FullReads

O’FLAHERTY

[his face darkening]. Well, it’s the best the Bosh could do for me, anyhow.

TERESA

. Do you think I might take it to the jeweller next market day and ask him?

O’FLAHERTY

[sulkily]. You may take it to the divil if you like.

TERESA

. You needn’t lose your temper about it. I only thought I’d like to know. The nice fool I’d look if I went about showing off a chain that turned out to be only brass!

O’FLAHERTY

. I think you might say Thank you.

TERESA

. Do you? I think you might have said something more to me than “Is that yourself?” You couldn’t say less to the postman.

O’FLAHERTY

[his brow clearing]. Oh, is that what’s the matter? Here! come and take the taste of ther brass out of my mouth. [He seizes her and kisses her.]

Teresa, without losing her Irish dignity, takes the kiss as appreciatively as a connoisseur might take a glass of wine, and sits down with him on the garden seat,

TERESA

[as he squeezes her waist]. Thank God the priest can’t see us here!

O’FLAHERTY

. It’s little they care for priests in France, alanna.

TERESA

. And what had the queen on her, Denny, when she spoke to you in the palace?

O’FLAHERTY

. She had a bonnet on without any strings to it. And she had a plakeen of embroidery down her bosom. And she had her waist where it used to be, and not where the other ladies had it. And she had little brooches in her ears, though she hadn’t half the jewelry of Mrs Sullivan that keeps the popshop in Drumpogue. And she dresses her hair down over her forehead, in a fringe like. And she has an Irish look about her eyebrows. And she didn’t know what to say to me, poor woman! and I didn’t know what to say to her, God help me!

TERESA

. You’ll have a pension now with the Cross, won’t you, Denny?

O’FLAHERTY

. Sixpence three farthings a day.

TERESA

. That isn’t much.

O’FLAHERTY

. I take out the rest in glory.

TERESA

. And if you’re wounded, you’ll have a wound pension, won’t you?

O’FLAHERTY

. I will, please God.

TERESA

. You’re going out again, aren’t you, Denny?

O’FLAHERTY

. I can’t help myself. I’d be shot for a deserter if I didn’t go; and maybe I’ll be shot by the Boshes if I do go; so between the two of them I’m nicely fixed up.

MRS O’FLAHERTY

[calling from within the house]. Tessie! Tessie darlint!

TERESA

[disengaging herself from his arm and rising]. I’m wanted for the tea table. You’ll have a pension anyhow, Denny, won’t you, whether you’re wounded or not?

MRS O’FLAHERTY

. Come, child, come.

TERESA

[impatiently]. Oh, sure I’m coming. [She tries to smile at Denny, not very convincingly, and hurries into the house.]

O’FLAHERTY

[alone]. And if I do get a pension itself, the divil a penny of it you’ll ever have the spending of.

MRS O’FLAHERTY

[as she comes from the porch]. Oh, it’s a shame for you to keep the girl from her juties, Dinny. You might get her into trouble.

O’FLAHERTY

. Much I care whether she gets into trouble or not! I pity the man that gets her into trouble. He’ll get himself into worse.

MRS O’FLAHERTY

. What’s that you tell me? Have you been falling out with her, and she a girl with a fortune of ten pounds?

O’FLAHERTY

. Let her keep her fortune. I wouldn’t touch her with the tongs if she had thousands and millions.