MR. O’CROWLEY For contempt of court, Mrs. Fennell, you will be fined ten pounds, and you will be bound to the peace for twelve months, and you must give two securities of fifty pounds each, or go to jail for a term of six months with hard labor.  And anything that you may say after the sentence of the court has been passed, of a disparaging nature to the Bench, will be considered as a necessity for further punishment.  I hope that I have made myself perfectly clear.

MRS. FENNELL Yes, your Worship, you have made yourself perfectly clear. (Starts to cry) Oh, what will I do at all?  Is there no one to go bail for me? (Mr. Fennell looks like one who is trying to come to a decision, and Mrs. Fennell starts to cry again) Is it the way that ye’ll be having me taken to the county jail for doing nothing at all?  Oh, wisha, who’s going to go bail for me?  Maybe ’tis yourself, Mr. O’Crowley.

MR. FENNELL (walking up to the dock) And I here, is it?  Not for likely.  I’ll go bail for you, of course.

CURTAIN

* * * * *

MAGNANIMITY

A COMEDY IN ONE ACT

CHARACTERS

WILLIAM DRISCOLL A public-house keeper
DENNIS LOGAN
BERNARD FALVEY
GARRET DEVLIN
BARRY NAGLE
POLICE AND TOWNSPEOPLE

MAGNANIMITY

A COMEDY IN ONE ACT

Scene:  Back parlor of a country public house.  The proprietor, William Driscoll, a man of about fifty with a very dour expression, sings as he sweeps the floor:

“Oh, the days are gone, when Beauty bright
My heart’s chain wove;
When the dream of life from morn till night
Was love, still love. 
New hope may bloom,
And days may come
Of milder, calmer beam,
But there’s nothing half so sweet in life
As love’s young dream. 
No, there’s nothing half so sweet in life
As love’s young dream.”

[Logan, a stranger, enters.

LOGAN
Good mornin’.

DRISCOLL
Good mornin’ and good luck.  What can I do for you?

LOGAN
I’ll have a glass of the best whiskey.

DRISCOLL
All right, my good man.  You shall get it.

[Exit.

LOGAN (takes up the morning paper, sits on the table, and speaks aloud) Be the pipers that played the dead march for Moses, but I’m twice as big a fool as I thought I was.  And knowledge of that sort is cold comfort for any man.  What’s this I see here?  “Daring burglary in the town of Castlemorgan.  During the early hours of the morning, the house of Michael Cassily was broken into, and five pound notes, a gentleman’s watch and a pair of silver candlesticks were stolen.  So far, no arrests have been made, but the police have every hope of bringing those who committed the offence to justice, because Mr. Cassily states that he saw two men leaving by the back entrance, and found a piece of a coat-tail hanging from a nail on the porch.”