MARY DOUL -- [very pleased, to Timmy.] -- Maybe I'd have time to walk down and get the big shawl I have below, for I do look my best, I've heard them say, when I'm dressed up with that thing on my head.
TIMMY. You'd have time surely.
MARTIN DOUL -- [listening.] Whisht now. . . . I hear people again coming by the stream.
TIMMY -- [looking out left, puzzled.] -- It's the young girls I left walking after the Saint. . . . They're coming now (goes up to entrance) carrying things in their hands, and they walking as easy as you'd see a child walk who'd have a dozen eggs hid in her bib.
MARTIN DOUL -- [listening.] -- That's Molly Byrne, I'm thinking.
[Molly Byrne and Bride come on left and cross to Martin Doul, carrying water-can, Saint's bell, and cloak.]
MOLLY -- [volubly.] -- God bless you, Martin. I've holy water here, from the grave of the four saints of the west, will have you cured in a short while and seeing like ourselves.
TIMMY -- [crosses to Molly, interrupting her.] -- He's heard that. God help you. But where at all is the Saint, and what way is he after trusting the holy water with the likes of you?
MOLLY BYRNE. He was afeard to go a far way with the clouds is coming beyond, so he's gone up now through the thick woods to say a prayer at the crosses of Grianan, and he's coming on this road to the church.
TIMMY -- [still astonished.] -- And he's after leaving the holy water with the two of you? It's a wonder, surely. [Comes down left a little.]
MOLLY BYRNE. The lads told him no person could carry them things through the briars, and steep, slippy-feeling rocks he'll be climbing above, so he looked round then, and gave the water, and his big cloak, and his bell to the two of us, for young girls, says he, are the cleanest holy people you'd see walking the world. [Mary Doul goes near seat.]
MARY DOUL -- [sits down, laughing to herself.] -- Well, the Saint's a simple fellow, and it's no lie.
MARTIN DOUL -- [leaning forward, holding out his hands.] -- Let you give me the water in my hand, Molly Byrne, the way I'll know you have it surely.
MOLLY BYRNE -- [giving it to him.] -- Wonders is queer things, and maybe it'd cure you, and you holding it alone.
MARTIN DOUL -- [looking round.] -- It does not, Molly. I'm not seeing at all. (He shakes the can.) There's a small sup only.
Well, isn't it a great wonder the little trifling thing would bring seeing to the blind, and be showing us the big women and the young girls, and all the fine things is walking the world.
[He feels for Mary Doul and gives her the can.]
MARY DOUL -- [shaking it.] -- Well, glory be to God.
MARTIN DOUL -- [pointing to Bride.] -- And what is it herself has, making sounds in her hand?
BRIDE -- [crossing to Martin Doul.] -- It's the Saint's bell; you'll hear him ringing out the time he'll be going up some place, to be saying his prayers.
[Martin Doul holds out his hand; she gives it to him.]
MARTIN DOUL -- [ringing it.] -- It's a sweet, beautiful sound.
MARY DOUL. You'd know, I'm thinking, by the little silvery voice of it, a fasting holy man was after carrying it a great way at his side.
[Bride crosses a little right behind Martin Doul.]
MOLLY BYRNE -- [unfolding Saint's cloak.] -- Let you stand up now, Martin Doul, till I put his big cloak on you. (Martin Doul rises, comes forward, centre a little.) The way we'd see how you'd look, and you a saint of the Almighty God.
MARTIN DOUL -- [standing up, a little diffidently.] -- I've heard the priests a power of times making great talk and praises of the beauty of the saints. [Molly Byrne slips cloak round him.]
TIMMY -- [uneasily.] -- You'd have a right to be leaving him alone, Molly. What would the Saint say if he seen you making game with his cloak?
MOLLY BYRNE -- [recklessly.] -- How would he see us, and he saying prayers in the wood? (She turns Martin Doul round.) Isn't that a fine holy-looking saint, Timmy the smith? (Laughing foolishly.) There's a grand, handsome fellow, Mary Doul; and if you seen him now you'd be as proud, I'm thinking, as the archangels below, fell out with the Almighty God.
MARY DOUL -- [with quiet confidence going to Martin Doul and feeling his cloak.] -- It's proud we'll be this day, surely.
[Martin Doul is still ringing.]
MOLLY BYRNE -- [to Martin Doul.] -- Would you think well to be all your life walking round the like of that, Martin Doul, and you bell-ringing with the saints of God?
MARY DOUL -- [turning on her, fiercely.] -- How would he be bell-ringing with the saints of God and he wedded with myself?
MARTIN DOUL. It's the truth she's saying, and if bell-ringing is a fine life, yet I'm thinking, maybe, it's better I am wedded with the beautiful dark woman of Ballinatone.
MOLLY BYRNE -- [scornfully.] -- You're thinking that, God help you; but it's little you know of her at all.
MARTIN DOUL. It's little surely, and I'm destroyed this day waiting to look upon her face.
TIMMY -- [awkwardly.] -- It's well you know the way she is; for the like of you do have great knowledge in the feeling of your hands.
MARTIN DOUL -- [still feeling the cloak.] -- We do, maybe. Yet it's little I know of faces, or of fine beautiful cloaks, for it's few cloaks I've had my hand to, and few faces (plaintively); for the young girls is mighty shy, Timmy the smith and it isn't much they heed me, though they do be saying I'm a handsome man.
MARY DOUL -- [mockingly, with good humour.] -- Isn't it a queer thing the voice he puts on him, when you hear him talking of the skinny-looking girls, and he married with a woman he's heard called the wonder of the western world?
TIMMY -- [pityingly.] -- The two of you will see a great wonder this day, and it's no lie.
MARTIN DOUL. I've heard tell her yellow hair, and her white skin, and her big eyes are a wonder, surely.
BRIDE -- [who has looked out left.] -- Here's the saint coming from the selvage of the wood. . . . Strip the cloak from him, Molly, or he'll be seeing it now.
