Public suggests to Kate that he buys eggs directly from the farms and sells them to McLaughlin’s Hotel at a much higher price, in order to make money. Kate insists that they have to go and ask her parents’ approval immediately, but Gar isn’t convinced. 

They head to her house and Kate calls for her parents, Gar is visibly nervous.
Doogan (Kate’s father) enters, and before  Public can say anything, Doogan informs Kate that someone named Francis has come to pay her a visit. 

She goes to see Francis, leaving Public and Doogan alone. Doogan informs Public that Francis is getting a new dispensary job, and that he and Kate’s mother are hoping that Kate marries Francis. 

Doogan has a long monologue about how he even knows Francis’ father from his university days. He keeps talking with makes Private tell Public to just give up and leave.

Doogan asks after Public’s father, and he state that he’s doing well, he attempts to excuse himself, only for Doogan to inform him ‘Kate is our only child, Gareth, and her happiness is all that is important.’

Pubic exits as Doogan lights a pipe. Kate re-enters the room, she is disappointed to hear that Public didn’t ask for her hand in marriage.

Back in the present, Public puts the photograph away, with Private mentioning  that Kate married Francis, with a honeymoon in Mallorca. 

Private questions Public if it hurts at all, as Public begins to sing ‘Philadelphia, Here I Come!’ Private comforts him by speculating that there will be other women for him, even suggesting that had he married Kate, he was subservient to Doogan ( who was a senator) whom he thinks is hypocritical and for whom he has no respect.

Private and Public act out a conversation between him and his father. Pretending to be S.B., Private says that traveling does not agree with his bowels.  Madge enters tells him that Nelly (her niece), has given birth to a baby girl that morning, which means she now has four grandnieces and three grandnephews. 

She states it will be called Madge and S.B. enters the house and hangs up his shop keys and apron, before sitting down to eat. Private begins to narrate his movements in a theatrical fashion. 

Public and S.B. have a secret conversation, which Private makes fun of all the while. S.B. takes out his teeth and wraps them in a handkerchief. 

Private wants his father to ask him to stay, but S.B. does not. Public asks Madge for bread and he leaves to get some. Private mentions that he wishes that his father would speak, and suggests that Public is a sex addict.

Master Boyle( a 60-year-old white-haired man) enters , Boyle is a former teacher of Private, he bids him farewell on the eve of his journey and informs him that he may be traveling to Boston to work at a university. 

Private informs Boyle that he’ll be working in a hotel. Private states that he will be staying with his Aunt Lizzy, and questions if Boyle knew his aunt. Boyle confirms this as Private hints that Boyle was in love with his mother. 

Boyle gives Private a book of his own poems, self-published, as a going-away present, and urges him to become 100 percent American.

Boyle requests some money to fund his heavy drinking at the bar, Private hands it over. Boyle hugs him, stating that he’ll miss him. Boyle exits and Public begins to cry, scolded by Private Gar, who urges him to think of the future.