“Anty, here’s a letter for ye,”
began the widow. “Terry’s brought
it down from the house, and says it’s from Misther
Barry. I b’lieve he was in the right not
to bring it hisself.”
“A letther for me, Mrs Kelly? what can he be
writing about? I don’t just know whether
I ought to open it or no;” and Anty trembled,
as she turned the epistle over and over again in her
hands.
“What for would you not open it? The letther
can’t hurt you, girl, whatever the writher might
do.”
Thus encouraged, Anty broke the seal, and made herself
acquainted with the contents of the letter which Daly
had dictated; but she then found that her difficulties
had only just commenced. Was she to send an answer,
and if so, what answer? And if she sent none,
what notice ought she to take of it? The matter
was one evidently too weighty to be settled by her
own judgment, so she handed the letter to be read,
first by the widow, and then by Martin, and lastly
by the two girls, who, by this time, were both in
the room.
“Well, the dethermined impudence of that blackguard!”
exclaimed Mrs Kelly. “Conspiracy!—av’
that don’t bang Banagher! What does the
man mean by ‘conspiracy,’ eh, Martin?”
“Faith, you must ask himself that, mother; and
then it’s ten to one he can’t tell you.”
“I suppose,” said Meg, “he wants
to say that we’re all schaming to rob Anty of
her money—only he daren’t, for the
life of him, spake it out straight forrard.”
“Or, maybe,” suggested Jane, “he
wants to bring something agen us like this affair
of O’Connell’s—only he’ll
find, down here, that he an’t got Dublin soft
goods to deal wid.”
Then followed a consultation, as to the proper steps
to be taken in the matter.
The widow advised that father Geoghegan should be
sent for to indite such a reply as a Christian ill-used
woman should send to so base a letter. Meg, who
was very hot on the subject, and who had read of some
such proceeding in a novel, was for putting up in a
blank envelope the letter itself, and returning it
to Barry by the hands of Jack, the ostler; at the
same time, she declared that “No surrender”
should be her motto. Jane was of opinion that
“Miss Anastasia Lynch’s compliments to
Mr Barry Lynch, and she didn’t find herself strong
enough to move to Dunmore House at present,”
would answer all purposes, and be, on the whole, the
safest course. While Martin pronounced that “if
Anty would be led by him, she’d just pitch the
letter behind the fire an’ take no notice of
it, good, bad, or indifferent.”
None of these plans pleased Anty, for, as she remarked,
“After all, Barry was her brother, and blood
was thickher than wather.” So, after much
consultation, pen, ink, and paper were procured, and
the following letter was concocted between them, all
the soft bits having been great stumbling-blocks,
in which, however, Anty’s quiet perseverance
carried the point, in opposition to the wishes of
all the Kellys. The words put in brackets were
those peculiarly objected to.
