r she has turned him out of doors, as you say?"

"Yes, but that isn't to say that he'll ever come back to her," said
Jenny.

The needles dropped to the lap again. "No? Why shouldn't he then?"

"Why? Because men are never good at the bended knee business," said
Jenny. "A man on his knees is ridiculous. It must be his legs that look
so silly. If I had done anything to a man, and he went down on his knees
to me, I would----"

"What, Jenny?"

Jenny lifted her skirt an inch or two, and showed a dainty foot swinging
to and fro. "Kick him," she answered.

Nelly laughed again, and said, "And if you were a man, and a woman did
so, what then?"

"Why lift her up and kiss her, and forgive her, of course," said Jenny.

Nelly tingled with delight, and burned to ask Jenny if she should not at
least let Captain Davy know that she was leaving Douglas and going home.
But being a true woman, she asked something else instead.

"So you think, Jenny," she said, "that your poor friend will never go
back to his wife?"

"I'm sure he won't," said Jenny. "Didn't I tell you?" she added,
straightening up.

"What?" said Nelly, with a quiver of alarm.

"That he's going back to sea," said Jenny.

"To sea!" cried Nelly, dropping her needles entirely. "Back to sea?" she
said, in a shrill voice. "And without even saying 'good-by!'"

"Good-by to whom, my dear?" said Jenny. "To me?"

"To his wife, of course," said Nelly, huskily.

"Well, we don't know that, do we?" said Jenny. "And, besides, why should
he?"

"If he doesn't he's a cruel, heartless, unfeeling, unforgiving monster,"
said Nelly.

And then Jenny burned in her turn to ask if Nelly herself had not
intended to do as much by Captain Davy, but, being a true woman as well
as her adversary, she found a crooked way to the plain question. "Is it
at eleven," she said, "that the carriage is to come for you?"

Mrs. Quiggin had recovered herself in a moment, and then there was a
delicate bout of thrust and parry. "I'm so sorry for your sake, Jenny,"
she said, in the old tone of delicious insincerity, "that the poor
fellow is married."

"Gracious me, for my sake? Why?" said Jenny.

"I thought you were half in love with him, you know," said Nelly.

"Half?" cried Jenny. "I'm over head and ears in love with him."

"That's a pity," said Nelly; "for, of course, you'll give him up now
that you know he has a wife."

"What of that? If he _has_ a wife I have no husband--so it's as broad