your mother regards it as a settled thing that he
should come and live with us.

ALBERT
The mother and Anna are preparing for the event.

CRILLY
How's that, Albert?

ALBERT
Mother has James Scollard in her eye for the new Master.

CRILLY
Right enough! Scollard would get it, too, and then he would
marry Anna.

ALBERT
That's the arrangement, I expect.

CRILLY
It mightn't be bad. Scollard mightn't want Nancy's money
under that arrangement. Still I don't like the idea of the old man
living in the house.

ALBERT
The mother would never think of letting him take himself and
his pension anywhere else.

CRILLY
I don't think she would.

ALBERT
I wouldn't be surprised if he did go somewhere else. I hear
he often goes up to that cottage in Stradrina.

CRILLY
What cottage, Albert?

ALBERT
Briar Cottage. I hear he sits down there, and talks of coming
to live in the place.

CRILLY
_(warningly)_ Albert, don't clap hands behind the bird. Take
my word, and say nothing about it.

ALBERT
All right.

CRILLY
We'd have no comfort in the house if your mother's mind was
distracted.

_Mrs. Crilly enters from corridor. She is a woman of forty, dressed
in a tailor-made costume. She has searching eyes. There is something
of hysteria about her mouth. She has been good-looking._

CRILLY
Good night, Marianne.

MRS. CRILLY Are you finishing the abstracts, Albert?

ALBERT
I'm working at them. It's a good job we didn't leave the old
man much latitude for making mistakes.

MRS. CRILLY
_(closing door)_ He'll have to resign.

CRILLY
Good God, Marianne. _(He rises)_

MRS. CRILLY
Well. Let him be sent away without a pension. Of course,
he can live with us the rest of his life and give us nothing for
keeping him.

CRILLY
I don't know what's in your mind at all, Marianne. _(He
crosses over to the cabinet, opens it, and fills out another glass
of whisky)_

ALBERT
Let the old man do what suits himself.

CRILLY
_(coming back to stove)_ Do, Marianne. Let him do what
suits himself. For the present.

MRS. CRILLY
For pity's sake put down that glass and listen to what I
have to say.

CRILLY
What's the matter, Marianne?

MRS. CRILLY
James Scollard came to me to-day, and he told me about
the things that are noticed.... The nuns notice them, the Guardians
notice them. He misses Mass. He is late on his rounds. He can't
check the stores that are coming into the house. He may get himself
into such trouble