PEGGY [_listens_]. I hope he doesn’t knock down the plant.... He never asked me to go with him. [_Listens._] No, he’s out past it.... He might have kissed me, just once. [_She works quietly and shakes the water from her eyes._] Well, well! _MRS. SCALLY comes in back. She is a sharp looking woman, aged sixty, an ex-schoolmistress. She has a paper and some mail in her hand._ MRS. S. Did I not hear voices, Peggy? PEGGY. There’s nobody here, mother. Is the post past? MRS. S. Yes. PEGGY. Nothing for me? MRS. S. Nothing. [_Glancing at her_] You’ve been crying. PEGGY. That’s nothing new. MRS. S. Nothing new! What have you got to cry about? PEGGY. I don’t really know. The tears just come, and then I just let them come. It’s very silly. MRS. S. That blackguard O’Cahan is likely to come over here to say good-bye. He’s going away after the auction. You mustn’t see him. PEGGY. Hugh O’Cahan is no blackguard! He’s worth a gross of the people who’ve helped to drag him down. MRS. S. Oh, indeed! Is that the way of it? Are you going to turn on me because he’s left you in the lurch? PEGGY. I’m sorry, mother. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. But you mightn’t try to hurt me. My three sisters can sneer quite enough without your assistance. MRS. S. I said Hugh O’Cahan was a blackguard, and I repeat it. PEGGY. What exactly do you mean by a blackguard, mother? MRS. S. A worthless scoundrel. PEGGY. O’Cahan’s a fool. A fool to’ve gone in for horse-dealing with a pack of thieves. That’s the worst can be said about him. If he were vicious would ever I have spoken to him? MRS. S. Perhaps not--if you knew it.... When you finish what you’re at, prepare the front bedroom. Your uncle has arrived in London from the Far East and is coming to see us. Professor Tim. PEGGY. Pardon me, mother. You oughtn’t to call him a professor. He isn’t a real professor. MRS. S. Well, of course, you with your convent training will know better than your mother. What then do you call him? PEGGY. If he can be called anything in particular it’s a diviner. MRS. S. Dear bless me. A diviner? PEGGY. Yes, mother. A water-diviner. A person who can locate water with a hazel rod is called a diviner. MRS. S. Well, while he remains here, he’s a professor. That’ll give the neighbours something to talk about. PEGGY. I should say it will. MRS. S. It’s twenty years since he was last here. He was then studying Geology. If by this time he isn’t a fully-fledged professor--I’m mistaken.... I think you ought to be rather pleased that your mother’s only brother is a cut above the ordinary. Your father’s people aren’t much. Pig-dealers. _JOHN SCALLY comes in back. He is a sturdy little man with a thick brown beard, and ten years younger than his wife. He carries the salley switch with which he drove out the cows._