The Drone | Page 4

cleverer girl than your father thinks.
(Musingly.) Two weeks in London.
MARY. And don't forget the nice boy, uncle, when you go.
DANIEL. I'll do my best to get hold of him.
MARY. No. I want a good definite promise. Promise, uncle.
DANIEL. Well, really you know, my dear, he----
MARY. Uncle, promise.
DANIEL. Um----well, I promise.
MARY. You're a dear old thing. You see, uncle, I don't want to marry
Alick McCready or Jim McDowell or any of those boys, unless there's
nobody else.
DANIEL. Quite right, my dear, quite right. Two weeks in London.
Splendid! But it's time I was going into my workshop. (He rises and
takes the paper with him.) I must really try and do something this
morning. (Exit by workshop door.)
MARY (calling after him). You won't forget, uncle? Will you?
DANIEL. No, certainly not.
MARY. I do hope uncle brings that nice boy. Dark--tall--well set
up--well to do.

(KATE comes in again through the yard door, and looks at MARY,
who is gazing vacantly into space.)
KATE. Well? What notion have you got now?
MARY. Oh! just think, Kate! How would you like a boy who was dark
and tall, and well set up and well to do?
KATE. I'd just leap at him.
MARY (laughing). Agh! I don't think he'll ever come, Kate!
KATE. I think you've plenty on hand to manage. (BROWN opens the
yard door and resumes his old-position from which he stares at the
dresser). You're back again, are you?
BROWN. Aye.
KATE. What ails you now?
BROWN. I'm looking the spanner.
MARY. The spanner?
BROWN. The spanner, Miss Mary. It's for turning the nuts like.
KATE. Have you never got it yet?
BROWN. Do you think I've got eyes in the back of my head?
Underneath the seat, beside the salt-box, on the right near the wee
crock in the left hand corner. (He makes a movement to open one of the
drawers of the dresser.)
KATE. Will you get out of that, ignorance. It's not there.
BROWN (with an appealing look at MARY). Maybe its in the parlour?
MARY. Well, I'll take a look round. (She goes through the door to
living rooms.)

BROWN (mysteriously). Did you hear the news?
KATE. No. (Very much interested.) What?
BROWN. Ach! You women never know anything.
KATE. What's the news? Somebody killed?
BROWN. No. More serious.
KATE (alarmed). God bless me! What is it?
BROWN. Andy McMinn has a sister.
KATE (disappointed). Ach!
BROWN. And she's trying to get a man.
KATE. Well. I knowed that this years.
BROWN. And Mr. John Murray is a widow man.
KATE. You mean to be telling me that Mr. John has a notion of that
old thing? Go long with you!
BROWN. Did you ever hear tell of a widow man that never got married
again.
KATE. Plenty. Don't come in here talking blethers.
BROWN. Whist. There's more in what I'm telling you than you think.
And I'll hold you to a shilling that Sarah McMinn will be Mrs. John
Murray before one month.
KATE. Who told you?
BROWN. Ach. You've no more head than a yellow yorling. Where has
Mr. John been going to these wheen of nights?

KATE (thinking). Andy McMinns!
BROWN. Aye. Do you think it is to see old Andy? And sure he's been
talking to me all morning about the way the house is being kept. No
hand to save the waste; bread and things destroyed; hens laying away;
eggs ate up by the dozen and chickens lost and one thing and another.
And hinting about what money a good saving woman would bring him.
And Mr. Daniel----
KATE. Sh----he's in there working.
BROWN. Working? Ah, God save us! Him working! The last man that
seen Mr. Dan working is in his grave this twenty years. (He goes over
next workshop door.) I'll just peep in at him through the keyhole. (He
goes over and does so, and then beckons KATE over. She peeps in and
grins. As they are thus occupied ALICK MCCREADY opens the door
and stands gazing at them. He is a type of the young well-to-do farmer,
respectably dressed and good-looking.)
ALICK. Well! Well! Some people earn their money easy!
BROWN. Aye. In soul. Just look in there to see it. (MCCREADY looks
in and bursts into a loud hearty laugh. BROWN hurriedly goes out by
the yard door and KATE by door to inner rooms.)
DANIEL (opening door and standing there, perplexed looking). What's
the matter?
ALICK. Ah. I was just laughing at a wee joke, Mr. Murray.
DANIEL. It must have been very funny.
ALICK. Aye. It was. (Coming close to DANIEL, who walks slowly to
the middle of the kitchen.) I say. Were you at McArn's publichouse last
night?
DANIEL (looking round cautiously to