thawed down the remaining frost between the
pair, and they exchanged mutual confidences. They had gone so far as
to promise themselves a fortnight's further enjoyment of each other's
society, when their arrival at Douglas put a sudden end to their
anticipations.

Two carriages were waiting for them on the pier--one, with a maid
inside, was to take Jenny to Castle Mona: the other, with a boy, was to
take Lovibond to Fort Ann.

The maid was Peggy Quine, seventeen years of age, of dark complexion,
nearly as round as a dolley-tub, and of deadly earnest temperament. When
Jenny found herself face to face and alone with this person, she lost no
time in asking how it came to pass that Mrs. Quiggin was at Castle Mona
while her husband was at Fort Ann.

"They've parted, ma'am," said Peggy.

"Parted?" shrieked Jenny above the rattle of the carriage glass.

"Ah, yes, ma'am," Peggy stammered; "cruel, ma'am, right cruel, cruel
extraordinary. It's a wonder the capt'n doesn't think shame of his
conduck. The poor misthress! She's clane heartbroken. It's a mercy to me
she didn't clout him."

In two minutes more Jenny was in Mrs. Quiggin's room at Castle Mona,
crying, "Gracious me, Ellen, what is this your maid tells me?"

Nelly had been eating out her heart in silence all day long, and now the
flood of her pride and wrath burst out, and she poured her wrongs upon
Jenny as fiercely as if that lady stood for the transgressions of her
husband.

"He reproached me with my poverty," she cried.

"What?"

"Well, he told me I had only married him for his money--there's not much
difference."

"And what did you say?" said Jenny.

"Say? What could I say? What would any woman say who had any respect for
herself?"

"But how did he come to accuse you of marrying him for his money? Had
you asked him for any?"

"Not I, indeed."

"Perhaps you hadn't loved him enough?"

"Not that either--that I know of."

"Then why did he say it?"

"Just because I wanted him to respect himself, and have some respect for
his wife, too, and behave as a gentleman, and not as a raw Manx rabbit
from the Calf."

Jenny gave a look of amused intelligence, and said, "Oh, oh, I see, I
see! Well, let me take off my bonnet, at all events."

While this was being done in the bedroom Nelly, who was furtively wiping
her eyes, continued the recital of her wrongs:--

"Would you believe it, Jenny, the first thing he did when we arrived
here after the wedding wa