DAN. Amen, fader. Don’t vex yourself, fader. I’ll never marry nobody your day.... DEEGAN. You’ll marry to-morrow if you’re told! And the choice will be mine, not yours. DAN. All right, fader. You’re the best judge of a cow or a horse in the parish, and maybe of a well-doing woman too. DEEGAN. If she has a certain sum of hard money I won’t look too closely at her points. My thick-witted son is not such a catch in himself. DAN. God knows that’s true, fader. DEEGAN. I have my eye on a suitable female for this chair. She’s like yourself, not embarrassed with too much intelligence, but I understand she has money.... DAN [_aghast_]. The ould Yankee Mullan! Ould Daisy Mullan that could be my granny! DEEGAN. You are wrong, sir. Miss Mullan is in the prime of life. [_Sternly_] Would you dare turn the word on me, sir? DAN [_meekly_]. Oh, whatever you plan, yourself, fader, I’m agreeable.... You’re a highly educated man.... And I know nothing, God help me.... But I don’t like her Yankee twang.... DEEGAN. If her Yankee twang keeps you in the far fields, so much the better. I’m not marrying you to be happy, or to sit with your toes in the ashes.... Go now, and put on your Sunday clothes.... DAN. Where am I going, fader?--in God’s name, amen! DEEGAN. You’re going over with me to Mullan’s!... Wash the lime and mortar from behind your ears. And keep the cap pulled down over your hair.... It’s nice to see a boy of your age with grey hair in his head! DAN. I can’t help my hair turning white, fader.... Will I put this dicky on my neck? DEEGAN. Certainly so. _PAUL comes in for mortar._ PAUL. Dan, boys will be boys, and all of us make mistakes. But I think you ought to take your distinguished father into your confidence.... DAN. I’m in flames, but I’m betrayed! Sold like a bullock in Smithfield! [_Dashes into the room._] PAUL. I may be only a tramp, your honour, but I’ve an Irish heart in my body, and it hurts me to see a foolish boy deceiving a good father. DEEGAN. Paul Twyning, you are a better man than I gave you credit for.... What has this lad been doing? PAUL. He has been offering marriage to Rose M’Gothigan, and, needless to say, she accepted. DEEGAN [_staggers_]. Oh, don’t say that word! Tell me he has stolen something, or taken a false oath, but don’t say he’s pledged to that inferior. PAUL. It grieves me to hurt a proud father’s feelings, but I must protest the truth. He proposed to her in that aisy-chair a few minutes ago, and was accepted under my own eyes.... DAN [_appears in room doorway_]. It’s a lie, Judas! Mind, I’m prepared to fight for my life. It’s your oath again mine, and what are you but a tramp from God knows where? DEEGAN. Go inside, sir, and close the door! Leave my sight, lest Satan tempt me to lift my hand. DAN. My oath’s as good as Paul Twyning’s.