an' takin' on as if ye'd niver had a weddin' all by yerself!'
An' that made me laugh; but, afterwards, I fell to cryin' the harder,
an' told him I couldn't help it, for I'd got such a good lovin' husband,
an' me an orphan as had nobody--

"An' then I stopped, for Jim took me in his arms--he was in the
rockin'-chair--and rocked back an' forth wid me like a mother does wid a
six-months' child, an' kept croonin' an' croonin' till I fell asleep wid
my head on his shoulder--" Mrs. McCann drew a long breath--"Och, Aileen,
it's beautiful to be married!"

For a while the two worked in silence, broken only by little Billy
McCann, who was blissfully gurgling emphatic endorsement of everything
his mother said. The bright sunshine of February filled the barren Gore
full to the brim with sparkling light. From time to time the sharp
crescendo _sz-szz-szzz_ of the trolleys, that now ran from The Corners
to Quarry End Park at the head of The Gore, teased the still cold air.
Maggie was in a reminiscent mood, being wrought upon unwittingly by the
sunny quiet and homey kitchen warmth. She looked over the head of her
baby to Aileen.

"Do you remember the B'y who danced with the Marchioness, and when they
was through stood head downwards with his slippers kicking in the air?"

"Yes, and the butler, and how he hung on to his coat-tails!"

Maggie laughed. "I wonder now could it be _the_ B'y--I mane the man she
married?"

Aileen looked up from her work. "Yes, he's the one."

"An' how did you know that?" Maggie asked in some surprise.

"Mrs. Champney told me--and then I knew she liked him."

"Who, the Marchioness?"

"Yes; I knew by the way she wrote about him that she liked him."

"Well, now, who'd 'a' thought that! The very same B'y!" she exclaimed,
at the same time looking puzzled as if not quite grasping the situation.
"Why, I thought--I guess 't was Romanzo wrote me just about that
time--that she was in love with Mr. Champney Googe." Her voice sank to a
whisper on the last words. "Wouldn't it have been just awful if she
had!"

"She might have done a worse thing than to love him." Aileen's voice was
hard in spite of her effort to speak naturally.

Maggie broke forth in protest.

"Now, how can you say that, Aileen! What would the poor gell's life have
been worth married to a man that's in for seven years! Jim says when he
comes out he can't niver vote again for prisident, an' it's ten chanct
to wan that he'll get a job."

I