Jean: I’ll speak to him.
Willie: It’s no business of mine, but the farm’s wasting, Mrs. Burns.
Jean: You’re right, Willie, it’s no business of yours.
Willie: I’ll have to be going elsewhere.
Jean: You’re a very prudent young man.
Willie: What’s the use of putting me off like that? There’s no offence in what I say. I mean it friendly. The master’s mind is not in it. This could be a grand farm, Mrs. Burns, but it needs a judicious industry. He’s a great man, and a poet, and all that they say, but here’s a hundred acres being spoilt by his neglect.
[Burns comes in.]
Burns: You’re quite right, Willie, neglect, that’s what it is.
Jean: You shouldn’t speak so, Willie.
Burns: But he should, Jean, my girl. Truth’s truth, eh, Willie?