CONN
Is there any one coming here, Maire?

MAIRE
There is no one coming.  It’s no wonder James’s father thought
the place was bare-looking.

CONN
Well, the bit of land is going to James, and I was saying that
it has been brought to a great many people.

  Maire takes paper out, and looks at it.

CONN
What paper is that, Maire?

MAIRE It’s a paper that I have to put my name to. (She goes and sits at table) There’s a pen and ink near your hand on the dresser, and you might give them to me.  It’s about giving this place to Anne, and James’s father wants my name on the paper.

CONN Well, isn’t James’s father the councillor, with his paper and his signing? (He brings pen and ink from dresser, and leaves them on table.  Maire makes preparations for writing.  Conn lights candle at fire, and brings it over to table) And does that give the place to Anne for ever?

MAIRE It gives it to herself. (Maire signs the paper with the slowness of one unaccustomed to writing) It will be a great change for us when we come back to this place.

CONN (going to chair at fire) It will be a great change for you and me, no matter what we say.

MAIRE
And now that James’s father is putting stock on the land, the
Moynihans will have great call to the place.

CONN
Maire, your father is thinking of taking to the road.

MAIRE
And how long would you be staying on the roads?

CONN
Ah, what is there to bring me back to this country, Maire?

MAIRE
Sure you’re not thinking of going on the roads altogether?

CONN
The road for the fiddler.

MAIRE
Would you leave the shelter and the settled life?  Would you go
on the road by yourself?

CONN
Anne and yourself will be settled, and I’ll have the years before me.

MAIRE
Then you’d go on the roads by yourself?

CONN
Sure I did it before, Maire.

MAIRE Ah, but do you not remember the prayers that mother used to say for us to get some shelter?  Do you not remember how proud and glad we were when we come by a place of our own?

CONN
The shelter was for Anne and yourself.  What had I to do with it?

MAIRE
The Moynihans are not the sort to make us feel strangers in
the place.

CONN
The place was your own, Maire, and you gave it to your sister
rather than see her waiting years and years.

MAIRE
I came to give it to her after I saw how hard I was on yourself.

CONN Listen, my jewel, even if the Moynihans had nothing to do with the place, what would Conn Hourican the fiddler be doing in this country?

MAIRE
Ah, there are many you might play to; there are lots that know
about music.  There’s Michael Gilpatrick and John Molloy—­

CONN
And that’s all, Maire.  MAIRE You might go to Flynn’s an odd time.