“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!’”