MURTAGH COSGAR It's that Ellen Douras that's putting him up to all this. Don't you be said by her, Sally.
SALLY
No, father.
MURTAGH COSGAR You're a good girl, and if you haven't wit, you have sense. He'll be home soon, did you say?
SALLY
He was coming home. He went round the long way, I'm thinking.
Ellen Douras was vexed with him, father. She isn't going either,
Matt says, but I'm thinking that you might as well try to keep a
corncrake in the meadow for a whole winter, as to try to keep Ellen
Douras in Aughnalee.
MURTAGH COSGAR Make the place tidy for him to come into. He'll have no harsh words from me. (He goes up to the room)
SALLY
Father's surely getting ould.
MARTIN DOURAS (sitting down) He's gone up to rest himself, God help him. Sally, a stor, I'm that fluttered, I dread going into my own house.
SALLY I'll get ready now, and let you have a good supper before you go to the fair.
MARTIN DOURAS
Sit down near me, and let me hear everything, Sally.
Was it Matt that told you, or were you talking to Ellen herself?
SALLY O, indeed, I had a talk with Ellen, but she won't give much of her mind away. It was Matt that was telling me. "Indeed she's not going," said he, "and a smart young fellow like myself thinking of her. Ellen is too full of notions." Here's Matt himself. Father won't have a word to say to him. He's getting mild as he's getting ould, and maybe it's a fortune he'll be leaving to myself.