rom them. They should be
like--

MARTIN DOURAS
There's nothing in the world like men with their
rearing gone from them, and they old.

_Sally comes to the door. She enters stealthily._

MURTAGH COSGAR
Ha, here's one of the clutch home. Well, did you see
that brother of yours?

SALLY
I did. He'll be home soon, father.

MURTAGH COSGAR
What's that you say? Were you talking to him? Did he
say he'd be home?

SALLY
I heard him say it, father.

MARTIN DOURAS
God bless you for the news, Sally.

MURTAGH COSGAR
How could he go and he the last of them? Sure it
would be against nature. Where did you see him, Sally?

SALLY
At Martin Douras's, father.

MURTAGH COSGAR
It's that Ellen Douras that's putting him up to all
this. Don't you be said by her, Sally.

SALLY
No, father.

MURTAGH COSGAR
You're a good girl, and if you haven't wit, you have
sense. He'll be home soon, did you say?

SALLY
He was coming home. He went round the long way, I'm thinking.
Ellen Douras was vexed with him, father. She isn't going either,
Matt says, but I'm thinking that you might as well try to keep a
corncrake in the meadow for a whole winter, as to try to keep Ellen
Douras in Aughnalee.

MURTAGH COSGAR
Make the place tidy for him to come into. He'll have
no harsh words from me. _(He goes up to the room)_

SALLY
Father's surely getting ould.

MARTIN DOURAS
_(sitting down)_ He's gone up to rest himself, God
help him. Sally, _a stor_, I'm that fluttered, I dread going into my
own house.

SALLY
I'll get ready now, and let you have a good supper before you
go to the fair.

MARTIN DOURAS
Sit down near me, and let me hear everything, Sally.
Was it Matt that told you, or were you talking to Ellen herself?

SALLY
O, indeed, I had a talk with Ellen, but she won't give much of
her mind away. It was Matt that was telling me. "Indeed she's not
going," said he, "and a smart young fellow like myself thinking of
her. Ellen is too full of notions." Here's Matt himself. Father
won't have a word to say to him. He's getting mild as he's getting
ould, and maybe it's a fortune he'll be leaving to myself.

_Matt comes to the door. He enters_.

MATT
Where is he? He's not gone to the fair so early?

SALLY
He's in the room.

MATT
Were you talking to him at all? Were you telling him you saw
myself?

SALLY
I was telling him that you were coming back.

MATT
How did he take it?

SALLY
Very quiet. God help us all; I think