will live here and work here and think here and be honoured here—among our people.
Richard
[Smiling.] I can almost see two envoys starting for the United States to collect funds for my statue a hundred years hence.
Robert
[Agreeably.] Once I made a little epigram about statues. All statues are of two kinds. [He folds his arms across his chest.] The statue which says: How shall I get down? and the other kind [he unfolds his arms and extends his right arm, averting his head] the statue which says: In my time the dunghill was so high.
Richard
The second one for me, please.
Robert
[Lazily.] Will you give me one of those long cigars of yours?
[Richard selects a Virginia cigar from the box on the table and hands it to him with the straw drawn out.]
Robert
[Lighting it.] These cigars Europeanize me. If Ireland is to become a new Ireland she must first become European. And that is what you are here for, Richard. Some day we shall have to choose between England and Europe. I am a descendant of the dark foreigners: that is why I like to be here. I may be childish. But where else in Dublin can I get a bandit cigar like this or a cup of black coffee? The man who drinks black coffee is going to conquer Ireland. And now I will take just a half measure of that whisky, Richard, to show you there is no ill feeling.
