d!

[_She puts her arms about him; he turns towards her as if
about to yield._ OLD WOMAN's _voice outside._]

They shall be speaking for ever,
The people shall hear them for ever.

[MICHAEL _breaks away from_ DELIA _and goes out._]

PETER [_to_ PATRICK, _laying a hand on his arm_]. Did you see an old
woman going down the path?

PATRICK. I did not, but I saw a young girl, and she had the walk of a
queen.

THE HOUR-GLASS:

A MORALITY

CHARACTERS

A WISE MAN.

SOME PUPILS.

A FOOL.

AN ANGEL.

THE WISE MAN'S WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN.

SCENE: _A large room with a door at the back and another at the side or
else a curtained place where the persons can enter by parting the
curtains. A desk and a chair at one side. An hour-glass on a stand near
the door. A creepy stool near it. Some benches. A_ WISE MAN _sitting at
his desk._

WISE M. [_turning over the pages of a book_]. Where is that passage I
am to explain to my pupils to-day? Here it is, and the book says that
it was written by a beggar on the walls of Babylon: "There are two
living countries, the one visible and the one invisible; and when it is
winter with us it is summer in that country, and when the November
winds are up among us it is lambing time there." I wish that my pupils
had asked me to explain any other passage. [_The_ FOOL _comes in and
stands at the door holding out his hat. He has a pair of shears in the
other hand._] It sounds to me like foolishness; and yet that cannot be,
for the writer of this book, where I have found so much knowledge,
would not have set it by itself on this page, and surrounded it with so
many images and so many deep colours and so much fine gilding, if it
had been foolishness.

FOOL. Give me a penny.

WISE M. [_turns to another page_]. Here he has written: "The learned in
old times forgot the visible country." That I understand, but I have
taught my learners better.

FOOL. Won't you give me a penny?

WISE M. What do you want? The words of the wise Saracen will not teach
you much.

FOOL. Such a great wise teacher as you are will not refuse a penny to a
Fool.

WISE M. What do you know about wisdom?

FOOL. Oh, I know! I know what I have seen.

WISE M. What is it you have seen?

FOOL. When I went by Kilcluan where the bells used to be ringing at the
break of every day, I could hear nothing but the people snoring in
their houses. When I went by Tubber