"'Better an' better.'

"'I shall whack 'ee.'

"'I don't care.'

"'I shall kick an' cuff an' flog 'ee like a span'el dog,' says he:
'by my body! I shall make 'ee repent.'

"'Give 'ee leave to try,' says she.

"An' that's how th' Earl o' Bellarmine courted his wife. He took her
into the bar an' treated her to a bottle o' gin on the spot. At nine
o'clock that evenin' she tuk hold of his stirrup-leather an' walked
beside 'en, afoot, up to Castle Cannick. Next day, their banns were
axed in church, an' in dree weeks she was My Ladyship.

"'Twas a battle-royal that began then. Ould Wounds dressed the woman
up to the nines, an' forced all the bettermost folk i' the county to
pay their calls an' treat her like one o' the blood; and then, when
the proud guests stepped into their chariots an' druv away, he'd fall
to, an' lick her across the shoulders wi' his ridin'-whip, to break
her sperrit. 'Twas the happiest while o' th' ould curmudgeon's life,
I do b'lieve; for he'd found summat he cudn' tame in a hurry.
There was a noble pond afore the house, i' those days, wi' urns an'
heathen gods around the brim, an' twice he dragged her through it in
her night-gown, I've heerd, an' always dined wi' a pistol laid by his
plate, alongside the knives an' prongs, to scare her. But not she!

"An' next he tried to burn her in her bed: an' that wasn' no good.