You're the beginning of the dancing and courting here; the
ball-alley, too--I am going to put all that down.' Julia did not
answer a single word to him, and he went over to them that were
disputing about the L80, and he said, 'Now, why not make it L75,'
and the father agreed to that, since the priest said it, and the
three men thought the marriage was settled. And Father Tom thought
that he would get not less than L10 for the marrying of her. They
did not even think to ask her, and little did they think what she
was going to say, and what she said was that she would not marry
any one until it pleased herself, and that she would pick a man
out of this parish or out of the next that pleased her. Her
husband should marry her, and not so many pounds to be paid when
they signed the book or when the first baby was born. This is how
marriages are settled now. Well, sir, the priest went wild when he
heard Julia speak like this; he had only just come to the parish,
and did not know how self-minded Julia was. Her father did,
though, and he said nothing; he let Julia and the priest fight it
out, and he said to the man who had come to marry her, 'My good
man, you can go your way; you will never get her, I can tell
that.' And the priest was heard saying, 'Do you think I am going
to let you go on turning the head of every boy in the parish? Do
you think I am going to see fighting and quarrelling for you? Do
you think I am going to see you first with one boy and then with
the other? Do you think I am going to hear stories like I heard
last week about poor Peter Carey, who they say, has gone out of
his mind on account of your treatment? No,' he said, 'I will have
no more of you; I will have you out of my parish, or I will have
you married.
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