ople say of us two now?

ANNE
I'll talk to him to-night.

MAIRE
No, you're going out--you're going to Moynihan's--you're going
to see your sweetheart.

ANNE
I think you're becoming a stranger to us, Maire.

MAIRE
You're going to Moynihan's to-night, and I'm going, too. But I'm going
to settle this first. Once and for all I'm going to settle this.

_The fiddle has ceased. As Maire goes towards the room, Conn
Hourican comes down, the fiddle in his hand_.

CONN
Were you listening to the tune I was playing? Ah, that was a
real oul tune, if there was anyone that knew it. Maire, my jewel,
were you listening?

MAIRE
I heard you.

CONN
It was a real oul' tune, and while I was playing it a great
scheme came into my head. Now, listen to me, Maire; and you listen,
too, Anne. Both of you would like to see your father having what's
his due after all, honour and respect.

MAIRE
Both of us would like to see our father earn the same.

CONN
I could earn the same, ay, and gold and silver cups besides, if
I had the mind to earn them.

_He puts fiddle on table and prepares to speak impressively_.

CONN
Let ye listen to me now; I've a scheme to put before ye. When I
was going over the oul tune, I remembered that I'd heard of a Feis
[2] that's coming on soon, the Feis of Ardagh. I'm thinking of going
there. There will be great prizes for some one; I don't doubt but
I'd do at Ardagh better than I did at the Feis of Granard, where
people as high as bishops were proud and glad to know Conn Hourican
the Fiddler.

[Footnote 2: Feis, pronounced Fesh, a musical or literary gathering,
with competitions.]

ANNE
Father, you've a place to mind.

CONN
I'm tired of that kind of talk; sure I'm always thinking of the
place. Maire hasn't little notions. What do you say to it, Maire, my
girl?

MAIRE
What do I say? I say you're not a rambler now, though indeed
you behave like one.

CONN
You have something against me, Maire.

MAIRE
I have.

CONN
What has she against me, Anne?

MAIRE
All the promises you broke.

CONN
You were listening to what the town is saying.

MAIRE
What does the town know? Does it know that you stripped us of
stock and crop the year after we came here? Does it know that Anne
and myself, two girls of the roads, had to struggle ever since to
keep a shelter?

CONN
_(bitterly)_ It knows that. It couldn't help but know it, maybe.
But does it know all the promises you made and broke?

C