CHRISTY (reading another letter) "I am about to add to the obligations under which I stand to you, by recommending to your notice my grandson, Albert Crilly—"
MUSKERRY That's the letter. It's the last of its kind. Bring it to me. (Christy Clarke brings over the letter) There comes a turn in the blood and a turn in the mind, Christy. This while back I've been going out to the country instead of into the town, and coming back here in the evenings I've seen the workhouse with the big wall around it, and the big gate going into it, and I've said to myself that Thomas Muskerry ought to be as secure and contented here as if he was in his own castle.
CHRISTY
And so you ought, Mister Muskerry.
MUSKERRY Look round at the office, Christy. I've made it as fit for me as the nest for the wren. I'll spend a few more years here, and then I'll go out on pension. I won't live in the town, I've seen a place in the country I'd like, and the people will be leaving it in a year or two.
CHRISTY
Where is it, Mister Muskerry?
MUSKERRY I'll say no more about it now, but it's not far from this, and its near the place, where I was reared.
CHRISTY
And so you'll go back to your own place?
MUSKERRY As Oliver Goldsmith my fellow county man, and I might almost say, my fellow parishioner, says—What's this the lines are about the hare, Christy?
CHRISTY "And like the Hare whom Hounds and Horns pursue Pants to the place from whence at first he flew."
MUSKERRY Aye. "And like the Hare whom Hounds and Horns pursue"— (The clock strikes nine)