lawyer, shaking Thady by the
hand, "how d'ye do? I've just ridden up here to bring a message to
your father from Mr. Flannelly about this mortgage he holds; but your
father doesn't seem quite the thing this morning, and therefore it's
as well you came in. Of course what I have to say concerns you as
well as him."
"Of course, Mr. Keegan; I look after the affairs at Ballycloran
mostly, now. Don't you know it's me you look to for the money?--and
I'm sorry you should have to bother my father about it. Just step out
of the room, Feemy."
And the young lady retreated to her own possessions.
"Why, now, Mr. Thady, how you all put your backs up because an
unfortunate attorney comes to call on you. What I'm come to say is
what I hope and think you'll both be glad to hear; and I trust you've
too much good sense to put your father against it merely because it
comes from me."
"You may be sure I shall not put my father against anything which
would be good for him or Feemy--"
"Well, Mr. Thady, so far so good; and I'm sure you wouldn't; besides,
what I've got to say is greatly to your own advantage."
"Well, Mr. Keegan, out with it."
"Why, you see, Mr. Macdermot,"--and the attorney turned to the
father, who sat poring over the fire, as if he was determined not to
hear a word that passed,--"you see, Mr. Macdermot, Mr. Flannelly is
thinking how much better it would be to settle the affair of this
mortgage out and out. He's getting very old, Mr. Macdermot. Why,
Thady, he's more than thirty years older than your father; and you
see he wants to arrange all his money matters. Between us and the
bedpost, by the by, I wish he didn't think so much of those nephews
of his. However, he wishes the matter settled, and I explained to him
that after knowing one another so long, it wouldn't be fair--though,
for the matter of that, of course it would be fair, but, in fact,
the old man doesn't exactly wish it himself--that is, you know, to
foreclose at once, and sell the estate--"
Here he paused; while Larry merely fidgeted in his chair, and Thady
said, "Well, Mr. Keegan?"
"So, you see, he just wishes the affair to be settled amicably.
I fear, Mr. Thady, your father hasn't just got the amount of the
principal debt."
"Oh! you know that of yourself, Mr. Keegan; you know he hasn't the
interest itself, till I screw it out of them poor devils of tenants."
"Well, Mr. Macdermot, as you haven't the money to pay the principal
debt, of course you can't clear the estate. Why, you see, the
interest amounts to L198 odd shillings a year; and before that's
paid--times is so bad, you see--Mr. Flannelly is obliged--obliged,
in his own defence, you see--to run you to great expense. Well, now,
perhaps you'd say, if Flannelly wants his money at once, you'd borrow
it on another mortgage--that is, sell the mortgage, Mr. Thady; but
money's so scarce these days, and the property is so little improved,
and the tenants so bad, that you couldn't raise the money on it--you
couldn't possibly raise the money on it."
"Why, Mr. Keegan, father pays Mr. Flannelly L5 per cent., and the
property is near to L400 a year, even now."
"Well, of course, if you think so, I wouldn't advise you to the
contrary; only, if so, Mr. Flannelly must foreclose at once, in which
case the property would be sold out and out; but perhaps you could
effect a loan in time--"
"Well, Mr. Keegan, what was it you said you had to propose?"
"What Mr. Flannelly proposes, you mean;--of course I'm only his
messenger now. What he proposes is this. You see, the property is so
unimproved, and bad--why, the house is tumbling down--it's enough to
kill your father, now he's getting a little infirm."
"Well, well, Mr. Keegan; what is it Mr. Flannelly wishes to do with
us?"
"Wishes to do?--oh, he doesn't wish anything, of course; the law is
open to him to get his own; in fact, the law would give him much more
than he wishes to take: but he proposes to buy Ballycloran himself."
"Buy Ballycloran!" screamed Larry.
"Well, well, father; let's hear what Mr. Keegan has to say.--Well,
Mr. Keegan, does he propose giving anything but what he has got
himself already?--or does he propose to take the estate for the
mortgage, and cry quits; so that father, and Feemy, and I, can walk
out just where we plaze?"
"Of course not, of course not. It's to make your father what he
thinks a fair offer that I'm come up; and it's what I'm sure you must
think is a generous offer."
"Well, out with it."
"Well then; what he proposes to do is, to settle an annuity on your
father for his life; and give you a sum of money down for yourself
and your sister."
"Let's hear what he offers," said Thady.
Larry, whose back was nearly turned to the chair where the attorney
was sitting, said nothing; but he gave an ominous look round, which
showed that he had heard what had passed. But it did not show that he
by any means approved of the proposition.
"I'm coming to that. You see the rent is mostly all swallowed up by
this mortgage. Now can you say you've L50 a year coming into the
house? I'm afraid not, Mr. Thady--I'm afraid not; and then all your
time is occupied in collecting it, and scraping it; and if it's true
what I hear--to be plain, I fear you'll hardly have the interest
money this November; and if you like Mr. Flannelly's proposal, he'll
give in that half year; so that you'd have something in hand to
begin. And how comfortable Mr. Macdermot would be in lodgings down at
Carrick; you've no idea how reasonable he might board there; say at
Dargan's for instance, for about ten shillings a week. And I'm very
glad, I can assure you, to hear of the very respectable match your
sister is making. Ussher is a very steady nice fellow, knows what's
what, and won't be less ready to come to the scratch when he knows
he'll have to touch a little ready cash."
"You'd better let us know what your offer is, and lave my sisther
alone. It doesn't do to bring every old woman's story in, when we're
talking business; so, if you plaze, we won't calculate on Feemy's
marriage."
"Well, well, I didn't mean anything more than that I just heard that
a match was made between them. So, Mr. Macdermot, Mr. Flannelly will
settle L50 a year on you, paid as you like; or come, say a pound a
week, as you would probably like to pay your lodgings weekly; and he
would give L100 each to your son and daughter, ready money down you
know, Mr. Thady. What do you say, Mr. Macdermot?" And he got up and
walked round so as to stand over the side of Larry's chair.
"Didn't I tell you, then, I wouldn't be bothered with your business?
If you must come up here jawing and talking, can't you have it out
with Thady there?"
"Well, Thady, what do you say? You see how much your father's comfort
would be improved; and as I suppose, after all, your sister is to be
married, you couldn't well keep the house up; and I'll tell you what
more Mr. Flannelly proposes for yourself."
"I don't want what Mr. Flannelly will do for me; but I'm thinking of
the old man, and Feemy there."
"Well, don't you see how much more comfortable he must be?--nothing
to bother him, you know; no bills coming due; and as for yourself,
you should have a lease, say for five years, of any land you liked;
say forty acres or so, and with your ready money you know."
"Sure isn't the land crowded with tenants already?" said Thady.
"Ah yes; those wretched cabin holders with their half acres. Mr.
Flannelly would soon get shut of them: he means to have no whiskey
making on the land! Let me alone to eject those fellows. By dad! I'll
soon clear off most of them."
"What! strip their roofs?"
"Yes, if they wouldn't go quietly; but they most of them know me now;
and I give you my word of honour--indeed, Flannelly said as much--you
should have any forty acres you please, at a fair rent. Say what the
poor devils are paying now, without any capital you know."
"No, Mr. Keegan; I wouldn't have act or part in dhriving off the
poor craturs that know me so well; nor would I be safe if I did;
nor for the matter of that, could I well bring myself to be one of
Mr. Flannelly's tenants at Ballycloran. But I won't say I won't be
advising the owld man to take the offer, if you only make it a little
fairer. Consider, Mr. Keegan; the whole property--nigh L400 a year,
besides the house--and Mr. Flannelly's debt on it only L200."
"Ah! L400 a year and the house is very well," said Keegan; "but did
you ever see the L400--and isn't the house half falling down
already?"
"Whose fault is that--who built it then, Mr. Keegan?--bad luck to it
for a house!"
"Well, I don't know it's much use going into that now; but you can't
say but what the proposal is a fair one."
"Ah! Mr. Keegan, L1 a week is too little for the owld man; make it
L100 a year for his life, and give Feemy L300, so that she, poor
girl, may have some chance of neither begging or starving, if she
shouldn't get married, and I'll not go against the bargain. I'd get a
bit of land somewhere, though I couldn't be a tenant on Ballycloran.
'Deed for the matter of that, if we must part it, I don't care how
long it is before I see a sod of it again."
"Nonsense, Mr. Thady; L100 a year is out of the question; why,
your father's hardly to be called an elderly man yet. I couldn't
think of advising Mr. Flannelly to give more than he has already
proposed.--Don't you think, Mr. Macdermot,"--and he began speaking
loudly to the old man;--"L1 a week, regularly paid, you know, would
be a nice thing for you, now that your daughter is going to get
married, and that Thady here thinks of taking a farm for himself?"
"I towld you before I'd nothing to say about it--and I will say
nothing about it; the bill don't come round till November, and it's
very hard you should be bothering the life out of me this way."
Keegan turned away, and taking Thady by the collar of his coat, led
him to the window; he began to find he could do nothing with Larry.
"You see, Macdermot," he said in a half whisper, "it is impossible
to get your father to listen to me; and therefore the responsibility
must rest upon you as to advising him what he'd better do. And now
let me put it to you this way: you know that you have not the means
of raising the money to pay off this debt, and that Flannelly can
sell the estate any day he pleases; well,--suppose you drive us to
this, and suppose the thing fetches a little over what his claim is,
don't you know there are great expenses attached to such a sale?
All would have to come out of the property; and your father's other
creditors would come on the little remainder, and where would you
be then? You see, my boy, it's quite impossible the estate should
ever come to you. Now, by what I propose, your father would sell
the estate while still he had the power; he would get comfortably
settled--and I'd take care to manage the annuity so that the other
creditors couldn't touch it; and you'd get a handful of money to set
you up something more decently than the way you're going on here with
your tenants."
"But my sisther, Mr. Keegan; when the home came to be taken from over
her head, what would become of Feemy? She and the owld man could
hardly live on a pound a week. And when the owld man should die--"
"Why, nonsense, man! Isn't your sister as good as married? or if not,
a strapping girl like her is sure of a husband. Besides, when she's a
hundred pounds in her pocket, she won't have to go far to look for a
lover. There's plenty in Carrick would be glad to take her."
"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?"
"Sure of his money! why, wouldn't it be settled on him?--wouldn't it
be named as one of the conditions of the sale? He'd be a deal surer
of that, than he is now of his daily dinner; for that I believe he's
not very sure of as things are going at Ballycloran."
Thady looked at the attorney as though he longed to answer him in the
same strain; but he said nothing of the sort; he remained looking out
of the window for a short time, considering what he should do.
"Well, Macdermot, I can't be waiting here all day you know; what do
you say to it?"
"I'll spake to my father; it's he must decide you know, at last, and
not me. Larry, you heard what Mr. Keegan said, didn't you?" and he
explained to his father the nature of the offer; and tried to make
him understand that at any rate Ballycloran must go; and that it
would be better to go at once, with some provision to look to, than
to stay there, and be driven out, without any; and that Mr. Flannelly
would not be content any longer with getting the interest for his
money, but that he was determined to get the principal, either by
having the property sold, or by taking possession of it himself. It
was long before he could make the old man precisely understand what
it was that was required of him; during which time Keegan remained at
the window, as if he was not hearing a word that passed between the
father and son.
"And does he want us to go clane out of it, Thady?"
"Root and branch, father, for iver and iver; and there'll be the
finish of the Macdermots of Ballycloran; but Larry,"--and he put his
hand, with more tenderness than seemed to belong to his rough nature,
on his father's arm;--"but Larry, you know you'll never want for
anything then; you'll be snug enough jist wherever you plaze; and
your money coming due and paid every week--you'd be better than in
this wretched place; eh Larry?"
"And what's to become of Feemy?"
"Why, we must get Feemy a husband; till then she'll stay with you;
she'll have a thrifle of money herself, you know; she'll be poor
enough, though, God knows!--It's the thought of her that throubles me
most."
"And yourself, Thady, where would you go, till you got Ballycloran
again?"
"Got Ballycloran again! why Larry, you're to sell it outright; clane
away altogether. As for me, I must get a bit of land, I suppose, or
'list, or do something; go to America, perhaps."
"And was it Keegan wanted to buy Ballycloran?"
"Oh, it's between them, I suppose; but what does it matter--Keegan or
Flannelly?"
"And what did you say, Thady?"
"What did I say! Oh, I could say nothing, you know; it's for you to
do it. But, Larry, I think it's the best for you, and you may be sure
I'll not be complaining afther; or saying ill of you for what you
did, when you could do no other."
"And you didn't tell the blackguard ruffian robber to be gone out of
that, when he asked you to dhrive your own family out of your own
house?"
"Whist, father, whist!"
When Keegan heard old Macdermot break out in this way, he was obliged
to turn round: so he walked up to the fire, and said, "Mr. Macdermot,
may I ask who you are speaking of?"
Larry was again commencing, when Thady held him down gently, and
said,
"It's not so asy, Mr. Keegan, for an old man to hear for the first
time, that he's to lave his house and his home for iver; where he and
his father and his grandfather have lived. You'd better let me talk
to him a while."
"Oh! for the matter of that, I don't care for his passion; but if he
means to come to reason, let him do so at once, for as I said before,
I won't wait here all day."
"Nobody wants you to wait--nobody wants you to wait!" said the
father.
"Whist, Larry, whist! be asy a while."
"I won't whist, and I won't be asy: so, Mr. Keegan, if you want to
have my answer, take it, and carry it down to that old bricklayer
in Carrick, whose daughter has the divil's bargain in you; and for
the like of that you're not bad matched. Tell him from me, Larry
Macdermot--tell him from me, that I'm not so owld yet, nor so poor,
nor so silly, that he can swindle me out of my lands and house that
way. So clever as you think yourself, Mr. Keegan, you may walk
back to Carrick again, and don't think to call yourself masther of
Ballycloran yet awhile."
"Very well, Mr. Macdermot; very well, my fine fellow; look to
yourself, and mind, I tell you I'll have a cheaper bargain of the
place by this day six months, than I should have now by the terms I'm
offering myself."
"You dirthy mane ruffian--if it was only myself you was wanting to
turn out of it--but to be robbing the boy there of his property, that
has been working his sowl out these six years for that dirthy owld
bricklayer!--And you want the place all to yourself, do you, Mr.
Keegan? Faix, and a fine estated gintleman you'd make, any how!"
"Well now; you'll repent the day you made yourself such a fool.
However, good morning, Mr. Macdermot--good morning; I'll tell them
down at Carrick, to keep a warm corner for you in the lane there,
where them old beggars sleep at night!"
"Kick him out, Thady: kick him out, will ye?--Have ye none of the
owld blood left round your heart, that you'll not kick him out of the
house, for a pettifogging schaming blackguard!" and Larry got up as
though he meant to have a kick at the attorney himself.
"Be asy, father, and let him go of himself; he'll go fast enough now.
Sit down awhile; sit down till I come back," and Thady followed the
attorney down the steps on to the gravel road.
"You'll see, my boy," said Keegan--and now the benevolent attorney
had altogether lost his smile,--"you'll see, my boy, whether I won't
make the two of you pay for this; ay! and the whole family too, for
a set of proud, beggarly, starved-out paupers. By G----, I'll sell
every rotten stick of old furniture left in the house, on the 6th
of next month; and the three of you shall be tramping in the roads
before the winter's over!"
"You're worse than the old man with your passion, Mr. Keegan," said
Thady; "ten times worse; you know I did what I could to advise him;
and even now, if you'll lave him to me, I'll bring him round."
"Be d----d to you with your bringing round! I'll have no more to do
with the pack of you."
"Would you go to remember the passionate words of an owld man that's
lost his senses, Mr. Keegan? for shame on you. If you'll stick to the
offer you made before, I'll bring the old man round yet."
"I tell you I'll do no such thing, Master Thady; but root and branch
I'll have you out of that, and that right soon; a pack of beggars
like you! What right have you to be keeping a respectable man out of
his money?"
"Respictable indeed! very respictable!--Look at the house, Mr.
Keegan, for which you want to take the whole property,--tumbling down
already; and you call that respictable! And to be threatening to be
dhriving an owld man, past his senses, out of his house for a few
foolish words; and a poor innocent defenceless girl too!" Thady
himself was beginning to get in a passion now,--"And since you will
have it, the owld man was not far wrong, for it is robbers you are,
both of you, and that's your respictability!"
"Robbers are we? and what are you and your innocent sister? You know,
Thady, she can go to Ussher; he says he'll keep her. She won't be a
huckster's wife, you say? better that than a captain's misthress, as
all agree she is now."
As Keegan said this, he seemed to expect that he would be answered
by some personal violence. The two were together, standing at the
end of the avenue, all but on the public road. Keegan had a stout
walking-stick in his hand, and he walked out into the road as he said
the last words, turning round as he did so, so as to face Thady.
The young man stood still for a second or two, as if the meaning of
the words had hardly reached him, and then rushed at the attorney
with his clenched fist; but the man of law was too quick for him, for
striking out with his stick, he cried,
"By the Lord of heaven, if you come nearer I'll brain you!" and, as
the young man endeavoured to get within the sweep of the stick, he
received a blow on the arm and elbow, which, for the moment, disabled
him; and the pain was so sharp, as to prevent him from any further
immediate attack.
"Mr. Keegan, by the living Lord, this day's work shall cost you
dear!" and then, indulging that ready profuseness of threats in which
the less educated of his countrymen are so prone to indulge, he
returned within the gateway of the avenue, and proceeded a short way
towards the house. Here he reached a felled tree, lying somewhat
across the path, on which he sat down; for he felt that he could not
go to the house before he had considered, in his sad heart, what he
would say there, and how he would say it.
Keegan, when he found that his antagonist, like a dog cowed by a
blow, was not inclined to come again to the fight, turned on his
heel, and walked back to the place where he had left his horse.
For some time Thady did not recover from the immediate sharp pain
arising from the blow, and during these minutes firm determinations
of signal vengeance filled his imagination, damped by no thought of
the punishment to which he might thereby be subjecting himself. But
the luxury of these resolves--for they had a certain luxury--was
soon banished by the thoughts that crowded on his mind, when pain
gave him liberty to think. Firstly, his own impotence with regard to
retaliating on Keegan; secondly, the horrid charge brought against
Feemy, and the conviction that the scurrility of it would not
have occurred to Keegan had it not previously been rumoured or
suggested by others; and the dreadful doubt--for it was dreadful
to Thady--whether there could be any grounds for it: then the
recollection of their defenceless state--the certainty that Flannelly
would take every legal step against them, and that Keegan's threat,
that they should be turned out to wander through the roads, would be
realized:--all these things forced themselves on his recollection,
and he could not go up to the house. He could not meet his father,
and tell him that, between them, they had destroyed all hopes of
conciliation; that they must wander forth as beggars, to starve. He
could not ask counsel from Feemy; his inability to protect her made
him averse to see her.
In his misery, and half broken-hearted as he was, he all but made
up his mind to join the boys, who, he knew, were meeting with some
secret plans for proposed deliverance from their superiors. Better,
at any rate, join them now, thought he, than be driven to do it when
he was no better than them--as would soon be the case; and, if he was
to perish, better first strike a blow at those who had pressed him so
low! And then it occurred to him that, at any rate, he would first go
to his only good counsellor; and he accordingly retraced his steps to
the bottom of the avenue, resolved, if he could find him, to tell all
his new sorrow to Father John.