keep it up, ma'am; keep it up!" said Davy. "And, manewhile, if you
plaze, who is the woman?"

"My friend Jenny Crow," said Nelly.

Then there was another pause.

"And did she tell you that I had agreed to meet her?" said Davy.

"She did," said Nelly. "And did _he_ tell _you_ that I had appointed to
meet _him?_"

"Yes, did he," said Davy. "At eight o'clock, did she say?"

"Yes, eight o'clock," said Nelly. "Did _he_ say eight?"

"He did," said Davy.

The loud voices of a moment before had suddenly dropped to broken
whispers. Davy made a prolonged whistle.

"Stop," said he; "haven't you been in the habit of meeting him?"

"I have never seen him but once," said Nelly. "But haven't _you_ been in
the habit of meeting _her?_"

"Never set eyes on the little skute but twice altogether," said Davy.
"But didn't he see you first in St. Thomas's, and didn't you speak with
him on the shore--"

"I've never been in St. Thomas's in my life!" said Nelly. "But didn't
you meet her first on the Head above Port Soderick, and to go to Laxey,
and come home with her in the coach?"

"Not I," said Davy.

"Then the stories she told me of the Manx sailor were all imagination,
were they?" said Nelly.

"And the yarns _he_ tould _me_ of the girl in the church were all
make-ups, eh?" said Davy.

"Dear me, what a pair of deceitful people!" said Nelly.

"My gough! what a couple of cuffers!" said Davy.

There was another pause, and then Davy began to laugh. First came a
low gurgle like that of suppressed bubbles in a fountain, then a sharp,
crackling breaker of sound, and then a long, deep roar of liberated
mirth that seemed to shake and heave the whole man, and to convulse the
very air around him.

Davy's laughter was contagious. As the truth began to dawn on her Mrs.
Quiggin first chuckled, then tittered, then laughed outright; and
at last her voice rose behind her husband's in clear trills of
uncontrollable merriment.

Laughter was the good genie that drew their assundered hearts together.
It broke down the barrier that divided them; it melted the frozen places
where love might not pass. They could not resist it. Their anger fled
before it like evil creatures of the night.

At the first sound of Davy's laughter something in Nelly's bosom seemed
to whisper "He loves me still;" and at the first note of Nelly's,
something clamored in Davy's breast, "She's mine, she's mine!" They
turned toward each other in the darkness with a y