ord again.

CONN
_(warmly)_ I can tell you this, Maire. There's many's the place
in Ireland where Conn Hourican's word would be respected.

MAIRE
I'll never ask for your word again. You have only your fiddle,
and you must go among people that will praise you. When I heard you
talking of your listeners, I knew that. I was frightened before that.
When I saw you coming, I went and sat there, and I thought the walls
of the house were crowding in on me.

CONN
You were partly to blame, Maire. You left me there very lonesome.

MAIRE
I was to blame, I suppose. I should have treated you differently.
Well, I know you better now. Let you sit down and we'll talk together.
_(Conn sits on chair to right of table)_ What's to become of myself
I don't know. Anne and James Moynihan will marry, I hope. Neither of
us have fortunes, and for that reason our house should be well
spoken of.

CONN
Sure I know that. I wouldn't bring the shadow of a disgrace
near ye.

MAIRE
If the father isn't well spoken of, how could the house be
well spoken of? They're big drinkers that go to Flynn's, and it's
easy for the fiddler to get into the way of drinking.

CONN
I won't go to Flynn's when you put it that way.

MAIRE
I'll ask for no word. I'll let you know the real way of the
house, and then trust you.

CONN
You're a good girl, Maire. I should have been said by you.

MAIRE
From this out there will be dances at the schoolhouse and the
like of that. You could be playing at them. CONN None of the oul'
people go to the like, and the young don't understand me nor my ways.
God knows will I ever play again. That thought is often with me of
late, and it makes me very lonesome.

MAIRE
That's foolishness.

CONN
I was very lonesome when you left me. You don't know how I was
tempted, Maire. There was Brian MacConnell putting on his coat to go
to Flynn's, and talking of the Sligomen.

MAIRE
_(startled)_ And was it to Flynn's that Brian MacConnell went?

CONN
It was Brian that brought me to Flynn's.

MAIRE
Was it Brian MacConnell that brought you to Flynn's?

CONN
It was.

MAIRE
_(passionately)_ You must never go to Flynn's.

CONN
I'm ashamed of myself. Didn't I say that, Maire?

MAIRE
_(with hardness)_ You must never go again.

CONN
And is a man to have no life to himself?

MAIRE
That's talk just. It's time you thought of your own place and
your own children. It's time you gave up caring for the praise of
foolish people