SARAH. And that is no way to be leaving down your hat. (_She picks it up and looks at it._) Is that your Sunday one?

MARY (_s.n.a.t.c.hing it out of her hand_). Just find out for yourself.

SARAH. Now, you should take and put it away carefully. There's no need to waste money that way, wearing things out.

MARY (_with rising temper_). Do you know it's _my_ hat? Not yours. And I can do what I like with it. (_She throws it down and stamps on it._) I can tramp on it if I want to.

SARAH (_smiling grimly_). Oh, well, tramp away. It's no wonder your father complained of waste and this sort of conduct going on.

(KATE _comes in through door from rooms._)

MARY. Have you got the tea things ready, Kate?

KATE. Yes, Miss.

MARY. I suppose we better wet the tea.

SARAH (_looking at the fire_). Have you the kettle on?

MARY. Can't you see for yourself it's not on.

SARAH. Here, girl (_to_ KATE), fill the kettle and put it on. (KATE _looks at_ MARY, _and with a shrug of her shoulders, obeys the orders._) Where's the tea till I show you how to measure?

MARY (_in a mocking voice_). Kate, get Miss McMinn the tea cannister till she shows you how to measure. (KATE _goes to the dresser and brings the teapot and cannister over to_ SARAH _at the table._)

SARAH. But it's _you_ I want to show. (MARY _pays no attention, but sits down idly drumming her fingers on the table._) There now--pay particular attention to this. (_She takes the cannister from_ KATE, _opens it and ladles out the tea with a spoon into the teapot._) One spoonful for your father and uncle, one for my brother and Mr.

Mackenzie, one for yourself and me, and half-a-one for Kate.

MARY. Do you see that, Kate?

KATE. Yes, Miss.

MARY (_mockingly_). Now the next thing, I suppose, is to weigh out the sugar.

SARAH. No. You always ask the company first do they take sugar before you pour out the tea.

MARY. No; not in good society. You put it on the saucers.

SARAH. Put some in the bowl, Kate, and never heed her.

MARY (_almost tearfully_). You've no business to say that, Kate! Who's your mistress here?

KATE (_very promptly_). You, Miss.

MARY. Then do what I tell you. Put on the tablecloth, and lay the cups and saucers, and make everything ready, and take no orders except from me.

SARAH. Very well. I'll learn her manners when I come to this house.

(_To_ MARY) I want to see the china.

MARY. Well, go into the next room and look for it.

SARAH (_going towards door to rooms_). You better mind what your father told you. (_She goes in._)

MARY (_making a face after her_). You nasty old thing. (DANIEL _appears at the door from yard. He is nervous and worried looking. He goes and sits down near the fireplace, wearily._) Uncle Dan. (_She goes over close beside him._) Wasn't it good of Alick? He went away to Ballyannis Post Office to get that telegram sent.

DANIEL. A very decent fellow, Alick. (_Gratefully._) Very obliging.

MARY (_confidingly_). Do you know, uncle, when he went off to send that telegram I was nearly calling him back. I don't care so very much now whether I see that boy you were telling me about or not. Is he--do you think, uncle--is he much nicer than Alick?

DANIEL. Nicer? (_He looks at his niece, and then begins to divine the way her feelings lie._) Well, of course we have all our opinions on these things you know, Mary, but Alick--well, after all there's many a worse fellow than Alick, isn't there? (MARY _does not answer, but puts her head close to her uncle._) Ah, yes.

MARY (_suddenly_). Uncle! Do you know what has happened? I heard father proposing to Miss McMinn!

DANIEL (_groaning_). Oh my! I knew it would happen! I knew it would happen! When? Where?

MARY. In here. I wanted to slip in quietly after leaving Alick down the loaning when I overheard the voices. It was father and Miss McMinn. She was telling him how she had saved five pounds on b.u.t.ter last half year, and ten pounds on eggs this year, and then father asked her to marry him. I knocked at the door out of divilment, and she just pitched herself at him. I--I'm not going to stay in the house with that woman. I'd sooner marry Alick McCready.

DANIEL (_despairingly_). I would myself. I daren't--I couldn't face the look of that woman in the mornings.

MARY. It's all right for you to talk, uncle. You'll be working away at your inventions, and that sort of thing, and will have nothing much to do with her, but I'd be under her thumb all the time. And I hate her, and I know she hates me. (_Tearfully._) And then the way father talks about her being such a fine housekeeper, and about the waste that goes on in this house, it nearly makes me cry, just because I have been a bit careless maybe. But I could manage a house every bit as well as she could, and I'd show father that if I only got another chance.

Couldn't I uncle?

DANIEL (_soothingly_). And far better, Mary. Far better.

MARY. And you could do far more at your invention if you only got a chance. Couldn't you, uncle?

DANIEL. No doubt about it, Mary. None. I never got much of a chance here.

MARY. I wonder could we both try to get another chance. (_Suddenly, with animation._) Uncle!

DANIEL. Well?

MARY. Aren't you going to explain that fan bellows thing you've been working at to them when they come in? (DANIEL _nods sadly._) Well, look. That Scotchman--he understands things like that, and that's just the reason why that nasty woman brought him over. Just to trip you and show you up, and she thinks she'll make father see through you. But just you rise to the occasion and astonish them. Eh, uncle?

DANIEL (_uneasily_). Um--well, I don't know. That Scotchman's rather a dense sort of fellow. Very hard to get on with somehow.

MARY. Now, Uncle Dan, it's our last chance. Let us beat that woman somehow or other.

DANIEL. It's all very well, Mary, to talk that way. (_Suddenly._) I wonder is there a book on machinery in the house?

MARY. Machinery? Let me think. Yes, I do believe KATE was reading some book yesterday about things, and there was something about machinery in it.

DANIEL. For Heaven's sake, Mary, get it.

MARY (_calling_). Kate! Are you there, Kate? (KATE _comes in from inner rooms._) Where's that book you were reading last night, Kate?

KATE (_surprised_). For dear's sake, Miss! Yon dirty old thing? The one with the big talk between the old fellow and the son about everything in the world you could think of?