Glory be

[shootingstar]

(William, his uncle Robert and Howard meet surprisingly and they have a talk)
'And you drove straight back here?' Howard passes him the plate of biscuits. William takes one.
'Didn't know what else to do.''You missed them (Gloria, his sweetheart, and Evelyn, his mum) by less than an hour,' Robert says softly.
'We're just back from taking them to Spaghetti Junction,' Howard says.' 'Your mum was worried she'd get on the wrong way and end up in Ipswich.
'Were you going to tell me?'
'What, that she's been here?' Robert gestures with open hands at the room.
'That she and Gloria have somehow become best friends.'
Robert looks to Howard first, then to William. He exhales, shakes his head. 'Glory be, William, none of us knew what to do for the best. But you should have talked to her,' he says, with a pleading in his face.

(From A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe, Part V, Aberfan, scene 60)

I know the phrase Glory be in connection with liturgical texts :

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.

However, this meaning doesn't match the given context in my opinion. Is there another meaning of Glory be?

 

[probus]

It's a very mild oath or intensifier. You often hear it in the American South, like "Bless your heart".