ward her. CHRIS rushes forward with a cry of alarm,
trying to ward off the blow from his daughter. ANNA looks up into
BURKE'S eyes with the fearlessness of despair. BURKE checks himself,
the chair held in the air.]

CHRIS--[Wildly.] Stop, you crazy fool! You vant for murder her!

ANNA--[Pushing her father away brusquely, her eyes still holding
BURKE'S.] Keep out of this, you! [To BURKE--dully.] Well, ain't you got
the nerve to do it? Go ahead! I'll be thankful to you, honest. I'm sick
of the whole game.

BURKE--[Throwing the chair away into a corner of the room--helplessly.]
I can't do it, God help me, and your two eyes looking at me.
[Furiously.] Though I do be thinking I'd have a good right to smash
your skull like a rotten egg. Was there iver a woman in the world had
the rottenness in her that you have, and was there iver a man the like
of me was made the fool of the world, and me thinking thoughts about
you, and having great love for you, and dreaming dreams of the fine
life we'd have when we'd be wedded! [His voice high pitched in a
lamentation that is like a keen]. Yerra, God help me! I'm destroyed
entirely and my heart is broken in bits! I'm asking God Himself, was it
for this He'd have me roaming the earth since I was a lad only, to come
to black shame in the end, where I'd be giving a power of love to a
woman is the same as others you'd meet in any hooker-shanty in port,
with red gowns on them and paint on their grinning mugs, would be
sleeping with any man for a dollar or two!

ANNA--[In a scream.] Don't, Mat! For Gawd's sake! [Then raging and
pounding on the table with her hands.] Get out of here! Leave me alone!
Get out of here!

BURKE--[His anger rushing back on him.] I'll be going, surely! And I'll
be drinking sloos of whiskey will wash that black kiss of yours off my
lips; and I'll be getting dead rotten drunk so I'll not remember if
'twas iver born you was at all; and I'll be shipping away on some boat
will take me to the other end of the world where I'll never see your
face again! [He turns toward the door]

CHRIS--[Who has been standing in a stupor--suddenly grasping BURKE by
the arm--stupidly] No, you don't go. Ay tank maybe it's better Anna
marry you now.

BURKE--[Shaking CHRIS off--furiously] Lave go of me, ye old ape! Marry
her, is it? I'd see her roasting in hell first! I'm shipping away out
of this, I'm telling you! [Pointing to Anna--passionately] And my curse
on you and the curse of Al