WIFE TO JAMES WHELAN
133
JAMES: Moran! (APOLLO appears.) Walk straight in!
KATE: (To NORA.) I see we’re all drawn in the one direction … like a magnet …
APOLLO: (Nervous.) Am I after making a mistake?
JAMES: Kate, what is the sense of saying that? (Annoyed.)
JAMES: What do you think? When I’m engaged in here with one person does it seem to you exactly right to tell another to come in?
KATE: The whole town is talking of you this morning. Look at me. I came up for a ticket.
APOLLO: I declare I can’t keep the people away from you. (At NORA.) JAMES: For Kate’s sake alone I took you here. APOLLO: Who now could solve this problem— If I say “You must wait” that’s a bad thing, but “Walk in” is even worse. JAMES: Go down and tell Kate you’re more than any man could put up with. TOM: I only want you for a moment. There’s no need at all to be so fiery. NORA: I was going in any case. APOLLO: Who’ll mind the office while I’m away? JAMES: Who minds it when you’re here? (APOLLO turns to go. KATE MORAN appears in the doorway. She is a well set-up woman, of thirty-three, plainly dressed; comfortably attractive.) KATE: Good morning, James. JAMES: Good morrow, Kate. Come in if you like. KATE: Of course, I do like, why wouldn’t I like? (Comes in smiling, nods to them all.) Good morning, Miss Keane. (NORA responds. The whole atmosphere is lightened by her entry; her good humour. Everyone relaxes. NORA sits down again.) JAMES: (To APOLLO.) A chair for your sister.
JAMES: Ticket? You’re not coming on Friday? KATE: I am so. I must be in your maiden voyage. (She laughs a little at herself, at the idea. The others join in her laughter.) JAMES: I think you’re all laughing at me. (Affably.) TOM: It wouldn’t be the first time, James, and it doesn’t do you much harm either. We laughed long ago—the day you got that job in Dublin, and said you’d come back here to give employment. The joke is on your side now. KATE: If I laughed that day, I think I cried a bit as well, to see him go. JAMES: Kate, you were always a lovely girl! KATE: Ah, go off—as if you didn’t know it well. TOM: She wasn’t the only one to cry, I think. You had always a way with the women. JAMES: (Turning to APOLLO.) See have you a ticket left for Kate. (Brusque.) APOLLO: We have just one. (Goes out to get it.) KATE: And how is Apollo getting on? JAMES: Oh, very well! KATE: I was thinking he’d be a help to you.