MUSKERRY
Well, you’ll please yourself.

MRS. CRILLY
You put a slight on us all when you go there to live.

MUSKERRY
Well, I’ve lived with you to my own loss.

MRS. CRILLY
Our house is the best house in the town, and I’m the
nearest person to you.

MUSKERRY
Say nothing more about that.

MRS. CRILLY
Well, maybe you do right not to live with us, but you
ought not to forsake us altogether.

MUSKERRY
And what do you mean by forsaking you altogether?

MRS. CRILLY When you leave the place and do not even turn your step in our direction it’s a sign to all who want to know that you forsake us altogether.

MUSKERRY
What do you want me to do?

MRS. CRILLY
Come up to Cross Street with me, have dinner and spend
the night with us.  People would have less to talk about if you did
that.

MUSKERRY
You always have a scheme.

MRS. CRILLY
Come to us for this evening itself.

MUSKERRY
I wish you wouldn’t trouble me, woman.  Can’t you see that
when I go out of this I want to go to my own place?

MRS. CRILLY
You can go there to-morrow.

MUSKERRY
Preparations are made for me.

MRS. CRILLY
You don’t know what preparations.

MUSKERRY
Two pounds of the best beef-steak were ordered to be sent
up to-day.

MRS. CRILLY
I wouldn’t trust that woman, Mrs. Clarke, to cook
potatoes.

MUSKERRY
Well, I’ll trust her, ma’am.

MRS. CRILLY
(taking Muskerry’s sleeve) Don’t go to-day, anyway.

MUSKERRY
You’re very anxious to get me to come with you.  What do you
want from me?

MRS. CRILLY
We want nothing from you.  You know how insecure our
business is.  When it’s known in the town that you forsake us,
everybody will close in on us.

MUSKERRY God knows I did everything that a man could do for you and yours.  I won’t forget you.  I haven’t much life left to me, and I want to live to myself.

MRS. CRILLY I know.  Sure I lie awake at night, too tired to sleep, and long to get away from the things that are pressing in on me.  I know that people are glad of their own way, and glad to live in the way that they like.  When I heard the birds stirring I cried to be away in some place where I won’t hear the thing that’s always knocking at my head.  The business has to be minded, and it’s slipping away from us like water.  And listen, if my confinement comes on me and I worried as I was last year, nothing can save me.  I’ll die, surely.

MUSKERRY
(moved) What more do you want me to do?

MRS. CRILLY
Stay with us for a while, so that we’ll have the name of
your support.

MUSKERRY
I’ll come back to you in a week.

MRS. CRILLY
That wouldn’t do at all.  There’s a reason for what I ask. 
The town must know that you are with us from the time you leave this.