Why he said that, is hard to know! Of course he must have had some notion of the way it was with the Caffreys, he living so long in the place. Still, it was always hard to tell what Mickey knew or did not know! And he may have been trying to make out to himself that he really thought he was making a good match for Julia.
“I never got the land measured,” said Peetcheen. You would think he was humouring the thing. “I never got it measured; but there’s no rent to be paid.”
Measured indeed! and rent to be paid, and for what? A bare patch of weeds by the roadside that would not be enough to sod a lark!
Heffernan smoked on, and then Peetcheen began questioning in his turn, “How much are you offering, with the two heifers?”
In fact, the boy did not know if he was standing on his head or his heels! To hear himself being bid up in marriage like that! And for a wife with a fortune of her own!
“Thirty pound!” said Heffernan.
“Forty!” said Peetcheen, very determined.
“Thirty and no more!”
“Forty and no less!”
Well, in the long run, they split the difference between them, and settled the business then and there. Heffernan wrote off to the sister, telling her that he was as good as married himself and that he had a fine match made up for her, too; and she was to make no delay, for fear the boy might change his mind, and go off without waiting to see her.