"Faix then I forgot about that;" and he put his hand into his pocket and forked out half-a-crown, which, with a sheepish look, he put in the plate.
"Half-a-crown, indeed, for a tradesman like you! There's Corney Dolan there, who don't seem to have a coat that fits him too well, would do more for his wife, if it was God's pleasure he was to have one this night."
"Well, there;" and Denis put down another half-crown. This money, which is always put down just before the marriage, is a bridal present to the bride, and becomes her exclusive property.
"Well, Mary, you must be getting the rest of it from him another time."
"Let her alone for that, yer riverence," said Corney Dolan—who considered that Father John's allusion to his coat privileged him to put in his joke—"let her alone for that; she knows how to be getting the halfpence, and to hoult them too."
"It's a great deal you're knowing about it, I'm thinking, Mr. Dolan," retorted Denis; "it's a pity you couldn't keep the hoult of any yerself."
"Wisht, boys! how am I to marry you at all, if you go on this way? Come, Mary, off with that glove of yours; now for the ring, Denis:" and Mary hauled away at the glove, which the heat of her hand prevented her from pulling off.
"Drat it for a glove, then!"
"Ah, alanna, gloves come so nathural to your purty hand, they don't like to lave it at all."
At last, however, Mary got her hands ready for action; the ring was in the plate with the two half-crowns; Father John was standing between the two matrimonial aspirants; Ussher and Feemy were close behind Mary, and Brady was sitting down on the right hand of Denis; and the priest opened his book and began.