The priest consented to this, although Peter conceded it with great reluctance.  Further preliminaries were agreed upon, and the evening passed pleasantly, until it became necessary for Mr. Mulcahy to bid them good-night.

When they were gone, Peter and Ellish talked over the matter between themselves in the following dialogue: 

“The fortune’s a small one,” said Ellish to her husband; “an’ I suppose you wondher that I consinted to take so little.”

“Sure enough, I wondhered at it,” replied Peter, “but, for my own part, I’d give my son to her widout a penny o’ fortune, in ordher to be connected wid the priest; an’ besides, she’s a fine, handsome, good girl—­ay, an’ his fill of a wife, if she had but the shift to her back.”

“Four hundhre wid a priest’s niece, Pether, is before double the money wid any other.  Don’t you know, that when they set up for themselves, he can bring the custom of the whole parish to them?  It’s unknown the number o’ ways he can sarve them in.  Sure, at stations an’ weddins, wakes, marriages, and funerals, they’ll all be proud to let the priest know that they purchased whatever they wanted from his niece an’ her husband.  Betther!—­faix, four hundhre from him is worth three times as much from another.”

“Glory to you, Ellish!—­bright an’ cute for ever!  Why, I’d back you for a woman’ that could buy an’ sell Europe, aginst the world.  Now, isn’t it odd that I never think of these long-headed skames?”

“Ay do you, often enough, Pether; but you keep them to yourself, abouchal.”

“Faith, I’m close, no doubt of it; an’—­but there’s no use in sayin’ any more about it—­you said whatsomever came into my own head consarnin’ it.  Faith, you did, you phanix.”

In a short time the marriage took place.

Dan, under the advice of his mother, purchased a piece of ground most advantageously located, as the site of a mill, whereon an excellent one was built; and as a good mill had been long a desideratum in the country, his success was far beyond his expectations.  Every speculation, in fact, which Ellish touched, prospered.  Fortune seemed to take delight, either in accomplishing or anticipating her wishes.  At least, such was the general opinion, although nothing could possibly be more erroneous than to attribute her success to mere chance.  The secret of all might be ascribed to her good sense, and her exact knowledge of the precise moment when to take the tide of fortune at its flow.  Her son, in addition to the mill, opened an extensive mercantile establishment in the next town, where he had ample cause to bless the instructions of his mother, and her foresight in calculating upon the advantage of being married to the priest’s niece.