'Julia will never cross my doorway unless you give her L80.'
Julia said never a word, she just sat there listening, and it was then
that the priest came in. He listened for awhile, and then he went over
to Julia and said, 'Are you not proud to hear that you will have such a
fine fortune?' And he said, 'I shall be glad to see you married. I
would marry you for nothing, for I cannot have any more of your
goings-on in my parish. 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.' Julia tossed her head,
and her father got frightened. He promised the priest that she should
walk no more with the young men in the evenings, for he thought he
could keep her at home; but he might just as well have promised the
priest to tie up the winds. Julia was out the same