ngs. And, after all, who are we to judge whether a thing--

MURTAGH COSGAR
Is there anything on your mind, Martin Douras?

MARTIN DOURAS
_(hurriedly)_ No; oh, no. I was thinking--I was thinking, maybe you'd
give me a lift towards Arvach, if you'd be going that way this night.

MURTAGH COSGAR
Ay, why not?

MARTIN DOURAS
And we could talk about the land, and about Matt, too. Wouldn't it
be a heart-break if any of our children went--because of a thing we
might--

MURTAGH COSGAR
_(fiercely)_ What have you to say about Matt?

MARTIN DOURAS
_(stammering)_ Nothing except in a--in what you might call a general
way. There's many a young man left house and land for the sake of some
woman, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR
There's many a fool did it.

MARTIN DOURAS
_(going to door)_ Ay, maybe; maybe. I'll be going now, Murtagh.

MURTAGH COSGAR
Stop! _(clutching him)_ You know about Matt. What woman is he
thinking of?

MARTIN DOURAS
_(frightened)_ We'll talk about it again, Murtagh. I said I'd be back.

MURTAGH COSGAR
We'll talk about it now. Who is she? What name has she?

MARTIN DOURAS
_(breaking from him and speaking with sudden dignity)_ It's a good
name, Murtagh Cosgar; it's my own name.

MURTAGH COSGAR
Your daughter! Ellen! You're--

MARTIN DOURAS
Ay, a good name, and a good girl.

MURTAGH COSGAR
And do you think a son of mine would marry a daughter of yours?

MARTIN DOURAS
What great difference is between us, after all?

MURTAGH COSGAR
_(fiercely)_ The daughter of a man who'd be sitting over his fire
reading his paper, and the clouds above his potatoes, and the cows
trampling his oats. _(Martin is beaten down)_ Do you know me at all,
Martin Douras? I came out of a little house by the roadway and built
my house on a hill. I had many children. Coming home in the long
evenings, or kneeling still when the prayers would be over, I'd have
my dreams. A son in Aughnalee, a son in Ballybrian, a son in Dunmore,
a son of mine with a shop, a son of mine saying Mass in Killnalee.
And I have a living name--a name in flesh and blood.

MARTIN DOURAS
God help you, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR
But I've a son still. It's not your daughter he'll be marrying.
_(He strides to the door and calls Matt)_

MARTIN DOURAS _(going to him)_ Murtagh Cosgar--for God's sake--we're
both old men, Murtagh Cosgar.

MURTAGH COSGAR
You've read many stories, Martin Douras, and you know many endings.
You'll see an ending