(Forces him into the chair) I'm glad to get away from it. Why, you look positively boyish. GILRUTH And why not? I am a boy. (Chuckles) DARTREY What are you so pleased with yourself about? GILRUTH The greatest thing in the world for youth and high-spirits. I'm going to be married next week. DARTREY (Incredulously) You're not? GILRUTH I tell you I am. DARTREY Don't be silly. GILRUTH What's silly about it? DARTREY Oh, I don't know. GILRUTH Of course you don't know. You've never tried it. DARTREY I should think not. GILRUTH Well, I'm going to and I want you to father me. Stand up beside me and see me through. Will you? DARTREY If you want me to. GILRUTH Well, I do want you to. DARTREY All right. GILRUTH You don't mind now? DARTREY My dear chap. It's charming of you to think of me. GILRUTH I've known you longer than any one over here. And I like you better. So there you are. DARTREY (Laughing) Poor old Dermod! Well, well! GILRUTH There's nothing to laugh at, or "well, well" about. DARTREY Do I know the---? GILRUTH (Shakes his head) She's never been over before. Everything will be new to her. I tell you it's going to be wonderful. I've planned out the most delightful trip through Ireland--she's Irish, too. DARTREY Is she? GILRUTH But, like me, born in America. She's crazy to see the old country. DARTREY She couldn't have a better guide. GILRUTH (Enthusiastically) She's beautiful, she's brilliant: she's good--she's everything a man could wish. DARTREY That's the spirit. Will you make your home over here? GILRUTH No. We'll stay till the autumn. Then I must go back to America. But some day when all this fighting is over and people talk of something besides killing each other I want to have a home in Ireland. DARTREY I suppose most of you Irishmen in America want to do that? GILRUTH Indeed they do not. Once they get out to America and do well they stay there and become citizens. My father did. Do you think he'd live in Ireland now? Not he. He talks all the time about Ireland and the hated Sassenachs--that's what he calls you English--and he urges the fellows at home in the old country to fight for their rights. But since he made his fortune and became an American citizen the devil a foot has he ever put on Irish soil. He's always going, but he hasn't go there yet. And as for living there? Oh, no, America is good enough for him, because his interests are there. I want to live in Ireland because my heart is there. So was my poor mother's. (Springing up) Now I'm off. You don't know how happy you make me by promising to be my best man. DARTREY My dear fellow-- GILRUTH And just wait until you see her. Eyes you lose yourself in. A voice soft as velvet. A brain so nimble that wit flows like music from her tongue. Poetry too. She dances like thistledown and sings like a thrush. And with all that she's in love with me. DARTREY I'm delighted. GILRUTH