BRIAN
Where was it, Maire?

MAIRE
In a field by the road.  You were breaking a horse.

BRIAN
I was always a good hand with a horse.

MAIRE
The poor beast was covered with foam and sweat, and at last
you made it still.  I thought it was grand then.

  She sings.

  I know where I’m going,
  I know who’s going with me,
  I know who I love,
  But the dear knows who I’ll marry.

Are your brothers with you, Brian?

BRIAN
Is it building with me?

MAIRE
Building with you?

  She sings.

  Some say he’s dark,
  I say he’s bonny. 
  He’s the flower of the flock,
  My charming, coaxing Johnny.

BRIAN (with sombre passion) No.  My brothers are not with me.  I quarrelled with them all and I am nearly heart broken for what I did.

MAIRE
Ah, Brian MacConnell, I don’t know what to say to you at all.

BRIAN
You’ll give me your promise, Maire?

MAIRE
Promise.  I’ve no promise to give to any man.

BRIAN
Remember that these days past I had only yourself to think on.

MAIRE
There was never a man but failed me some time.  They all leave
me to face the world alone.

BRIAN
You said that I might go with you as far as Ardagh.

MAIRE
No.  You’re not to come.  Myself and my father go to Ardagh by
ourselves.

BRIAN
How was I to know that you would take that quarrel to heart?

MAIRE I thought you were strong, but I see now that you are only a man who forces himself to harsh behaviour.  I have my own way to go; my father wants to go back to the roads, and it’s right that I should be with him, to watch over him.

BRIAN
What shelter will you have on the road?

MAIRE
I’ll have the quiet of evening, and my own thoughts, and I’ll
follow the music; I’ll laugh and hold up my head again.

BRIAN
Maire Hourican, would you leave me?

MAIRE
What can I do for you, Brian MacConnell?

  Brian goes to settle, and puts his hands before his eyes.  She goes
  to him.

BRIAN
You have thought for your father, and you have no thought for me.

MAIRE
Indeed I have thought for you.

BRIAN
O Maire, my jewel, do you care for me at all?

  She kisses him.

BRIAN
Maire!

  She rises.

MAIRE
I’m going to call my father.

BRIAN
You go to him, and you go from me.

MAIRE
You are both my care:  my father and yourself.

BRIAN
What will become of me when you go?

MAIRE Isn’t it right, Brian, that I should be with my father on the roads?  Even if I was in your house, I would be thinking that I should watch over him.

BRIAN
Then it’s good-bye you’d be saying?