LADY DELAHUNTY Two pounds ten, and a bargain at that.  And three pounds five for my bonnet makes sixty pounds, fifteen shillin’s.  Not to mention what I had to pay for Dinny’s, I mean Sir Denis’s new suit and tall hat.

MRS. CORCORAN
You could build a house or buy two fine horses for
that much.

LADY DELAHUNTY
Indeed, and you could then.

DONAL Now ladies, we must get our business finished, and we can talk after.  I am offerin’ three hundred pounds, twenty acres of land, five cows, six sheep, three clockin’ hens, and a clutch of ducklin’s, and want to know without any palaverin’ or old gab, whether or not yourself and Sir Denis are prepared to do likewise.

KITTY One would think that I was a cow or a sheep, myself, going to be sold to the highest bidder.  But, thank God, I’m neither one nor the other.  I have a mind and a will of my own, and I may as well tell you all that I will only marry the man who I will choose for myself.

DONAL Every one of the women in ten generations of your family, on both sides, said the same, but they all did what they were told in the end, and you will do it, too.  You will marry the man that I will choose for you, or go to the convent or America.  And believe me, ’tisn’t much of your own way you will get in either place.

KITTY
I will marry the man I want to marry and no one else.

SIR DENIS
Maybe ‘tis the way she is only teasin’ you.

DONAL
No, ’tis her mother’s contrary spirit that’s in her.

MRS. CORCORAN
Not her mother’s, but her father’s, contrary spirit.

DONAL Enough now, I say.  I’m boss here yet, and I’m not goin’ to let my daughter, whom I have rared, fed, clad and educated, and all that cost me many a pound of my hard earned money, have a privilege that the kings, queens, royal princesses and grand duchesses themselves haven’t.

MRS. CORCORAN
Wisha, don’t be losin’ your temper, Donal.

DONAL ’Tis enough to make any one lose their temper.  If that sort of thing was permitted, every dacent father and mother in the country would be supportin’ some useless son-in-law, and his children, maybe.  The man who marries my daughter must be able to support her as I have supported you.

MRS. CORCORAN Erra, hold your tongue.  I never ate a loaf of idle bread in my life, and always supported myself, and earned enough to support you as well.

DONAL I’ll have no more of this tyranny in my own house, I say.

KITTY Well, well, for goodness sake!  What is all this nonsense about?  I have already told you that I will marry my own man and no one else.

SIR DENIS Now, Donal, when we come to consider the matter, perhaps, after all is said and done, maybe Kitty is right.  You know, of course, that we all like to have our own way.

DONAL Do we, indeed?  Maybe ‘tis the way you are tryin’ to back out of your bargain.