“Oh, oh, I’ve great opinions of haythens, Patsy dear. They do be all right to sind missionaries to, but not to be living among. And her wid thim looks av hers to go to Chiny! Sure and some ugly girl wud have done for him I’m thinking, since he can’t be continted in a civilized country. But I’m not denying he’s a fine lad and he can’t be hilping his uncle.”

“Now, Judy, what about his uncle?”

“Oh, oh, it’s an ould tale and better not raked up maybe. Well, if ye will be having it. The Hamiltons may be av Halifax now but the grandfather av thim lived in Charlottetown whin his lads were small. And Brook’s uncle was the black shape…if it don’t be insulting shape to call him so. Crooked he was as a dog’s hind leg. He wint out wist after quarrelling wid his dad and what did he do but write a long account av his being killed whin a train struck his horse and buggy at a crossing and got it published in a liddle newspaper there, one av his wild cronies being editor av it, and sint a marked copy home to the ould folks. It just about broke his poor mother’s heart…I’m not saying his dad tuk it so hard and small blame to him…and they had a lot av worry tilligraphing to have the body sint home. And whin they wint to the station wid the hearse and undertaker and all to mate the corpse didn’t me fine Dicky Hamilton stip off the train laughing at the joke he’d played on thim!”

“How horrible! But don’t tell Rae that, Judy.”

“Oh, oh, it’s not likely…nor the squeal to it ather. For what do you think, Patsy dear? The young scallywag did be killed the nixt wake in the very same way he’d writ av…he was driving along one avening reckless-like and the train struck him on that crossing on the wist road and that was the ind av him. Niver be telling me it wasn’t a jidgmint. But there do be no doubting that Cuddles is over head and heels in love wid Brook. ‘Sure and there do be other min in the world, Cuddles darlint,’ I sez, be way av tazing her a bit. ‘There aren’t,’ she sez, solemn-like. ‘There’s simply nobody else in the world, Judy,’ sez she. And that being the case we must just be making the bist av it, uncle or no uncle. After all, there do be something rale glamorous about it as Tillytuck wud say.”