] Oh, for the Lord's
sake, shut up, will yous? Have you no respect for yourselves or
your betters? [Peremptorily.] Let me have no more of it, I tell
you. Och! the divil's in the whole crew of you. In with you into
the house this very minute and tear one another's eyes out in the
kitchen if you like. In with you.
The two men seize the two women, and push them, still violently
abusing one another, into the house. Sir Pearce slams the door
upon them savagely. Immediately a heavenly silence falls on the
summer afternoon. The two sit down out of breath: and for a long
time nothing is said. Sir Pearce sits on an iron chair.
O'Flaherty sits on the garden seat. The thrush begins to sing
melodiously. O'Flaherty cocks his ears, and looks up at it. A
smile spreads over his troubled features. Sir Pearce, with a long
sigh, takes out his pipe and begins to fill it.
O'FLAHERTY [idyllically]. What a discontented sort of an animal a
man is, sir! Only a month ago, I was in the quiet of the country
out at the front, with not a sound except the birds and the
bellow of a cow in the distance as it might be, and the shrapnel
making little clouds in the heavens, and the shells whistling,
and maybe a yell or two when one of us was hit; and would you
believe it, sir, I complained of the noise and wanted to have a
peaceful hour at home.
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