ore.

LADY DELAHUNTY
So Sir Denis says.

MRS. CORCORAN (_stoops and feels the edge of the lace petticoat,
which is well exposed_)
That's the nicest piece of lace I have seen for many
a long day.

LADY DELAHUNTY
Two pounds ten, and a bargain at that. And three
pounds five for my bonnet makes sixty pounds, fifteen
shillin's. Not to mention what I had to pay for
Dinny's, I mean Sir Denis's new suit and tall hat.

MRS. CORCORAN
You could build a house or buy two fine horses for
that much.

LADY DELAHUNTY
Indeed, and you could then.

DONAL
Now ladies, we must get our business finished, and
we can talk after. I am offerin' three hundred pounds,
twenty acres of land, five cows, six sheep, three clockin'
hens, and a clutch of ducklin's, and want to know
without any palaverin' or old gab, whether or not
yourself and Sir Denis are prepared to do likewise.

KITTY
One would think that I was a cow or a sheep, myself,
going to be sold to the highest bidder. But, thank
God, I'm neither one nor the other. I have a mind
and a will of my own, and I may as well tell you all
that I will only marry the man who I will choose for
myself.

DONAL
Every one of the women in ten generations of your
family, on both sides, said the same, but they all did
what they were told in the end, and you will do it,
too. You will marry the man that I will choose for
you, or go to the convent or America. And believe
me, 'tisn't much of your own way you will get in either
place.

KITTY
I will marry the man I want to marry and no one else.

SIR DENIS
Maybe 'tis the way she is only teasin' you.

DONAL
No, 'tis her mother's contrary spirit that's in her.

MRS. CORCORAN
Not her mother's, but her father's, contrary spirit.

DONAL
Enough now, I say. I'm boss here yet, and I'm not
goin' to let my daughter, whom I have rared, fed,
clad and educated, and all that cost me many a pound
of my hard earned money, have a privilege that the
kings, queens, royal princesses and grand duchesses
themselves haven't.

MRS. CORCORAN
Wisha, don't be losin' your temper, Donal.

DONAL
'Tis enough to make any one lose their temper. If
that sort of thing was permitted, every dacent father
and mother in the country would be supportin' some
useless son-in-law, and his children, maybe. The man
who marries my daughter must be able to support her
as I have supported you.

MRS. CORCORAN
Erra, hold your tongue. I never ate a loaf of idle
bread in my lif