So then you're as deceitful as the rest, And all that talk of buying what's but a vapour Is fancy bread. I might have known as much, Because that's how the trick-o'-the-loop man talks. FIRST MERCHANT That's for the work, each has its separate price; But neither price is paid till the work's done. TEIG The same for me. MARY Oh, God, why are you still? FIRST MERCHANT You've but to cry aloud at every cross-road, At every house door, that we buy men's souls. And give so good a price that all may live In mirth and comfort till the famine's done, Because we are Christian men. SHEMUS Come, let's away. TEIG I shall keep running till I've earned the price. SECOND MERCHANT (_who has risen and gone towards fire_) Stop; you must have proof behind the words. So here's your entertainment on the road. (_He throws a bag of money on the ground._) Live as you please; our Master's generous. (TEIG and SHEMUS _have stopped_. TEIG _takes the money. They go out._) MARY Destroyers of souls, God will destroy you quickly. You shall at last dry like dry leaves and hang Nailed like dead vermin to the doors of God. SECOND MERCHANT Curse to your fill, for saints will have their dreams. FIRST MERCHANT Though we're but vermin that our Master sent To overrun the world, he at the end Shall pull apart the pale ribs of the moon And quench the stars in the ancestral night. MARY God is all powerful. SECOND MERCHANT Pray, you shall need Him. You shall eat dock and grass, and dandelion, Till that low threshold there becomes a wall, And when your hands can scarcely drag your body We shall be near you. (MARY _faints_.) (_The_ FIRST MERCHANT _takes up the carpet, spreads it before the fire and stands in front of it warming his hands_.) FIRST MERCHANT Our faces go unscratched, Wring the neck o' that fowl, scatter the flour And look if there is bread upon the shelves. We'll turn the fowl upon the spit and roast it, And eat the supper we were bidden to, Now that the house is quiet, praise our Master, And stretch and warm our heels among the ashes. END OF SCENE I. SCENE II FRONT SCENE.--_A wood with perhaps distant view of turreted house at one side, but all in flat colour, without light and shade and against a diapered or gold background._ COUNTESS CATHLEEN _comes in leaning upon_ ALEEL'S _arm_. OONA _follows them_. CATHLEEN (_stopping_) Surely this leafy corner, where one smells The wild bee's honey, has a story too? OONA There is the house at last. ALEEL