Three Plays: The Fiddler's House, The Land, Thomas Muskerry Part 9

JAMES I have a song in my head since last night.

ANNE The one in the paper is lovely. I know it by heart.

JAMES The next I make will be ten times better.

_Conn Hourican comes down_.

CONN I heard your voice, James, and I thought I'd come down. It's very good of you to come here again. I'll be out with you to-day.

JAMES It'll be a good day from this on. Were you practising above, Mister Hourican?

CONN Well, no, James, I wasn't practising. I was at a big gathering last night, and my hands are unstrung like. We'll talk for a while, and then I'll go out with you.

ANNE _(taking James's arm)_ Come out with me for a minute, James.

JAMES _(going off)_ I'll see you again, Mister Hourican.

_James and Anne go out_,

CONN Well, G.o.d help us. _(He turns to go back to the room. Maire comes down from back)_ Are you going out, Maire?

MAIRE No, I'm staying here.

CONN _(aggrieved)_ Do you mind them two, how they went out together.

I think I'll go out and see what's to be done about the place.

_Conn goes towards the entrance. Maire goes towards the fire_.

CONN _(pausing at door)_ I broke my word to you, Maire.

MAIRE I don't know what to say to you now.

CONN It was the music and the strange faces that drew me.

MAIRE I know that now.

CONN It will be a long time till I break my word to you again.

MAIRE I'll never ask for your word again.

CONN _(warmly)_ I can tell you this, Maire. There's many's the place in Ireland where Conn Hourican's word would be respected.

MAIRE I'll never ask for your word again. You have only your fiddle, and you must go among people that will praise you. When I heard you talking of your listeners, I knew that. I was frightened before that.

When I saw you coming, I went and sat there, and I thought the walls of the house were crowding in on me.

CONN You were partly to blame, Maire. You left me there very lonesome.

MAIRE I was to blame, I suppose. I should have treated you differently.

Well, I know you better now. Let you sit down and we'll talk together.

_(Conn sits on chair to right of table)_ What's to become of myself I don't know. Anne and James Moynihan will marry, I hope. Neither of us have fortunes, and for that reason our house should be well spoken of.

CONN Sure I know that. I wouldn't bring the shadow of a disgrace near ye.

MAIRE If the father isn't well spoken of, how could the house be well spoken of? They're big drinkers that go to Flynn's, and it's easy for the fiddler to get into the way of drinking.

CONN I won't go to Flynn's when you put it that way.

MAIRE I'll ask for no word. I'll let you know the real way of the house, and then trust you.

CONN You're a good girl, Maire. I should have been said by you.

MAIRE From this out there will be dances at the schoolhouse and the like of that. You could be playing at them. CONN None of the oul'

people go to the like, and the young don't understand me nor my ways.

G.o.d knows will I ever play again. That thought is often with me of late, and it makes me very lonesome.

MAIRE That's foolishness.

CONN I was very lonesome when you left me. You don't know how I was tempted, Maire. There was Brian MacConnell putting on his coat to go to Flynn's, and talking of the Sligomen.

MAIRE _(startled)_ And was it to Flynn's that Brian MacConnell went?

CONN It was Brian that brought me to Flynn's.

MAIRE Was it Brian MacConnell that brought you to Flynn's?

CONN It was.

MAIRE _(pa.s.sionately)_ You must never go to Flynn's.

CONN I'm ashamed of myself. Didn't I say that, Maire?

MAIRE _(with hardness)_ You must never go again.

CONN And is a man to have no life to himself?

MAIRE That's talk just. It's time you thought of your own place and your own children. It's time you gave up caring for the praise of foolish people,

CONN Foolish people, did you say?

MAIRE Ay, foolish people. You had all your life to yourself, and you went here and there, straying from place to place, and caring only for the praise of foolish people.

CONN G.o.d help you, if that's your way of thinking! Sure the world knows that a man is born with the gift, and isn't the gift then the sign of the grace of G.o.d? Foolish people, indeed! Them that know the gift have some of the grace of G.o.d, no matter how poor they may be.

MAIRE You're always thinking of them. You never think of your own.

Many's the time your own cried tears over your playing.

CONN _(pa.s.sionately, starting up)_ I'll go out of the house.

MAIRE Let you stay here.