Fanny openly resists the Cashel family’s attempt to marry her to Lord Kilcullen and makes clear that her love remains with Lord Ballindine, while Kilcullen fails in his courtship and the obstacles separating the former lovers begin to disappear, and when Doctor Colligan finally reveals Barry Lynch’s dreadful proposal Barry loses his last hope of controlling Anty’s fortune and leaves Dunmore while Anty recovers and chooses to marry Martin, so that Fanny and Ballindine are also reconciled and marry at last and the novel brings its two parallel love stories to a close by allowing personal choice and genuine affection to overcome the calculations of inheritance, money, and social rank.