backed by landscape; door_, L., _in flat; backed by interior. Lights
up._
_Enter_ ANNE CHUTE, L. _in flat_.
_Anne_ That fellow runs in my head. [_Looking at window._] There he is
in the garden, smoking like a chimney-pot. [_Calls._] Mr. Daly!
_Kyrle_ [_Outside window._] Good morning!
_Anne_ [_Aside._] To think he’d smile that way, after going Leandering
all night like a dissipated young owl. [_Aloud._] Did you sleep well?
[_Aside._] Not a wink, you villain, and you know it.
_Kyrle_ I slept like a top.
_Anne_ [_Aside._] I’d like to have the whipping of ye. [_Aloud._] When
did you get back?
_Kyrle_ Get back! I’ve not been out.
_Anne_ [_Aside._] He’s not been out! This is what men come to after a
cruise at sea--they get sunburnt with love. Those foreign donnas teach
them to make fire-places of their hearts, and chimney-pots of their
mouths. [_Aloud._] What are you doing down there? [_Aside._] As if he
was stretched out to dry. [KYRLE _puts down pipe outside_.
_Enter_ KYRLE _through window_, R., _in flat_.
_Kyrle_ [R. C.] I have been watching Hardress coming over from Divil’s
Island in his boat--the wind was dead against him.
_Anne_ [L. C.] It was fair for going to Divil’s Island last night, I
believe.
_Kyrle_ Was it?
_Anne_ You were up late, I think?
_Kyrle_ I was. I watched by my window for hours, thinking of her I
loved--slumber overtook me, and I dreamed of a happiness I never can
hope for.
_Anne_ Look me straight in the face.
_Kyrle_ Oh! if some fairy could strike us into stone now--and leave us
looking forever into each other’s faces, like the blue lake below and
the sky above it!
_Anne_ Kyrle Daly! What would you say to a man who had two loves, one
to whom he escaped at night, and the other to whom he devoted himself
during the day--what would you say?
_Kyrle_ I’d say he had no chance.
_Anne_ Oh, Captain Cautious! Well answered. Isn’t he fit to take care
of anybody! his cradle was cut out of a witness-box.
_Enter_ HARDRESS _through window_, R., _in flat_.
_Kyrle_ [R.] Anne! I don’t know what you mean, but that I know
that I love you, and you are sporting with a wretchedness you can
not console. I was wrong to remain here so long, but I thought my
friendship for Hardress would protect me against your invasion--now I
will go. [HARDRESS _advancing_.
_Hard_ [C.] No, Kyrle, you will stay. Anne, he loves you, and I more
than suspect you prefer him to me. From this moment you are free; I
release you from all troth to me: in his presence I do this.
_Anne_ [L.] Hardress!
_Hard_ There is a bar between us which you should have known before,
but I could not bring myself to confess. Forgive me, Anne--you deserve
a better man than I am. [_Exit_, L.
_Anne_ A bar between us! What does he mean?
_Kyrle_ He means that he is on the verge of ruin: he did not know how
bad things were till last night. His generous noble heart recoils from
receiving anything from you but love.
_Anne_ And does he think I’d let him be ruined any way? Does he think I
wouldn’t sell the last rood of land--the gown off my back, and the hair
off my head, before that boy that protected and loved me, the child,
years ago, should come to a hap’orth of harrum?
[_Crosses to_ R.
_Kyrle_ Miss Chute!
_Anne_ Well, I can’t help it. When I am angry the brogue comes out,
and my Irish heart will burst through manners, and graces, and twenty
stay-laces. [_Crosses to_ L.] I’ll give up my fortune--that I will!
_Kyrle_ You can’t--you’ve got a guardian who can not consent to such a
sacrifice.
_Anne_ Have I? then I’ll find a husband that will.
_Kyrle_ [_Aside._] She means me--I see it in her eyes.
_Anne_ [_Aside._] He’s trying to look unconscious. [_Aloud._] Kyrle
Daly, on your honor and word as a gentleman, do you love me and nobody
else?
_Kyrle_ Do you think me capable of contaminating your image by
admitting a meaner passion into my breast?
_Anne_ Yes, I do.
_Kyrle_ Then you wrong me.
_Anne_ I’ll prove that in one word. Take care, now; it’s coming.
_Kyrle_ Go on.
_Anne_ [_Aside._] Now I’ll astonish him. [_Aloud._] Eily!
_Kyrle_ What’s that?
_Anne_ “Shule, shule, agrah!”
_Kyrle_ Where to?
_Anne_ Three winks, as much as to say, “Are you coming?” and an
extinguisher above here means “Yes.” Now you see I know all about it.
_Kyrle_ You have the advantage of me.
_Anne_ Confess now, and I’ll forgive you.
_Kyrle_ I will; tell me what to confess, and I’ll confess it--I don’t
care what it is.
_Anne_ [_Aside._] If I hadn’t eye proof he’d brazen it out of me. Isn’t
he cunning? He’s one of those that would get fat where a fox would
starve.
_Kyrle_ That was a little excursion into my past life--a sudden descent
on my antecedents, to see if you could not surprise an infidelity--but
I defy you.
_Anne_ You do? I accept that defiance; and, mind me, Kyrle, if I find
you true as I once thought, there’s my hand; but if you are false in
this, Anne Chute will never change her name for yours. [_He kisses her
hand._] Leave me now.
_Kyrle_ Oh, the lightness you have given to my heart! The number of
pipes I’ll smoke this afternoon will make them think we’ve got a
haystack on fire. [_Exit_ KYRLE, _through window_, R.
_Anne_ [_Rings bell on table_, R.] Here, Pat, Barney, some one.
_Enter_ SERVANT, L. _door in flat_.
Tell Larry Dolan, my groom, to saddle the black mare, Fireball, but not
bring her round the house--I’ll mount in the stables.
[_Exit_ SERVANT, L. _door in flat_.
I’ll ride over to Muckross Head, and draw that cottage; I’ll know
what’s there. It mayn’t be right, but I haven’t a big brother to see
after me--and self-protection is the first law of nature.
[_Exit_ ANNE, R. 1 E.
_Music. Enter_ MRS. CREGAN _and_ HARDRESS, L. _door in flat_.
_Mrs. C_ [R. C.] What do you say, Hardress?
_Hard_ [L. C.] I say, mother, that my heart and faith are both already
pledged to another, and I can not break my engagement.
_Mrs. C_ And this is the end of all our pride!
_Hard_ Repining is useless--thought and contrivance are of no
avail--the die is cast.
_Mrs. C_ Hardress, I speak not for myself, but for you--and I would
rather see you in your coffin than married to this poor, lowborn,
silly, vulgar creature. I know you, my son; you will be miserable when
the infatuation of first love is past; when you turn from her and face
the world, as one day you must do, you will blush to say, “This is my
wife.” Every word from her mouth will be a pang to your pride. You will
follow her movements with terror--the contempt and derision she excites
will rouse you first to remorse, and then to hatred--and from the bed
to which you go with a blessing, you will rise with a curse.
_Hard_ Mother! mother! [_Throws himself in chair._
_Mrs. C_ To Anne you have acted a heartless and dishonorable part--her
name is already coupled with yours at every fireside in Kerry.
_Enter_ SERVANT, L. _door in flat_.
_Serv_ Mr. Corrigan, ma’am.
_Mrs. C_ He comes for his answer. Show him in.
[_Exit_ SERVANT, L. _door in flat_.
The hour has come, Hardress--what answer shall I give him?
_Hard_ Refuse him--let him do his worst.
_Mrs. C_ And face beggary! On what shall we live? I tell you the
prison for debt is open before us. Can you work? No! Will you enlist
as a soldier, and send your wife into service? We are ruined--d’ye
hear?--ruined! I must accept this man only to give you and yours a
shelter, and under Corrigan’s roof I may not be ashamed, perhaps, to
receive your wife.
_Enter_ SERVANT, _showing in_ MR. CORRIGAN, L. _door in flat_.
_Corrig_ [L.] Good morning, ma’am; I am punctual, you perceive.
_Mrs. C_ [C.] We have considered your offer, sir, and we see no
alternative--but--but--
_Corrig_ Mrs. Cregan, I’m proud, ma’am, to take your hand.
_Hard_ [_Starting up._] Begone--begone, I say; touch her, and I’ll
brain you!
_Corrig_ Squire! Sir! Mr. Hardress!
_Hard_ Must I hurl you from the house?
_Enter two_ SERVANTS, _door in flat_.
_Mrs. C_ Hardress, my darling boy, restrain yourself.
_Corrig_ Good morning, ma’am. I have my answer. [_To_ SERVANT.] Is Miss
Chute within?
_Serv_ No, sir; she’s just galloped out of the stable yard.
_Corrig_ Say I called to see her. I will wait upon her at this hour
to-morrow. [_Looking at the Cregans._] To-morrow! to-morrow!
[_Exit, followed by_ SERVANTS, L. _door in flat_.
_Mrs. C_ To-morrow will see us in Limerick Jail, and this house in the
hands of the sheriff.
_Hard_ Mother, heaven guide and defend me! let me rest for a while--you
don’t know all yet, and I have not the heart to tell you.
[_Crosses_ L.
_Mrs. C_ With you, Hardress, I can bear anything--anything--but your
humiliation and your unhappiness--
_Hard_ I know it, mother, I know it. [_Exit_, L. 1 E. _Music._
DANNY _appears at window_, R., _in flat_.
_Danny_ Whisht--missiz--whisht.
_Mrs. C_ [L. C.] Who’s there?
_Danny_ It’s me, sure, Danny--that is--I know the throuble that’s in
it. I’ve been through it all wid him.
_Mrs. C_ You know, then?
_Danny_ Everything, ma’am; and, sure, I shtruv hard and long to impache
him from doing it.
_Mrs. C_ Is he, indeed, so involved with this girl that he will not
give her up?
_Danny_ No; he’s got over the worst of it, but she holds him tight, and
he feels kindly and soft-hearted for her, and daren’t do what another
would.
_Mrs. C_ Dare not?
_Danny_ Sure she might be packed off across the wather to Ameriky,
or them parts beyant? Who’d ever ax a word afther her?--barrin’ the
masther, who’d murdher me if he knew I whispered such a thing.
_Mrs. C_ But would she go?
_Danny_ Ow, ma’am, wid a taste of persuasion, we’d mulvather her
aboord. But there’s another way again, and if ye’d only coax the
masther to send me his glove, he’d know the manin’ of that token, and
so would I.
_Mrs. C_ His glove?
_Danny_ Sorra a ha’porth else. If he’ll do that, I’ll take my oath
ye’ll hear no more of the Colleen Bawn.
_Mrs. C_ I’ll see my son. [_Exit_ L. D. F.
_Danny_ Tare an’ ’ouns, that lively girl, Miss Chute, has gone the
road to Muckross Head; I’ve watched her--I’ve got my eye on all of
them. If she sees Eily--ow, ow, she’ll get the ring itself in that
helpin’ maybe, of kale-canon. By the piper, I’ll run across the lake,
and get there first; she’s got a long round to go, and the wind
rising--a purty blast entirely.
[_Goes to window--Music._
_Re-enter_ MRS. CREGAN, L. D. F., _with glove_.
_Mrs. C_ [_Aside._] I found his gloves in the hall, where he had thrown
them in his hat.
_Danny_ Did ye ax him, ma’am?
_Mrs. C_ I did--and here is the reply. [_Holds out glove._
_Danny_ He has changed his mind, then?
_Mrs. C_ He has entirely.
_Danny_ And--and--I am--to--do it?
_Mrs. C_ That is the token.
_Danny_ I know it--I’ll keep my promise. I’m to make away with her?
_Mrs. C_ Yes, yes--take her away--away with her!
[_Exit_ MRS. CREGAN, L. _door in flat_.
_Danny_ Never fear, ma’am. [_Going to window._] He shall never see or
hear again of the Colleen Bawn.
[_Exit_ DANNY _through window--change_.