ROBERT. Not those qualities which she has and other women have not but the qualities which she has in common with them. I mean... the commonest. [_Turning over the stone, he presses the other side to his forehead._] I mean how her body develops heat when it is pressed, the movement of her blood, how quickly she changes by digestion what she eats into—what shall be nameless. [_Laughing._] I am very common today. Perhaps that idea never struck you? RICHARD. [_Drily._] Many ideas strike a man who has lived nine years with a woman. ROBERT. Yes. I suppose they do.... This beautiful cool stone does me good. Is it a paperweight or a cure for headache? RICHARD. Bertha brought it home one day from the strand. She, too, says that it is beautiful. ROBERT. [_Lays down the stone quietly._] She is right. [_He raises his glass and drinks. A pause._] RICHARD. Is that all you wanted to say to me? ROBERT. [_Quickly._] There is something else. The vicechancellor sends you, through me, an invitation for tonight—to dinner at his house. You know where he lives? [_Richard nods._] I thought you might have forgotten. Strictly private, of course. He wants to meet you again and sends you a very warm invitation. RICHARD. For what hour? ROBERT. Eight. But, like yourself, he is free and easy about time. Now, Richard, you must go there. That is all. I feel tonight will be the turningpoint in your life. You will live here and work here and think here and be honoured here—among our people. RICHARD. [_Smiling._] I can almost see two envoys starting for the United States to collect funds for my statue a hundred years hence. ROBERT. [_Agreeably._] Once I made a little epigram about statues. All statues are of two kinds. [_He folds his arms across his chest._] The statue which says: _How shall I get down?_ and the other kind [_he unfolds his arms and extends his right arm, averting his head_] the statue which says: _In my time the dunghill was so high._ RICHARD. The second one for me, please. ROBERT. [_Lazily._] Will you give me one of those long cigars of yours? [_Richard selects a Virginia cigar from the box on the table and hands it to him with the straw drawn out._] ROBERT. [_Lighting it._] These cigars Europeanize me. If Ireland is to become a new Ireland she must first become European. And that is what you are here for, Richard. Some day we shall have to choose between England and Europe. I am a descendant of the dark foreigners: that is why I like to be here. I may be childish. But where else in Dublin can I get a bandit cigar like this or a cup of black coffee? The man who drinks black coffee is going to conquer Ireland. And now I will take just a half measure of that whisky, Richard, to show you there is no ill feeling. RICHARD. [_Points._] Help yourself.