_Mr. Quirke:_ (_Embracing him._) The man that preserved me! _Hyacinth:_ That preserved you? _Mr. Quirke:_ That kept me from ruin! _Hyacinth:_ From ruin? _Mr. Quirke:_ That saved me from disgrace! _Hyacinth:_ (_To Mrs. Delane._) What is he saying at all? _Mr. Quirke:_ From the Inspector! _Hyacinth:_ What is he talking about? _Mr. Quirke:_ From the magistrates! _Hyacinth:_ He is making some mistake. _Mr. Quirke:_ From the Winter Assizes! _Hyacinth:_ Is he out of his wits? _Mr. Quirke:_ Five years in gaol! _Hyacinth:_ Hasn’t he the queer talk? _Mr. Quirke:_ The loss of the contract! _Hyacinth:_ Are my own wits gone astray? _Mr. Quirke:_ What way can I repay you? _Hyacinth:_ (_Shouting._) I tell you I took the sheep—— _Mr. Quirke:_ You did, God reward you! _Hyacinth:_ I stole away with it—— _Mr. Quirke:_ The blessing of the poor on you! _Hyacinth:_ I put it out of sight—— _Mr. Quirke:_ The blessing of my five children—— _Hyacinth:_ I may as well say nothing—— _Mrs. Delane:_ Let you be quiet now, Quirke. Here’s the Sergeant coming to search the shop—— (_Sergeant comes in: Quirke leaves go of Halvey, who arranges his hat, etc._) _Sergeant:_ The Department to blazes! _Mrs. Delane:_ What is it putting you out? _Sergeant:_ To go to the train to meet the lecturer, and there to get a message through the guard that he was unavoidably detained in the South, holding an inquest on the remains of a drake. _Mrs. Delane:_ The lecturer, is it? _Sergeant:_ To be sure. What else would I be talking of? The lecturer has failed me, and where am I to go looking for a person that I would think fitting to take his place? _Mrs. Delane:_ And that’s all? And you didn’t get any message but the one? _Sergeant:_ Is that all? I am surprised at you, Mrs. Delane. Isn’t it enough to upset a man, within three quarters of an hour of the time of the meeting? Where, I would ask you, am I to find a man that has education enough and wit enough and character enough to put up speaking on the platform on the minute? _Mr. Quirke:_ (_Jumps up._) It is I myself will tell you that. _Sergeant:_ You! _Mr. Quirke:_ (_Slapping Halvey on the back._) Look at here, Sergeant. There is not one word was said in all those papers about this young man before you but it is true. And there could be no good thing said of him that would be too good for him. _Sergeant:_ It might not be a bad idea. _Mr. Quirke:_ Whatever the paper said about him, Sergeant, I can say more again. It has come to my knowledge—by chance—that since he came to this town that young man has saved a whole family from destruction. _Sergeant:_ That is much to his credit—helping the rural classes——