"It is a shell," she says. She shows it to him and her face assumes the exact childlike expression of pleasure and simplicity it wore in the farewell interview he had with her before he first went to sea.
"You know me, Minnie?" he says, distressed.
"Yes, dear Joshua! What a question! But you must not be angry with me. I took the shell--but I took it for you."
"Nay but, Minnie," he says, striving to arrest her wandering thoughts; "listen to me"--
"Call me little Minnie," she pleads like a child, in the softest of voices.
"Little Minnie!" he sighs, with an almost broken heart.
"Little Minnie! Little Minnie!" she repeats. "The shell is singing it. Hush!" She remains silent for some time after this, and Joshua deems it best not to disturb her. An hour may have passed when she calls to him.
"Say that again, Joshua," she says. Wondering, he asks her what it is she wishes him to repeat.
"Nay," she answers, "that is to tease me. But you must say it after me, word for word: 'What you did, you did through love, and there could not be much wrong in it.'" He recognizes his own words to her, and in a troubled voice he repeats, "What you did, you did through love, and there could not be much wrong in it."
"I am satisfied," she says; "you have made me happy. I shall try to sleep now."