PAUL. And I have great pleasure in being a witness. [_Aside_] And ten to one I’ll be called. _Curtain_ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ACT II _The following day--forenoon._ _A drinking-room in Patrick Deegan’s public-house. There is a door to the kitchen, one to the bar, and a side door to the yard._ _PATRICK DEEGAN, a big, rough man with a whiskey nose, comes in from the bar, followed by PAUL TWYNING and DAN DEEGAN._ PATRICK. Now don’t all spake at once. Keep you your tongue in your teeth, Dan, and let Paul Twyning that has travelled the world and seen something in his time tell me about this calamity.... One thing we all know: if Mullan had the ould man on his knees, she never let him up till he settled the business. _MRS. DEEGAN, a grey-haired woman with a troubled face, looks in from the bar._ MRS. DEEGAN. Patrick dear, won’t you let me come in and hear the rest of it? PATRICK. Away to blazes, you, and mind the bar! If I want your advice I’ll for send you. I never had an hour’s luck since the day I tane you. MRS. DEEGAN. Well, well. Maybe you’ll get rid of me, and you’ll have good luck then. [_She turns to go._] PATRICK. Here! bring us a taste of something to drink.... What’s yours, Paul? PAUL. Plain whiskey. DAN. Me a wee taste of wine. PATRICK. Wine the devil! [_To MRS. DEEGAN_] Three glasses of whiskey from the wee jar in the gas-meter. Fly now! MRS. DEEGAN [_comes back_]. Patrick Deegan, are you wild mad? If you taste whiskey this day and your father coming in--I know what ’ill happen. He’ll sign this house over to Daisy Mullan, and we’ll be left homeless.... PATRICK. Shut up your long face and bring the whiskey. Could I do business without a good rosener to steady me? Fly now. MRS. DEEGAN. Oh, very well. You’ll see who’s right and who’s wrong before the chapel bell rings six. [_She goes out to the bar._] PATRICK. Take sates, boys. I couldn’t sit down myself, I’m that through-over. _PAUL and DAN sit down at the table. MRS. DEEGAN comes in with three glasses on a tray._ PAUL. Here’s good luck and good health.... PATRICK. Don’t drink a minute, Paul. I want to ask you one question. Are you on our side or the ould man’s? Mind, a five-pound note never raired Pat Deegan. If you help me to manœuvre him into making me an assignment of this house the day--I’ll not forget a friend. PAUL. I’m dead again the ould man on principle. PATRICK. That’s the style, by Mozes! On what principle, Paul? PAUL. That a man of seventy-five should be thinking about his sowl instead of his honeymoon. PATRICK. A new proverb, by Mozes! We’ll drink to that afore we say another word. [_Raising his glass_] Here’s a plague on the ould Yankee Mullan that has brought all this trouble on quiet, dacent people. _All drink._