your arm at once, and let me think me over?"
said Jenny. In less than an hour these two wise heads had devised a
scheme to bring Capt'n Davy and his bride together. What that scheme was
and how it worked let those who read discover.

CHAPTER III.

Six days passed as with feet of lead, and Capt'n Davy and Mrs. Quiggin
were still in Douglas. They could not tear themselves away. Morning
and night the good souls were seized by a morbid curiosity about their
servants' sweethearts. "Seen Peggy lately?" Capt'n Davy would say. "I
suppose you've not come across Willie Quarrie lately?" Mrs. Quiggin
would ask. Thus did they squeeze to the driest pulp every opportunity of
hearing anything of each other.

Jenny Crow, with Mrs. Quiggin at Castle Mona, had not yet set eyes on
Captain Davy, and Lovibond, with Captain Davy at Fort Ann, had never
once seen Mrs. Quiggin. Jenny had said nothing of Lovibond to Nelly, and
Lovibond had said nothing of Jenny to Davy.

Matters stood so when one evening Peggy Quine was dressing up her
mistress's hair for dinner, and answering the usual question.

"Seen Willie Quarrie, ma'am? Aw 'deed, yes, ma'am; and it's shocking the
stories he's telling me. The Capt'n's making the money fly. Bowls and
beer, and cards and betting--it's ter'ble, ma'm, ter'ble. Somebody
should hould him. He's distracted like. Giving to everybody as free as
free. Parsons and preachers and the like--they're all at him, same as
flies at a sheep with the rot."

"And what do people say, Peggy?"

"They say fools and their money is quickly parted ma'am."

"How dare you call anybody a fool, Peggy?"

"Aw it's not me, ma'am. It's them that's seeing him wasting his money
like water through a pitchfork. And the dirts that's catching most is
shouting loudest. 'Deed, ma'am, but his conduct is shocking."

"And what do people say is the cause of it, Peggy?"

"Lumps in his porridge, ma'am."

"What?"

"Yes, though, that's what Willie Quarrie is telling me. When a woman
isn't just running even with her husband they call her lumps in his
porridge. Aw, Willie's a feeling lad."

There was a pause after this disclosure, and then Mrs. Quiggin said
in another voice, "Peggy, there's a strange gentleman staying with the
Captain at Forte Ann, is there not?"

"Yes, ma'am; Mr. Loviboy."

"What is he like, Peggy?"

"Pepper and salt trowis, ma'am, and a morsel of hair on the tip of his
chin."

"Tall, Peggy?"

"No, a long wisp'ry