DEL
You are impertinent. Attend to your work.
[_He seats himself at the piano._]

KATHLEEN
And isn't it laying the Sabbath cloth I am?
[_She bangs down articles from the table into their right
places._]

MENDEL
Don't answer me back.
[_He begins to play softly._]

KATHLEEN
Faith, I must answer _somebody_ back--and sorra a word of English _she_
understands. I might as well talk to a tree.

MENDEL
You are not paid to talk, but to work.
[_Playing on softly._]

KATHLEEN
And who _can_ work wid an ould woman nagglin' and grizzlin' and faultin'
me?
[_She removes the red table-cloth._]
Mate-plates, butther-plates, _kosher_, _trepha_, sure I've smashed up
folks' crockery and they makin' less fuss ouver it.

MENDEL [_Stops playing._]
Breaking crockery is one thing, and breaking a religion another. Didn't
you tell me when I engaged you that you had lived in other Jewish
families?

KATHLEEN [_Angrily_]
And is it a liar ye'd make me out now? I've lived wid clothiers and
pawnbrokers and Vaudeville actors, but I niver shtruck a house where
mate and butther couldn't be as paceable on the same plate as eggs and
bacon--the most was that some wouldn't ate the bacon onless 'twas killed
_kosher_.

MENDEL [_Tickled_]
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

KATHLEEN [_Furious, pauses with the white table-cloth half on._]
And who's ye laughin' at? I give ye a week's notice. I won't be the joke
of Jews, no, begorra, that I won't.
[_She pulls the cloth on viciously._]

MENDEL [_Sobered, rising from the piano_]
Don't talk nonsense, Kathleen. Nobody is making a joke of you. Have a
little patience--you'll soon learn our ways.

KATHLEEN [_More mildly_]
Whose ways, yours or the ould lady's or Mr. David's? To-night being yer
Sabbath, _you'll_ be blowing out yer bedroom candle, though ye won't
light it; Mr. David'll light his and blow it out too; and the misthress
won't even touch the candleshtick. There's three religions in this
house, not wan.

MENDEL [_Coughs uneasily._]
Hem! Well, you learn the mistress's ways--that will be enough.

KATHLEEN [_Going to mantelpiece_]
But what way can I understand her jabberin' and jibberin'?--I'm not a
monkey!
[_She takes up a silver candlestick._]
Why doesn't she talk English like a Christian?

MENDEL [_Irritated_]
If you are going on like that, perhaps you had better _not_ remain here.

KATHLEEN [_Blazing up, forgetting to take the second candlestick_]
And who