"You'll not be a widow for many a day, and 'tis your husband's name brings the luck."
"You don't know what his name is. You couldn't If you'll tell me his name, I'll engage to believe any mortal thing you tell me."
So the three looked at the old woman; but she took another look at the hand as she might be reading a book, and:--
"Good-day to you, Mrs Gunning, and good-day to his Lordship's daughter,--my Lord Mayo,--and good-day to the mother of the two beauties that'll sweep the world."
And she clucked and chuckled to herself, highly diverted with their astonishment. How did she know it? What that old woman did not know would make but a short story. 'T was said she had informants over the whole countryside, like a Minister of the Crown.
They stared, for they were new come to Dublin, running from their debts in Roscommon and taking the chance to pick up husbands in the city, and there was not one there who knew them.
So she took the youngest girl's hand in hers and says she:--
"You'll marry the highest man, bar one or two, in England. And you'll not be content with that; for when you bury him, you'll marry the highest man in Scotland; and if I sat here till tomorrow, I couldn't tell you the half of the riches and glory that's waiting for you. You'll have to crawl through the black mud to get the first; but after that 'tis a clear course, and the mud won't stick to a duchess's gown, young Miss Elizabeth Gunning!"
A duchess! Elizabeth's eyes were like winter stars, they so sparkled--they would put out the light of diamonds. She held herself like a young poplar and says she:--
"And if you're right, old woman, or anything like it, I'll come and see you when I get promotion, and my Lord Duke shall fill your pockets with gold."