“Slainte yuit a shaoi,” said the girl, tasting her peppermint.

“Well: how do you like it?’

“It’s very nice indeed.”

“That’s more than I can say of the ale, which, like all the ale in these parts, is bitter. Well, what part of Ireland do you come from?”

“From no part at all. I never was in Ireland in my life. I am from Scotland Road, Manchester.”

“Why, I thought you were Irish?”

“And so I am; and all the more from being born where I was. There’s not such a place for Irish in all the world as Scotland Road.”

“Were your father and mother from Ireland?”

“My mother was from Ireland: my father was Irish of Scotland Road, where they met and married.”

“And what did they do after they married?”