t, for stopping this horrid marriage, and
making his sister obedient to his wishes. "Confound her," he said,
almost aloud, as he thought, with bitter vexation of spirit, of her
unincumbered moiety of the property, "confound them all!" grinding his
teeth, and meaning by the "all" to include with Anty his father, and
every one who might have assisted his father in making the odious will,
as well as his own attorney in Tuam, who wouldn't find out some legal
expedient by which he could set it aside. And then, as he thought of
the shameful persecution of which he was the victim, he kicked the
fender with impotent violence, and, as the noise of the falling fire
irons added to his passion, he reiterated his kicks till the
unoffending piece of furniture was smashed; and then with manly
indignation he turned away to the window.

But breaking the furniture, though it was what the widow predicted of
him, wouldn't in any way mend matters, or assist him in getting out of
his difficulties. What was he to do? He couldn't live on L200 a-year;
he couldn't remain in Dunmore, to be known by every one as Martin
Kelly's brother-in-law; he couldn't endure the thoughts of dividing the
property with such "a low-born huxtering blackguard", as he called him
over and over again. He couldn't stay there, to be beaten by him in the
course of legal proceedings, or to give him up amicable possession of
what ought to have been--what should have been his--what he looked
upon as his own. He came back, and sat down again over the fire,
contemplating the debris of the fender, and turning all these miserable
circumstances over in his mind. After remaining there till five
o'clock, and having fortified himself with sundry glasses of wine, he
formed his resolution. He would make one struggle more; he would first
go down to the widow, and claim his sister, as a poor simple young
woman, inveigled away from her natural guardian; and, if this were
unsuccessful, as he felt pretty sure it would be, he would take
proceedings to prove her a lunatic. If he failed, he might still delay,
and finally put off the marriage; and he was sure he could get some
attorney to put him in the way of doing it, and to undertake the work
for him. His late father's attorney had been a fool, in not breaking
the will, or at any rate trying it, and he would go to Daly. Young
Daly, he knew, was a sharp fellow, and wanted practice, and this would
just suit him. And then, if at last he found