[_He looks at the clothes and turns towards the inner room, but stops at the sound of cheering outside._] PETER. There is the shouting come to our own door. What is it has happened? [PATRICK _and_ DELIA _come in._] PATRICK. There are ships in the Bay; the French are landing at Killala! [PETER _takes his pipe from his mouth and his hat off, and stands up. The clothes slip from_ MICHAEL's _arm._] DELIA. Michael! [_He takes no notice._] Michael! [_He turns towards her._] Why do you look at me like a stranger? [_She drops his arm_. BRIDGET _goes over towards her._] PATRICK. The boys are all hurrying down the hillsides to join the French. DELIA. Michael won't be going to join the French. BRIDGET [_to_ PETER]. Tell him not to go, Peter. PETER. It's no use. He doesn't hear a word we're saying. BRIDGET. Try and coax him over to the fire. DELIA. Michael! Michael! You won't leave me! You won't join the French, and we going to be married! [_She puts her arms about him; he turns towards her as if about to yield._ OLD WOMAN's _voice outside._] They shall be speaking for ever, The people shall hear them for ever. [MICHAEL _breaks away from_ DELIA _and goes out._] PETER [_to_ PATRICK, _laying a hand on his arm_]. Did you see an old woman going down the path? PATRICK. I did not, but I saw a young girl, and she had the walk of a queen. THE HOUR-GLASS: A MORALITY CHARACTERS A WISE MAN. SOME PUPILS. A FOOL. AN ANGEL. THE WISE MAN'S WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN. SCENE: _A large room with a door at the back and another at the side or else a curtained place where the persons can enter by parting the curtains. A desk and a chair at one side. An hour-glass on a stand near the door. A creepy stool near it. Some benches. A_ WISE MAN _sitting at his desk._ WISE M. [_turning over the pages of a book_]. Where is that passage I am to explain to my pupils to-day? Here it is, and the book says that it was written by a beggar on the walls of Babylon: "There are two living countries, the one visible and the one invisible; and when it is winter with us it is summer in that country, and when the November winds are up among us it is lambing time there." I wish that my pupils had asked me to explain any other passage. [_The_ FOOL _comes in and stands at the door holding out his hat. He has a pair of shears in the other hand._] It sounds to me like foolishness; and yet that cannot be, for the writer of this book, where I have found so much knowledge, would not have set it by itself on this page, and surrounded it with so many images and so many deep colours and so much fine gilding, if it had been foolishness. FOOL. Give me a penny. WISE M. [_turns to another page_]. Here he has written: "The learned in old times forgot the visible country." That I understand, but I have taught my learners better. FOOL. Won't you give me a penny?