"Emon-a-knock is no whelp; he couldn't call him a whelp. Did he call him one?"
"Didn't you hear him? for if you didn't you might; it wasn't but he spoke loud enough."
"It is well for him, Kate, that Emon did not hear him. He's as good a man as Tom Murdock at any rate. [{787}] He didn't fall over the poker and tongs as Tom did."
"That was a mere accident, Winny. I seen the fung of his pump loose myself; didn't I help to shut it for him, afther he fell?"
"You were well employed indeed, Kate," said Winny sneeringly.
"You would have done it yourself if he axed you as he did me," replied Kate.
"Certainly not," said Winny.
So far they seemed both to have the worst of it, in spite of all their caution. What they wanted was to find out how the other's heart stood between these two young men, without betraying their own—which latter they had both nearly done.
There was a pause, and Kate was the next to speak.
"Not but I must admit that Emon-a-knock is a milder, better boy in some respects than Tom. He has a nicer way with him, Winny, and I think it is easier somehow to like him than to like Tom."