The Kellys and the O'Kellys Part 31

"I believe, Mr Lynch," said Daly, turning to the other, "I may go so far as to promise Mr Moylan the agency of the whole property, provided Miss Lynch is induced to quit the house of the Kellys? Of course, Mr Moylan, you can see that as long as Miss Lynch is in a position of unfortunate hostility to her brother, the same agent could not act for both; but I think my client is inclined to put his property under your management, providing his sister returns to her own home. I believe I'm stating your wishes, Mr Lynch."

"Manage it your own way," said Barry, "for I don't see what you're doing. If this man can do anything for me, why, I suppose I must pay him for it; and if so, your plan's as good a way of paying him as another."

The attorney raised his hat with his hand, and scratched his head: he was afraid that Moylan would have again gone off in a pet at Lynch's brutality, but the old man sat quite quiet. He wouldn't have much minded what was said to him, as long as he secured the agency.

"You see, Mr Moylan," continued Daly, "you can have the agency. Five per cent. upon the rents is what my client--"

"No, Daly--Five per cent.!--I'm shot if I do!" exclaimed Barry.

"I'm gething twenty-five pounds per annum from Miss Anty, for her half, and I wouldn't think of collecting the other for less," declared Moylan.

And then a long battle followed on this point, which it required all Daly's tact and perseverance to adjust. The old man was pertinacious, and many whispers had to be made into Barry's ear before the matter could be settled. It was, however, at last agreed that notice was to be served on the Kellys, of Barry Lynch's determination to indict them for a conspiracy; that Daly was to see the widow, Martin, and, if possible, Anty, and tell them all that Moylan was prepared to prove that such a conspiracy had been formed;--care was also to be taken that copies of the notices so served should be placed in Anty's hands. Moylan, in the meantime, agreed to keep out of the way, and undertook, should he be unfortunate enough to encounter any of the family of the Kellys, to brave the matter out by declaring that "av' he war brought before the Judge and Jury he couldn't do more than tell the blessed thruth, and why not?" In reward for this, he was to be appointed agent over the entire property the moment that Miss Lynch left the inn, at which time he was to receive a doc.u.ment, signed by Barry, undertaking to retain him in the agency for four years certain, or else to pay him a hundred pounds when it was taken from him.

These terms having been mutually agreed to, and Barry having, with many oaths, declared that he was a most shamefully ill-used man, the three separated. Moylan skulked off to one of his haunts in the town; Barry went to the bank, to endeavour to get a bill discounted [30]; and Daly returned to his office, to prepare the notices for the unfortunate widow and her son.

[FOOTNOTE 30: bill discounted--A common way for young men to borrow money in nineteenth century Britain was to sign a promissory note (an "I.O.U."), often called a "bill," to repay the loan at a specified time. The lender gave the borrower less than the face value of the note (that is, he "discounted" the note), the difference being the interest. Sometimes these notes were co-signed by a third party, who became responsible for repaying the loan if the borrower defaulted; this is one of the major themes in Trollope's later book _Framley Parsonage_. Trollope himself was quite familiar with methods of borrowing, having gotten into debt in his youth.]

XIX. MR DALY VISITS THE DUNMORE INN

Daly let no gra.s.s grow under his feet, for early on the following morning he hired a car, and proceeded to Dunmore, with the notices in his pocket. His feelings were not very comfortable on his journey, for he knew that he was going on a bad errand, and he was not naturally either a heartless or an unscrupulous man, considering that he was a provincial attorney; but he was young in business, and poor, and he could not afford to give up a client. He endeavoured to persuade himself that it certainly was a wrong thing for Martin Kelly to marry such a woman as Anty Lynch, and that Barry had some show of justice on his side; but he could not succeed. He knew that Martin was a frank, honourable fellow, and that a marriage with him would be the very thing most likely to make Anty happy; and he was certain, moreover, that, however anxious Martin might naturally be to secure the fortune, he would take no illegal or even unfair steps to do so. He felt that his client was a ruffian of the deepest die: that his sole object was to rob his sister, and that he had no case which it would be possible even to bring before a jury. His intention now was, merely to work upon the timidity and ignorance of Anty and the other females, and to frighten them with a bugbear in the shape of a criminal indictment; and Daly felt that the work he was about was very, very dirty work. Two or three times on the road, he had all but made up his mind to tear the letters he had in his pocket, and to drive at once to Dunmore House, and tell Barry Lynch that he would do nothing further in the case. And he would have done so, had he not reflected that he had gone so far with Moylan, that he could not recede, without leaving it in the old rogue's power to make the whole matter public.

As he drove down the street of Dunmore, he endeavoured to quiet his conscience, by reflecting that he might still do much to guard Anty from the ill effects of her brother's rapacity; and that at any rate he would not see her property taken from her, though she might be frightened out of her matrimonial speculation.

He wanted to see the widow, Martin, and Anty, and if possible to see them, at first, separately; and fortune so far favoured him that, as he got off the car, he saw our hero standing at the inn door.

"Ah! Mr Daly," said he, coming up to the car and shaking hands with the attorney, for Daly put out his hand to him--"how are you again?--I suppose you're going up to the house? They say you're Barry's right hand man now. Were you coming into the inn?"

"Why, I will step in just this minute; but I've a word I want to spake to you first."

"To me!" said Martin.

"Yes, to you, Martin Kelly: isn't that quare?" and then he gave directions to the driver to put up the horse, and bring the car round again in an hour's time. "D' you remember my telling you, the day we came into Dunmore on the car together, that I was going up to the house?"

"Faith I do, well; it's not so long since."

"And do you mind my telling you, I didn't know from Adam what it was for, that Barry Lynch was sending for me?"

"And I remember that, too."

"And that I tould you, that when I did know I shouldn't tell you?"

"Begad you did, Mr Daly; thim very words."

"Why then, Martin, I tould you what wasn't thrue, for I'm come all the way from Tuam, this minute, to tell you all about it."

Martin turned very red, for he rightly conceived that when an attorney came all the way from Tuam to talk to him, the tidings were not likely to be agreeable.

"And is it about Barry Lynch's business?"

"It is."

"Then it's schames there's divil a doubt of that."

"It is schames, as you say, Martin," said Daly, slapping him on the shoulder--"fine schames--no less than a wife with four hundred a-year!

Wouldn't that be a fine schame?"

"'Deed it would, Mr Daly, av' the wife and the fortune were honestly come by."

"And isn't it a hundred pities that I must come and upset such a pretty schame as that? But, for all that, it's thrue. I'm sorry for you, Martin, but you must give up Anty Lynch."

"Give her up, is it? Faith I haven't got her to give up, worse luck."

"Nor never will, Martin; and that's worse luck again."

"Well, Mr Daly, av' that's all you've come to say, you might have saved yourself car-hire. Miss Lynch is nothing to me, mind; how should she be? But av' she war, neither Barry Lynch--who's as big a rogue as there is from this to hisself and back again--nor you, who, I take it, ain't rogue enough to do Barry's work, wouldn't put me off it."

"Well, Martin; thank 'ee for the compliment. But now, you know what I've come about, and there's no joke in it. Of course I don't want you to tell me anything of your plans; but, as Mr Lynch's lawyer, I must tell you so much as this of his:--that, if his sister doesn't lave the inn, and honestly a.s.sure him that she'll give up her intention of marrying you, he's determined to take proceedings." He then fumbled in his pocket, and, bringing out the two notices, handed to Martin the one addressed to him. "Read that, and it'll give you an idea what we're afther. And when I tell you that Moylan owns, and will swear to it too, that he was present when all the plans were made, you'll see that we're not going to sea without wind in our sails."

"Well--I'm shot av' I know the laist in the world what all this is about!" said Martin, as he stood in the street, reading over the legally-worded letter--"'conspiracy!'--well that'll do, Mr Daly; go on--'enticing away from her home!'--that's good, when the blackguard nearly knocked the life out of her, and mother brought her down here, from downright charity, and to prevent murdher--'wake intellects!'--well, Mr Daly, I didn't expect this kind of thing from you: begorra, I thought you were above this!--wake intellects! faith, they're a dale too sthrong, and too good--and too wide awake too, for Barry to get the betther of her that way. Not that I'm in the laist in life surprised at anything he'd do; but I thought that you, Mr Daly, wouldn't put your hands to such work as that."

Daly felt the rebuke, and felt it strongly, too; but now that he was embarked in the business, he must put the best face he could upon it.

Still it was a moment or two before he could answer the young farmer.

"Why," he said--"why did you put your hands to such a dirty job as this, Martin?--you were doing well, and not in want--and how could you let anyone persuade you to go and sell yourself to, an ugly ould maid, for a few hundred pounds? Don't you know, that if you were married to her this minute, you'd have a lawsuit that'd go near to ruin you before you could get possession of the property?"

"Av' I'm in want of legal advice, Mr Daly, which thank G.o.d, I'm not, nor likely to be--but av' I war, it's not from Barry Lynch's attorney I'd be looking for it."

"I'd be sorry to see you in want of it, Martin; but if you mane to keep out of the worst kind of law, you'd better have done with Anty Lynch.

I'd a dale sooner be drawing up a marriage settlement between you and some pretty girl with five or six hundred pound fortune, than I'd be exposing to the counthry such a mane trick as this you're now afther, of seducing a poor half-witted ould maid, like Anty Lynch, into a disgraceful marriage."

"Look here, Mr Daly," said the other; "you've hired yourself out to Barry Lynch, and you must do his work, I suppose, whether it's dirthy or clane; and you know yourself, as well as I can tell you, which it's likely to be--"

"That's my concern; lave that to me; you've quite enough to do to mind yourself."

"But av' he's nothing betther for you to do, than to send you here bally-ragging and calling folks out of their name, he must have a sight more money to spare than I give him credit for; and you must be a dale worse off than your neighbours thought you, to do it for him."

"That'll do," said Mr Daly, knocking at the door of the inn; "only, remember, Mr Kelly, you've now received notice of the steps which my client feels himself called upon to take."

Martin turned to go away, but then, reflecting that it would be as well not to leave the women by themselves in the power of the enemy, he also waited at the door till it was opened by Katty.

"Is Miss Lynch within?" asked Daly.

"Go round to the shop, Katty," said Martin, "and tell mother to come to the door. There's a gentleman wanting her."