Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com
FIRST WATCH: It is not in the penny catechism.
PADDY DIGNAM: By metempsychosis. Spooks.
A VOICE: O rocks.
PADDY DIGNAM: (Earnestly) Once I was in the employ
of Mr J. H. Menton, solicitor, commissioner for oaths and
affidavits, of 27 Bachelor’s Walk. Now I am defunct, the wall
of the heart hypertrophied. Hard lines. The poor wife was
awfully cut up. How is she bearing it? Keep her off that bot-
tle of sherry. (He looks round him) A lamp. I must satisfy an
animal need. That buttermilk didn’t agree with me.
(The portly figure of John O’Connell, caretaker, stands
forth, holding a bunch of keys tied with crape. Beside him
stands Father Coffey, chaplain, toadbellied, wrynecked, in
a surplice and bandanna nightcap, holding sleepily a staff
twisted poppies.)
FATHER COFFEY: (Yawns, then chants with a hoarse
croak) Namine. Jacobs. Vobiscuits. Amen.
JOHN O’CONNELL: (Foghorns stormily through his
megaphone) Dignam, Patrick T, deceased.
PADDY DIGNAM: (With pricked up ears, winces) Over-
tones. (He wriggles forward and places an ear to the ground)
My master’s voice!
JOHN O’CONNELL: Burial docket letter number U. P.
eightyfive thousand. Field seventeen. House of Keys. Plot,
one hundred and one.
(Paddy Dignam listens with visible effort, thinking, his
tail stiffpointcd, his ears cocked.)
PADDY DIGNAM: Pray for the repose of his soul.
(He worms down through a coalhole, his brown hab-