MRS. CRILLY _(with nervous excitement, restrained)_ No one of us will ever go near the place.

MUSKERRY Well, you'll please yourself.

MRS. CRILLY You put a slight on us all when you go there to live.

MUSKERRY Well, I've lived with you to my own loss.

MRS. CRILLY Our house is the best house in the town, and I'm the nearest person to you.

MUSKERRY Say nothing more about that.

MRS. CRILLY Well, maybe you do right not to live with us, but you ought not to forsake us altogether.

MUSKERRY And what do you mean by forsaking you altogether?

MRS. CRILLY When you leave the place and do not even turn your step in our direction it's a sign to all who want to know that you forsake us altogether.

MUSKERRY What do you want me to do?

MRS. CRILLY Come up to Cross Street with me, have dinner and spend the night with us. People would have less to talk about if you did that.

MUSKERRY You always have a scheme.

MRS. CRILLY Come to us for this evening itself.

MUSKERRY I wish you wouldn't trouble me, woman. Can't you see that when I go out of this I want to go to my own place?

MRS. CRILLY You can go there to-morrow.

MUSKERRY Preparations are made for me.

MRS. CRILLY You don't know what preparations.

MUSKERRY Two pounds of the best beef-steak were ordered to be sent up to-day.

MRS. CRILLY I wouldn't trust that woman, Mrs. Clarke, to cook potatoes.

MUSKERRY Well, I'll trust her, ma'am.

MRS. CRILLY _(taking Muskerry's sleeve)_ Don't go to-day, anyway.

MUSKERRY You're very anxious to get me to come with you. What do you want from me?

MRS. CRILLY We want nothing from you. You know how insecure our business is. When it's known in the town that you forsake us, everybody will close in on us.

MUSKERRY G.o.d knows I did everything that a man could do for you and yours. I won't forget you. I haven't much life left to me, and I want to live to myself.

MRS. CRILLY I know. Sure I lie awake at night, too tired to sleep, and long to get away from the things that are pressing in on me. I know that people are glad of their own way, and glad to live in the way that they like. When I heard the birds stirring I cried to be away in some place where I won't hear the thing that's always knocking at my head. The business has to be minded, and it's slipping away from us like water. And listen, if my confinement comes on me and I worried as I was last year, nothing can save me.

I'll die, surely.

MUSKERRY _(moved)_ What more do you want me to do?

MRS. CRILLY Stay with us for a while, so that we'll have the name of your support.

MUSKERRY I'll come back to you in a week.

MRS. CRILLY That wouldn't do at all. There's a reason for what I ask.

The town must know that you are with us from the time you leave this.

MUSKERRY _(with emotion)_ G.o.d help me with you all, and G.o.d direct me what to do.

MRS. CRILLY It's not in you to let us down.

_Muskerry turns away. His head is bent. Mrs. Crilly goes to him_.

MUSKERRY Will you never be done taking from me? I want to leave this and go to a place of my own.

_Muskerry puts his hand to his eyes. When he lowers his hand again Mrs. Crilly lays hers in it. Christy Clarke comes in. Muskerry turns to him. Muskerry has been crying_.

MUSKERRY Well, Christy, I'll be sending you back on another message.

_Mrs. Crilly makes a sign to Christy not to speak_.

MUSKERRY Go to your mother and tell her---

CHRISTY I met my mother outside.

MUSKERRY Did she get the things that were sent to her?

CHRISTY My mother was sent away from the cottage.

MUSKERRY Who sent your mother away from the cottage?

CHRISTY Mrs. Crilly sent her away.

MUSKERRY And why did you do that, ma'am?

MRS. CRILLY I sent Mary to help to prepare the place for you, and the woman was impertinent to Mary--

MUSKERRY Well, ma'am?

MRS. CRILLY I sent the woman away.

MUSKERRY And so you take it on yourself to dispose of the servants in my house?

MRS. CRILLY I daresay you'll take the woman's part against my daughter.

MUSKERRY No, ma'am, I'll take no one's side, but I'll tell you this.