Table of Contents

COSTUMES.—Period, 179—.

Hardress.—Green broad-skirted body coat of the time; double-breasted light silk waistcoat, leather pantaloons, top boots, hair rather long, steeple-crowned gold-laced hat, and white muslin cravat.

2nd Dress: Blue body coat, white waistcoat, white kerseymere breeches, silk stockings, and shoes.

Daly.—Brown coat, etc., same fashion as above. 2nd Dress: Full dress.

Creagh, O’Moore, and Gentlemen.—Evening dress.

Father Tom.—Broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat, faded black suit, black riding boots, and white cravat.

Danny. [A hunchback.] Blue frieze jacket, corduroy breeches, yellow waistcoat, gray stockings, shoes and buckles, and old seal-skin cap.

Myles.—Drab great coat, with cape, red cloth waistcoat, old velveteen breeches, darned gray stockings, and shoes.

Corrigan.—Black suit, top boots, and brown wig.

Mrs. Cregan.—Puce silk dress of the time, white muslin neckerchief and powdered hair. 2nd Dress: Handsome embroidered silk dress, jewels and fan.

Anne.—Gold-laced riding habit, hat and vail. 2nd Dress: White embroidered muslin dress, and colored sash.

Eily.—Blue merino petticoat, chintz tuck-up body and skirts, short sleeves, blue stockings, hair plain, with neat comb, red cloak, and hood.

Hard [Going up C.] Hist! Danny, are you there?

Danny Is it yourself, Masther Hardress?

Hard Is the boat ready?

Danny Snug under the blue rock, sir.

Hard Does Eily expect me to-night?

Danny Expict is it? Here is a lether she bade me give yes; sure the young thing is never aisy when you are away. Look, masther, dear, do ye see that light, no bigger than a star beyant on Muckross Head?

Hard Yes, it is the signal which my dear Eily leaves burning in our chamber.

Danny All night long she sits beside that light, wid her face fixed on that lamp in your windy above.

Hard Dear, dear Eily! after all here’s asleep, I will leap from my window, and we’ll cross the lake.

Danny [Searching.] Where did I put that lether?

Kyrle [L.] Hardress, who is that with you?

Hard [C.] Only Mann, my boatman.

Kyrle That fellow is like your shadow.

Danny [R.] Is it a cripple like me, that would be the shadow of an illegant gintleman like Mr. Hardress Cregan?

Kyrle [L.] Well, I mean that he never leaves your side.

Hard [C.] And he never shall leave me. Ten years ago he was a fine boy—we were foster-brothers, and playmates—in a moment of passion, while we were struggling, I flung him from the gap rock into the reeks below, and thus he was maimed for life.

Danny Arrah! whist aroon! wouldn’t I die for yez? didn’t the same mother foster us? Why, wouldn’t ye break my back if it plazed ye, and welkim! Oh, Masther Kyrle, if ye’d seen him nursin’ me for months, and cryin’ over me, and keenin’! Sin’ that time, sir, my body’s been crimpin’ up smaller and smaller every year, but my heart is gettin’ bigger for him every day.

Hard Go along, Danny.

Danny Long life t’ye, sir! I’m off.

Kyrle Hardress, a word with you. Be honest with me—do you love Anne Chute?

Hard Why do you ask?

Kyrle Because we have been fellow-collegians and friends through life, and the five years that I have passed at sea have strengthened, but have not cooled, my feelings towards you. [Offers hand.

Hard [L.] Nor mine for you, Kyrle. You are the same noble fellow as ever. You ask me if I love my cousin Anne?

Mrs. C [C., between them.] And I will answer you, Mr. Daly.

Hard [R.] My mother!

Mrs. C [C.] My son and Miss Chute are engaged. Excuse me, Kyrle, for intruding on your secret, but I have observed your love for Anne with some regret. I hope your heart is not so far gone as to be beyond recovery.

Kyrle [L.] Forgive me, Mrs. Cregan, but are you certain that Miss Chute really is in love with Hardress?

Mrs. C Look at him! I’m sure no girl could do that and doubt it.

Kyrle But I’m not a girl, ma’am; and sure, if you are mistaken—

Hard My belief is that Anne does not care a token for me, and likes Kyrle better.

Mrs. C [C.] You are an old friend of my son, and I may confide to you a family secret. The extravagance of my husband left this estate deeply involved. By this marriage with Anne Chute we redeem every acre of our barony. My son and she have been brought up as children together, and don’t know their true feelings yet.

Hard Stop, mother, I know this: I would not wed my cousin if she did not love me, not if she carried the whole county Kerry in her pocket, and the barony of Kenmare in the crown of her hat.

Mrs. C Do you hear the proud blood of the Cregans?

Hard Woo her, Kyrle, if you like, and win her if you can. I’ll back you.

Anne [L. C.] So will I—What’s the bet?

Mrs. C Hush!

Anne I’d like to have bet on Kyrle.

Hard Well, Anne, I’ll tell you what it was.

Mrs. C [C.] Hardress!

Anne [L. C.] Pull in one side aunt, and let the boy go on.

Hard [R.] Kyrle wanted to know if the dark brown colt, Hardress Cregan, was going to walk over the course for the Anne Chute Stakes, or whether it was a scrub-race open to all.

Anne I’m free-trade—coppleens, mules and biddys.

Mrs. C How can you trifle with a heart like Kyrle’s?

Anne Trifle! his heart can be no trifle, if he’s all in proportion.

Servant Squire Corrigan, ma’am, begs to see you.

Mrs C At this hour, what can the fellow want? Show Mr. Corrigan here. [Exit Servant into house, L.] I hate this man; he was my husband’s agent, or what the people here call a middle-man—vulgarly polite, and impudently obsequious.

Hard [R.] Genus squireen—a half sir, and a whole scoundrel.

Anne I know—a potatoe on a silver plate: I’ll leave you to peel him. Come, Mr. Daly, take me for a moonlight walk, and be funny.

Kyrle Funny, ma’am, I’m afraid I am—

Anne You are heavy, you mean; you roll through the world like a hogshead of whisky; but you only want tapping for pure spirits to flow out spontaneously. Give me your arm. [Crossing, R.] Hold that glove now. You are from Ballinasloe, I think?

Kyrle I’m Connaught to the core of my heart.

Anne To the roots of your hair, you mean. I bought a horse at Ballinasloe fair that deceived me; I hope you won’t turn out to belong to the same family.

Kyrle [R. C.] What did he do?

Anne Oh! like you, he looked well enough—deep in the chest as a pool—a-dhiol, and broad in the back as the Gap of Dunloe—but after two days’ warm work he came all to pieces, and Larry, my groom, said he’d been stuck together with glue.

Kyrle [R.] Really, Miss Chute! [Music.—Exeunt, R. 1 E.

Hard [Advancing, laughing.] That girl is as wild as a coppleen,—she won’t leave him a hair on the head. [Goes up.

Corrigan [L.] Your humble servant, Mrs. Cregan—my service t’ye, ’Squire—it’s a fine night, entirely.

Mrs. C [C.] May I ask to what business, sir, we have the honor of your call?

Corrig [Aside, L. C.] Proud as a Lady Beelzebub, and as grand as a queen. [Aloud.] True for you, ma’am; I would not have, come, but for a divil of a pinch I’m in entirely. I’ve got to pay £8,000 to-morrow or lose the Knockmakilty farms.

Mrs. C Well, sir?

Corrig And I wouldn’t throuble ye—

Mrs. C Trouble me, sir?

Corrig Iss, ma’am—ye’d be forgettin’ now that mortgage I have on this property. It ran out last May, and by rights—

Mrs. C It will be paid next month.

Corrig Are you reckonin’ on the marriage of Mister Hardress and Miss Anne Chute?

Hard [Advancing, R.] Mr. Corrigan, you forget yourself.

Mrs. C Leave us, Hardress, a while. [Hardress retires, R.] Now, Mr. Corrigan, state, in as few words as possible, what you demand.

Corrig Mrs. Cregan, ma’am, you depend on Miss Anne Chute’s fortune to pay me the money, but your son does not love the lady, or, if he does, he has a mighty quare way of showing it. He has another girl on hand, and betune the two he’ll come to the ground, and so bedad will I.

Mrs. C That is false—it is a calumny, sir!

Corrig I wish it was, ma’am. D’ye see that light over the lake? your son’s eyes are fixed on it. What would Anne Chute say if she knew that her husband, that is to be, had a mistress beyant—that he slips out every night after you’re all in bed, and like Leandher, barrin’ the wettin’, he sails across to his sweetheart?

Mrs. C Is this the secret of his aversion to the marriage? Fool! fool! what madness, and at such a moment.

Corrig That’s what I say, and no lie in it.

Mrs. C He shall give up this girl—he must!

Corrig I would like to have some security for that. I want, by to-morrow, Anne Chute’s written promise to marry him, or my £8,000.

Mrs. C It is impossible, sir; you hold ruin over our heads.

Corrig Madam, it’s got to hang over your head or mine.

Mrs. C Stay; you know that what you ask is out of our power—you know it—therefore this demand only covers the true object of your visit.

Corrig ’Pon my honor! and you are as ’cute, ma’am, as you are beautiful!

Mrs. C Go on, sir.

Corrig Mrs. Cregan, I’m goin’ to do a foolish thing—now, by gorra I am! I’m richer than ye think, maybe, and if you’ll give me your personal security, I’ll take it.

Mrs. C What do you mean?

Corrig I meant that I’ll take a lien for life on you, instead of the mortgage I hold on the Cregan property. [Aside.] That’s nate, I’m thinkin’.

Mrs. C Are you mad?

Corrig I am—mad in love with yourself, and that’s what I’ve been these fifteen years. [Music through dialogue, till Anne Chute is off.