went in for the school. Now Matt Cosgar may keep her
from the school. Maybe we won't have to go further than this house
to see Ellen.

MARTIN DOURAS
I'm hoping it'll be like that; but I'm in dread that
Murtagh Cosgar will never agree to it. He's a hard man to deal with.
Still Murtagh and myself will be on the long road to-night, and we
might talk of it. I'm afeard of Ellen going.

CORNELIUS
_(at the door)_ It's herself that's coming here, father.

MARTIN DOURAS
Maybe she has heard the news and is coming to tell us.

_Ellen comes in. She has a shawl over her head which she lays aside.
She is about twenty-five, slightly built, nervous, emotional_.

ELLEN
Is it only ourselves that's here?

MARTIN DOURAS
Only ourselves. Did you get any news to bring you over, Ellen?

ELLEN
No news. It was the shine of the day that brought me out; and
I was thinking, too, of the girls that are going to America in the
morning, and that made me restless.

_Martin and Cornelius look significantly at each other_.

MARTIN DOURAS
And did you see Matt, Ellen?

ELLEN
He was in the field and I coming up; but I did not wait for him,
as I don't want people to see us together. _(Restlessly)_ I don't
know how I can come into this house, for it's always like Murtagh
Cosgar. There's nothing of Matt in it at all. If Matt would come away.
There are little labourers' houses by the side of the road. Many's
the farmer's son became a labourer for the sake of a woman he cared
for!

CORNELIUS
And are you not thinking about the school at all, Ellen?

ELLEN
I'll hear about it some time, I suppose.

MARTIN DOURAS
You're right to take it that way, Ellen. School doesn't mean
scholarship now. Many's the time I'm telling Cornelius that a
man farming the land, with a few books on his shelf and a few
books in his head, has more of the scholar's life about him than the
young fellows who do be teaching in schools and teaching in colleges.

CORNELIUS
That's all very well, father. School and scholarship isn't
the one. But think of the word "Constantinople!" I could leave off
herding and digging every time I think on that word!

MARTIN DOURAS
Ah, it's a great word. A word like that would make you
think for days. And there are many words like that.

ELLEN
It's not so much the long words that we've to learn and teach
now. When will you be home, father? Will Cornelius be with you?

MARTIN DOURAS
Ellen, I have news for you. There is a school