"I don't think it very likely: they are all country families, except a few refreshers from the garrison at Newry and Dundalk."
"Pretty much the same sort of thing you 'd find in an English country-house. There 's some not very good shooting. They make riding-parties. They have archery when it's fine, and billiards when it rains; but they always dine very well at seven, that much I can promise you."
"Not such a cook as your father's, Lyle, I 'm certain."
"Perhaps not," said Mark, evidently flattered by the compliment. "But the cellar here is unequalled. Do you know that in the mere shadowy possibility of being one day her heir, I groan every time I see that glorious Madeira placed on the table before a set of fellows that smack their lips and say, 'It's good sherry, but a trifle too sweet for my taste.'"
"And this same heritage,--how do the chances look?"
"I shall want your power of penetration to say that. One day the old woman will take me aside and consult me about fifty things; and the next she'll say, 'Perhaps we'd better make no changes, Mark. Heaven knows what ideas they may have who 'll come after me.' She drives me half distracted with these capricious turns."
"I 'd not care so much if I thought it was to fall to Bella; though, to be sure, no good-looking girl needs such a fortune as this. Do you know that the timber thrown down by the late gales is worth eight thousand pounds? and Harris the steward tells me it's not one fourth of what ought to be felled for the sake of the young wood."
"And she has the whole and sole disposal of all this?"
"Every stick of it, and some six thousand acres besides!"
"I 'd marry her if I were you. I declare I would."
"Amram married his aunt, and I never heard that she had such a dower; not to say that the relationship in the present case is only a myth."
"Please to remember that she is about thirty years older than my mother."
"I bear it most fully in mind, and I scout the vulgar impertinences of those who ridicule these marriages. I think there is something actually touching in the watchful care and solicitude of a youthful husband for the venerable object of his affections."
"Well, you shall not point the moral by my case, I promise you," said Mark, angrily.