EILEEN (_comes to_ Carmody _and hangs on his arm as they proceed to the door_). Be sure and kiss them all for me--Billy and Tom and Nora and little Mary--and bring them out to see me as soon as you can, father, please! And you come often, too, won't you? And don't forget to tell Mrs. Brennan all the directions I gave you coming out on the train. I told her, but she mightn't remember--about Mary's bath--and to give Tom his---- CARMODY (_impatiently_). Hasn't she brought up brats of her own, and doesn't she know the way of it? Don't be worryin' now, like a fool. EILEEN (_helplessly_). Never mind telling her, then. I'll write to her. CARMODY. You'd better not. Leave her alone. She'll not wish you mixin' in with her work and tellin' her how to do it. EILEEN (_aghast_). Her work! (_She seems at the end of her tether--wrung too dry for any further emotion. She kisses her father at the door with indifference and speaks calmly._) Good-bye, father. CARMODY (_in a whining tone of injury_). A cold kiss! And never a small tear out of her! Is your heart a stone? (_Drunken tears well from his eyes and he blubbers._) And your own father going back to a lone house with a stranger in it! EILEEN (_wearily, in a dead voice_). You'll miss your train, father. CARMODY (_raging in a second_). I'm off, then! Come on, Fred. It's no welcome we have with her here in this place--and a great curse on this day I brought her to it! (_He stamps out._) EILEEN (_in the same dead tone_). Good-bye, Fred. NICHOLLS (_repenting his words of a moment ago--confusedly_). I'm sorry, Eileen--for what I said. I didn't mean--you know what your father is--excuse me, won't you? EILEEN (_without feeling_). Yes. NICHOLLS. And I'll be out soon--in a week if I can make it. Well then,--good-bye for the present. (_He bends down as if to kiss her, but she shrinks back out of his reach._) EILEEN (_a faint trace of mockery in her weary voice_). No, Fred. Remember you mustn't now. NICHOLLS (_in an instant huff_). Oh, if that's the way you feel about---- (_He strides out and slams the door viciously behind him._ Eileen _walks slowly back towards the fire-place, her face fixed in a dead calm of despair. As she sinks into one of the armchairs, the strain becomes too much. She breaks down, hiding her face in her hands, her frail shoulders heaving with the violence of her sobs. At this sound,_ Murray _turns from the windows and comes over near her chair._)