Three Plays: The Fiddler's House, The Land, Thomas Muskerry Part 37

SCOLLARD No, thanks, Mr. Crilly. I never touch intoxicants.

_Crofton Crilly goes into shop_.

MRS. CRILLY We couldn't wish for a better match for Anna. But I feel bound to tell you, Mr. Scollard, that we have had a very severe loss in our business.

ANNA What is it, mother?

MRS. CRILLY I don't mind telling you. Mr. Crilly has made himself responsible for a bill on the bank.

SCOLLARD In whose interest, Mrs. Crilly?

MRS. CRILLY He backed a bill for James Covey. A bill for three hundred pounds.

ANNA Oh, mother!

MRS. CRILLY It's a dead sure loss. I don't know what we are to do, Anna.

SCOLLARD This is very bad, Mrs. Crilly.

_Crofton Crilly comes back from shop. He brings in a gla.s.s of whisky.

He puts whisky on chimney-piece._

MRS. CRILLY The bank has taken over three hundred pounds from our account.

CRILLY Perhaps Scollard--

SCOLLARD What were you saying, Mr. Crilly?

CRILLY Oh, I was just thinking--about a bill you know--If some one would go security for us at the bank--

ANNA Father, what are you saying?

MRS. CRILLY It's unnecessary to talk like that. In spite of your foolishness, we still have a balance at the bank.

ANNA My portion comes to me from my grandmother.

SCOLLARD May I ask, Mrs. Crilly, is Miss Crilly's portion safe?

MRS. CRILLY It is safe, Mr. Scollard.

SCOLLARD I have been definitely appointed Master of the Union, and I may say that Anna and myself are anxious to marry.

MRS. CRILLY It needn't be soon, Mr. Scollard.

SCOLLARD After Easter, Mrs. Crilly.

MRS. CRILLY But that's very soon.

SCOLLARD I am anxious to settle down, Mrs. Crilly. I'm on my way to a meeting of the Board of Guardians, but before I go I'd like to have some more information about your loss.

MRS. CRILLY Anna's portion is not touched, but we could hardly afford to let the money go from us now.

SCOLLARD Is that so, Mrs. Crilly?

MRS. CRILLY Three hundred pounds is a very severe loss.

SCOLLARD Very severe, indeed. Still, you understand, Mrs. Crilly, the difficulties of taking such a step as marriage without adequate provision.

CRILLY d.a.m.n it all, man, Marianne and myself married without anything at all.

MRS. CRILLY _(bitterly)_ Anna won't be such a fool as her mother.

CRILLY Well, Scollard has his position, and we helped him to it.

SCOLLARD I acknowledge that.

ANNA Isn't my portion eighty pounds, mother?

MRS. CRILLY Yes, Anna. But I'd like to tell Mr. Scollard that it would come as a strain on us to let the money go at once.

SCOLLARD I daresay, Mrs. Crilly.

ANNA But, mother, wouldn't the money be safer with us?

MRS. CRILLY Well, I leave the whole thing in the hands of Mr.

Scollard.

SCOLLARD Anna and myself have been talking things over, Mrs. Crilly.

ANNA And we don't want to begin life in a poor way.

SCOLLARD We see the advantage of being always solvent, Mrs. Crilly.

ANNA James has ambitions, and there's no reason why he shouldn't venture for the post of Secretary of the County Council when old Mr. Dobbs retires.

SCOLLARD In a few years, Mrs. Crilly, when I had more official experience and some reputation.

ANNA Then he would have seven or eight hundred a year.

SCOLLARD As I said, a man like myself would want to be in a perfectly solvent position.

ANNA Besides, James has no money of his own.

SCOLLARD I never had the chance of putting money by--Family calls, Mrs. Crilly.

ANNA And we don't want to begin life in a poor way.

MRS. CRILLY You won't want the whole of the money. I'll give you forty pounds now.