LEEN. But maybe they were starving.

STEWARD. That is certain.
To rob or starve, that was the choice they had.

CATHLEEN. A learned theologian has laid down
That starving men may take what's necessary,
And yet be sinless.

OONA. Sinless and a thief
There should be broken bottles on the wall.

CATHLEEN. And if it be a sin, while faith's unbroken
God cannot help but pardon. There is no soul
But it's unlike all others in the world,
Nor one but lifts a strangeness to God's love
Till that's grown infinite, and therefore none
Whose loss were less than irremediable
Although it were the wickedest in the world.

(Enter TEIG and SHEMUS.)

STEWARD. What are you running for? Pull off your cap,
Do you not see who's there?

SHEMUS. I cannot wait.
I am running to the world with the best news
That has been brought it for a thousand years.

STEWARD. Then get your breath and speak.

SHEMUS. If you'd my news
You'd run as fast and be as out of breath.

TEIG. Such news, we shall be carried on men's shoulders.

SHEMUS. There's something every man has carried with him
And thought no more about than if it were
A mouthful of the wind; and now it's grown
A marketable thing!

TEIG. And yet it seemed
As useless as the paring of one's nails.

SHEMUS. What sets me laughing when I think of it,
Is that a rogue who's lain in lousy straw,
If he but sell it, may set up his coach.

TEIG. (laughing) There are two gentlemen who buy men's souls.

CATHLEEN. O God!

TEIG. And maybe there's no soul at all.

STEWARD. They're drunk or mad.

TEIG. Look at the price they give. (Showing money.)

SHEMUS. (tossing up money)
"Go cry it all about the world," they said.
"Money for souls, good money for a soul."

CATHLEEN. Give twice and thrice and twenty times their money,
And get your souls again. I will pay all.

SHEMUS. Not we! not we! For souls--if there are souls--
But keep the flesh out of its merriment.
I shall be drunk and merry.

TEIG. Come, let's away.

(He goes.)

CATHLEEN. But there's a world to come.

SHEMUS. And if there is,
I'd rather trust myself into the hands
That can pay money down than to the hands
That have but shaken famine from the bag.

(He goes Out R.)

(lilting) "There's money for a soul, sweet yellow money.
There's money for men's souls, good money, money."

CATHLEEN. (to ALEEL) Go call them here again, bring them by
force, Beseech them, bribe, do anything you like.

(ALEEL goes.)

And you