(_Cats reappear and look over back of settle_.)

(_Music from behind_.) ("_O'Donnall Abu_.")

CURTAIN

ACT II

ACT II

_Conan alone holding up bellows, singing_:

_Conan:_

"And doth not a meeting like this make amends For all the long years I've been wandering away Deceived for a moment it's now in my hands-- breathe the fresh air of life's morning again!"

_Celia_: (_Comes in having listened amused at door; claps hands_.) Very good! It is you yourself should be going to the dance house to-night in place of myself. It is long since I heard you rise so happy a tune!

_Conan_: (_Putting bellows behind him_.) What brings you here? Is there no work for you out in the garden--the cabbages to be cutting for the cow....

_Celia_: I wouldn't wish to roughen my hands before evening. Music there will be for the dancing!

(_She lilts Miss McLeod's Reel_.)

_Conan_: Let you go ready yourself for it so.

_Celia_: Is it at this time of the day? You should be forgetting the hours of the clock the same as the poor mother.

_Conan_: It is a strange thing since I came to this house I never can get one minute's ease and quiet to myself.

_Celia_: It was hearing you singing brought me in.

_Conan:_ I'd sooner have you without! Be going now.

_Celia:_ I will and welcome. It is to bring out my little pigeon I will, where there is a few grains of barley fell from a car going the road.

_Conan:_ Hurry on so!

_Celia: (Taking up cage.)_ He is not in his crib.

_(Looking here and there.)_ Where now can he have gone?

_Conan:_ He should have gone out the door.

_Celia:_ He did not. He could not have come out unknown to me. Coo, coo,--coo--coo.

_Conan:_ Never mind him now. You are putting my mind astray with your Coo, coo--

_Celia:_ He might be in under the settle.

_(Stoops.)_ Where are you, my little bird. _(Sings.) (Air, "Shule Aroon_.")

"But now my love has gone to France His own fair fortune to advance; If he comes back again 'tis but a chance; Os go de tu Mavourneen slan!"

_Conan: (Putting her away.)_ What way would he be in it? Let you put a stop to that humming.

_(Seizes her.)_ Come here to the light ...is it you sewed this b.u.t.ton on my coat?

_Celia:_ It was not. It is likely it was some tailor down in the North.

_Conan:_ It is getting loose on the sleeve.

_Celia_: Ah, it will last a good while yet. Coo, coo!

_Conan: (Getting before her.)_ It would be no great load on you to get a needle and put a st.i.tch would tighten it.

_Celia:_ I'll do it in the by and bye. There, I twisted the thread around it. That'll hold good enough for a while.

_Conan:_ "Anything worth doing at all is worth doing well."

_Celia:_ Aren't you getting very dainty in your dress?

_Conan:_ Any man would like to have a decent appearance on his suit.

_Celia:_ Isn't it the same to-day as it was yesterday?

_Conan:_ Have you ne'er a needle?

_Celia:_ I don't know where is it gone.

_Conan:_ You haven't a stim of sense. Can't you keep in mind "Everything in its right place."

_Celia:_ Sure, there's no hurry--the day is long.

_Conan:_ Anything has to be done, the quickest to do it is the best.

_Celia:_ I'm not working by the hour or the day.

_Conan:_ Look now at Penelope of the Greeks, and all her riches, and her man not at hand to urge her, how well she sat at the loom from morn till night till she'd have the makings of a suit of frieze.

_Celia:_ Ah, that was in the ancient days, when you wouldn't buy it made and ready in the shops.

_Conan:_ Will you so much as go to find a towel would take the dust off of the panes of gla.s.s?

_Celia:_ I wonder at you craving to disturb the spider and it after making its web.

_Conan:_ Well, go sit idle outside. I wouldn't wish to be looking at you! Aristotle that said a lazy body is all one with a lazy mind. You'll be begging your bread through the world's streets before your poll will be grey.