leans against the table). Oh, I can't. Those people are coming over, and that McMinn woman will be looking at everything and telling you how to do things in front of father, and all the rest of it.

Alick (entreatingly). Leave me down the loaning a pace till I tell you the news.

Mary (teasingly). No.

Alick. Come on.

Mary. No. (Alick moves sadly towards the door. Mary looks round, and then laughingly skips past him out through the yard door, and he follows her.)

John (coming through door from inner rooms partly dressed, with a towel in his hands, evidently making much preparation to clean himself). Daniel! (Loudly and crossly.) Daniel!

Daniel (peeping out from workshop door). Well!

John. Tidy yourself up a wee bit, man, Andy McMinn and Sarah's coming over to see you.

Daniel (somewhat taken back). Me?

John. Aye. They want to see about the new invention. You can have the collar I wore last Sunday, and put on your new coat that you got in Belfast. (Daniel goes back into the workshop.) I wonder what tie would be the better one? Yon green or the red one that Mary gave me last Christmas. Aye. (Seeing no sign of Daniel.) D——n! Is he making no shapes to dress himself. Daniel!

Daniel (without). Aye.

John (loudly). Daniel!

Daniel (again appearing at door). Well!

John (impatiently). Come on and get on you.

Daniel. Ach. This is always the way. Just when a man has got the whole thing worked out and the plans of the apparatus just on the point of completion he has to stop.

John. Never mind, Danny. You can do it again the night or the morrow morning. I want you to look decent. Come on and get on you.

Daniel (beginning to regard his brother with a sudden interest and suspicion). Who did you say was coming?

John (at door to rooms). Andy and Sarah McMinn. (He goes out.)

Daniel (suddenly realising the import of the preparations going on.) McMinn. Mc——. (He stops short, and then in a horrified voice.) Surely to God he hasn't a notion of that woman? (Calling tremulously.) John! John!

John (at door). Hurry up, man.

Daniel (appealingly). John. Tell me, John. You haven't——you're not going to——you haven't a notion of that woman?

John (hesitatingly). Well, Daniel, you see the house needs some one to look after it proper, and I thought——well—maybe—that Sarah would be just as nice and saving a woman as I could get, but I thought I would keep it a bit secret, don't you know, because I don't know yet if she'd have me or not. And she could talk to you better nor I could about machinery and things that would interest you, for she has an agency for sewing machines, and knows something about that sort of thing, and you'd get on great with each other. Now, hurry and get on you. (He goes out by door into rooms.)

Daniel (looking after him in a helpless manner, and sinking into a chair). If—if she'd have him! O great God! If that woman comes to this house, I—I'm a ruined man.

(Curtain.)

ACT II.

The same scene some hours later. The curtain rises to discover Kate seated near table at back enjoying a cup of tea which she has made, and is drinking with relish.

Kate. I suppose they'll be wanting jam and sugar for the tea—aye—and some of them scones Miss Mary cooked yesterday, not but you couldn't eat them, and a pat or two of butter. (She finishes off the remains of the tea.) Now, that's a nice girl for you! Here's company coming till the house and tea and things a wanting, and she goes and leaves all to go strolling down the loaning with that fool of a McCready.

(Brown opens the yard door and comes in. He replaces the spanner on the top shelf and then turns and looks at Kate.)

Kate. Well?

Brown. Well, yourself?

Kate. Do you see any sign of them McMinns yet?

Brown. Aye. I see the trap coming over the Cattle Hill. There was three in it, as far as I could make out.

Kate. Who be to be the third party I wonder? Is it their servant man?

Brown. Do you think old Andy McMinn's servant man gets leave to drive them about of an afternoon like the clergy's? Talk sense, woman.

Kate. Maybe it's yon Scotch body I heard was stopping with them.

Brown. Aye. Yon Mackenzie. Ach, man, but yon creature would scunder you.

Kate. Aye.

Brown. Ach! Cracking jokes and laughing that hearty at them, and I'm danged if a bat with one eye shut could make out what he was laughing at. (Listening.) Here they are. I hear the wheels coming up the loaning. I'll have to go and put up the horse for them I suppose. (He goes out by yard door.)

Kate. I wonder if the master seen them coming. (She rapidly clears the table and then goes over to door into room.) I better tell him. (She knocks at the door.)

John (without). Aye. (He comes and opens the door, dressed in his best suit of clothes.) What's the matter?

Kate. They're just come, sir.

John (excitedly). Are they? (Comes into kitchen.) Is my tie right, Kate? And my clothes—is there any dirt on the back of them?

Kate (inspecting him critically). You'll do grand. I never seen you looking better.

John. Where's Mary? Why isn't she here?

Kate. She went out about something. She'll be back in a minute.

John. Right enough, it would do her all the good in the world to have a sensible woman looking after her. She just gets her own way a deal too much in this house. (He goes to window and looks out.) Aye. Here they are! Tell Daniel to hurry. (Kate goes off by door to rooms.) Sarah's looking bravely. Man, that woman could save me thirty, aye forty, pounds a year if she was here. (Suddenly.) Ach! Is Daniel never ready yet? (Calls.) Daniel! (Louder.) Daniel!

Daniel (without). Aye.

John. Hurry, man. They've come. (John goes to yard door and goes out.)

Daniel (in an exasperated voice). Ach!

(John comes in followed by Andrew McMinn, an elderly