HUGH. Aye, I hear!
NELI. An' remember where the tobacco is, for this is the day Tom Morris the Sheep comes in.
HUGH. Aye, in the glass jar.
NELI. Good-by. I will return soon.
HUGH. [Indifferently.] Good-by.
[Neli leaves by door at back centre. Immediately Hugh steals toward the shelves where she hid the book.
NELI. [Thrusting head back in.] Mind, Hughie lad, no readin'—nay, not even any theology!
HUGH. [Stepping quickly away from shelves and repeating parrotlike.] Nay, nay, no readin', no sermons, not even any theology!
NELI. An' no salvation till I come back!
[She smiles, withdraws head, and is gone. Hugh starts forward, collides clumsily with the counter in his eagerness, knocks the basket of eggs with his elbow, upsetting it. Several eggs break. He shakes his head ruefully at the mess and as ruefully at the counter. He finds book and hugs it greedily to him.