In the Shadow of the Glen

by J. M. Synge

TRAMP.
(Outside.) Good evening to you, lady of the house.

NORA.
Good evening, kindly stranger, it’s a wild night, God help you, to be out in the rain falling.

TRAMP.
It is, surely, and I walking to Brittas from the Aughrim fair.

NORA.
Is it walking on your feet, stranger?

TRAMP.
On my two feet, lady of the house, and when I saw the light below I thought maybe if you’d a sup of new milk and a quiet decent corner where a man could sleep (he looks in past her and sees the dead man.) The Lord have mercy on us all!

NORA.
It doesn’t matter anyway, stranger, come in out of the rain.

TRAMP.
(Coming in slowly and going towards the bed.) Is it departed he is?

NORA.
It is, stranger. He’s after dying on me, God forgive him, and there I am now with a hundred sheep beyond on the hills, and no turf drawn for the winter.

TRAMP.
(Looking closely at the dead man.) It’s a queer look is on him for a man that’s dead.

NORA.
(Half-humorously.) He was always queer, stranger, and I suppose them that’s queer and they living men will be queer bodies after.