Three Plays: The Fiddler's House, The Land, Thomas Muskerry Part 32

CRILLY We'd have no comfort in the house if your mother's mind was distracted.

_Mrs. Crilly enters from corridor. She is a woman of forty, dressed in a tailor-made costume. She has searching eyes. There is something of hysteria about her mouth. She has been good-looking._

CRILLY Good night, Marianne.

MRS. CRILLY Are you finis.h.i.+ng the abstracts, Albert?

ALBERT I'm working at them. It's a good job we didn't leave the old man much lat.i.tude for making mistakes.

MRS. CRILLY _(closing door)_ He'll have to resign.

CRILLY Good G.o.d, Marianne. _(He rises)_

MRS. CRILLY Well. Let him be sent away without a pension. Of course, he can live with us the rest of his life and give us nothing for keeping him.

CRILLY I don't know what's in your mind at all, Marianne. _(He crosses over to the cabinet, opens it, and fills out another gla.s.s of whisky)_

ALBERT Let the old man do what suits himself.

CRILLY _(coming back to stove)_ Do, Marianne. Let him do what suits himself. For the present.

MRS. CRILLY For pity's sake put down that gla.s.s and listen to what I have to say.

CRILLY What's the matter, Marianne?

MRS. CRILLY James Scollard came to me to-day, and he told me about the things that are noticed.... The nuns notice them, the Guardians notice them. He misses Ma.s.s. He is late on his rounds. He can't check the stores that are coming into the house. He may get himself into such trouble that he'll be dismissed with only an apology for a pension, or with no pension at all.

CRILLY I don't know what's to be done.

MRS. CRILLY If he could be got to resign now James Scollard would have a good chance of becoming Workhouse Master. He would marry Anna, and we would still have some hand in the affairs of the House.

CRILLY Yes, yes. I think that Scollard could make a place for himself.

ALBERT The old man won't be anxious to retire.

MRS. CRILLY Why shouldn't he retire when his time is up?

ALBERT Well, here he is what's called a potentate. He won't care to come down and live over Crilly's shop.

MRS. CRILLY And where else would he live in the name of G.o.d?

ALBERT He won't want to live with our crowd.

MRS. CRILLY What crowd? The boys can be sent to school, you'll be on your situation, and Anna will be away. _(She seats herself in the armchair)_ I don't know what Albert means when he says that the Master would not be content to live with us. It was always settled that he would come to us when his service was over.

_Albert, who has been going over the books, has met something that surprises him. He draws Crilly to the desk. The two go over the papers, puzzled and excited. Anna Crilly enters from corridor. She is a handsome girl of about nineteen or twenty, with a rich complexion dark hair and eyes. She is well dressed, and wears a cap of dark fur. She stands at the stove, behind her mother, holding her hands over the stove. Mrs. Crilly watches the pair at the desk_.

MRS. CRILLY We can't think of allowing a pension of fifty pounds a year to go out of our house. Where will we get money to send the boys to school?

ANNA Mother. Grandfather is going to live away from us.

MRS. CRILLY Why do you repeat what Albert says?

ANNA I didn't hear Albert say anything.

MRS. CRILLY Then, what are you talking about?

ANNA Grandfather goes to Martin's cottage nearly every evening, and stays there for hours. They'll be leaving the place in a year or two, and Grandfather was saying that he would take the cottage when he retired from the Workhouse.

MRS. CRILLY When did you hear this?

ANNA This evening. Delia Martin told me.

MRS. CRILLY And that's the reason why he has kept away from us. He goes to strangers, and leaves us in black ignorance of his thought.

_Crilly and Albert are busy at desk_.

CRILLY Well, d.a.m.n it all--

ALBERT Here's the voucher.

CRILLY G.o.d! I don't know what's to be done.

ALBERT It's a matter of fifty tons.

_Albert turns round deliberately, leaving his father going through the papers in desperate eagerness. Albert takes a cigarette from behind his ear, takes a match-box from his waistcoat pocket, and strikes a light. He goes towards door of apartments. Mrs. Crilly rises_.

ALBERT _(his hand on the handle of door)_ Well so-long.

MRS. CRILLY Where are you going?

ALBERT I'm leaving you to talk it over with the old man.

_Mrs. Crilly looks from Albert to Crilly_.

CRILLY The Master has let himself in for something serious, Marianne.

ALBERT It's a matter of fifty pounds. The old man has let the Guardians pay for a hundred tons of coal when only fifty were delivered.

MRS. CRILLY Is that so, Crofton?

CRILLY It looks like it, Marianne.

ALBERT There were fifty tons of coal already in stores, but the Governor didn't take them into account. That cute boy, James Covey, delivered fifty tons and charged for the hundred. The old man pa.s.sed on the certificate, and the Guardians paid Covey. They helped him to his pa.s.sage to America. _(He opens door and goes through)_

MRS. CRILLY They will dismiss him--dismiss him without a pension.

ANNA Mother. If he gets the pension first, could they take it back from him?