Ma looked me straight in the eye. “Oh I fought him on it all right! We went at it hammer and tongs. But he wouldn’t give an inch. I’ve never seen your da so stubborn.” She paused, as if making up her mind what else to say. When she spoke again, her words were angry. “I should never have shown him that ticket. He took it down from the dresser and got the priest to help him exchange it for the two steerage berths. Went behind my back, so he did, the sly oul’ fox.”

She shrugged. “Besides, I’m not sorry to see her go. How could I have stood it with you away and herself left here to taunt me from morning ’til night?” She stood up and smiled. “At least she’ll get her comeuppance in that house. If Father McGinty recommended them, they must be tyrants altogether.”

She stood up, all business now, and came over to stand close to me. She wasn’t a tall woman, but when she was right next to you, which she was now, you’d swear she was as big as Da. I leaned away from her, the way I always did when I felt her smothering me.

“I know what you’ve been thinking, my girl,” she began. “You’ve been imagining that you’d have met a rich young feller in first class. Well, so you might have, but that’s not what I have in mind for you. You’ll go to work for Mr. O’Hanlon in New York, and you’ll coax him into marrying you. On my oath, I’d bet that feller has more money than any of the young idlers you’d be meeting in first class, who would promise you anything to get their way with you and then throw you over for some girl more equal to their station.” She paused. “On the other hand, Mr. O’Hanlon is a settled man who is most likely looking for a wife, and you’ll be the one to fill the bill.”