"Now on me immortal soul!" exclaimed my two uncles in one breath.

"My dear sirs," I continued, "I have long suspected your passion for
my peerless aunt, nor do I venture to blame you--"

"Blame, b'gad!" exclaimed my uncle George faintly.

"To-night I chanced to overhear words pass between you that put the
matter beyond doubt--"

"Impertinent young eavesdropper!" exclaimed my uncle Jervas, very red
in the face.

"Thus, in taking my departure, I can but wish you every happiness. But
before I go, I would beg of you to satisfy me on a point of family
history--if you will. My parents died young, I believe?"

"They did!" answered my uncle Jervas in strangely repressed voice.

"Very young!" sighed my uncle George.

"And what--how came they to die?" I questioned.

"Your mother died of--a broken heart, Peregrine," said uncle Jervas.

"Sweet child!" added uncle George.

"Then I pray that God in His mercy has mended it long ere this," said
I. "And my father, sirs,--how came he by death so early?"