MURTAGH COSGAR _(fiercely)_ The daughter of a man who'd be sitting over his fire reading his paper, and the clouds above his potatoes, and the cows trampling his oats. _(Martin is beaten down)_ Do you know me at all, Martin Douras? I came out of a little house by the roadway and built my house on a hill. I had many children. Coming home in the long evenings, or kneeling still when the prayers would be over, I'd have my dreams. A son in Aughnalee, a son in Ballybrian, a son in Dunmore, a son of mine with a shop, a son of mine saying Mass in Killnalee. And I have a living name--a name in flesh and blood. MARTIN DOURAS God help you, Murtagh Cosgar. MURTAGH COSGAR But I've a son still. It's not your daughter he'll be marrying. _(He strides to the door and calls Matt)_ MARTIN DOURAS _(going to him)_ Murtagh Cosgar--for God's sake--we're both old men, Murtagh Cosgar. MURTAGH COSGAR You've read many stories, Martin Douras, and you know many endings. You'll see an ending now, and it will be a strong ending, and a sudden ending. _Matt comes in_. MURTAGH COSGAR You're wanted here. MATT I heard you call. _(He sits on table)_ So they're sticking to the twenty years. MARTIN DOURAS _(eagerly)_ Twenty years, Matt, and they'll get it for twenty. O, it's a great day for you both! Father and son, you come into a single inheritance. What the father wins the son wields. MURTAGH COSGAR What the father wins, the son wastes. MATT What's the talk of father and son? MARTIN DOURAS They're the one flesh and blood. There's no more strife between them than between the right hand and the left hand. MURTAGH COSGAR _(to Matt)_ We were talking about you. We were fixing a match for you. MATT _(startled, looking at Martin Douras)_ Fixing a match for me? _(He rises)_ MURTAGH COSGAR Ay, Matt. Don't you think it's time to be making a match for you? MATT _(sullenly, going to the door)_ Maybe it is. When you have chosen the woman, call. I'll be without. MURTAGH COSGAR _(going to him)_ We haven't chosen yet. But it won't be Martin Douras' daughter, anyhow. MATT Stop. You drove all your living children away, except Sally and myself. You think Sally and myself are the one sort. MURTAGH COSGAR _(tauntingly)_ Martin's daughter, Corney's sister. That's the girl for you! MATT We're not the one sort, I tell you. Martin Douras, isn't he a foolish old man that would drive all his children from him? What would his twenty years' purchase be to him then? MURTAGH COSGAR It wasn't for my children I worked. No, no; thank God; it wasn't for my children I worked. Go, if you will. I can be alone. MARTIN DOURAS O Murtagh, Murtagh, sure you know you can't be alone. We're two old men, Murtagh. MURTAGH COSGAR He daren't go. MATT Because I'm the last of them he thinks he can dare me like that. MURTAGH COSGAR There was more of my blood in the others. MATT Do you say that? MARTIN DOURAS Don't say it again. For God's sake, don't say it again, Murtagh.