Well, i was perfectly honest and square with her; told her i hadn't a cent in the world but just the million-pound note she'd heard so much talk about, and it didn't belong to me, and that started her curiosity; and then i talked low, and told her the whole history right from the start, and it nearly killed her laughing. what in the nation she could find to laugh about i couldn't see, but there it was; every half-minute some new detail would fetch her, and i would have to stop as much as a minute and a half to give her a chance to settle down again. why, she laughed herself lame--she did, indeed; i never saw anything like it. i mean i never saw a painful story--a story of a person's troubles and worries and fears--produce just that kind of effect before. which rhetorical device is demonstrated in the excerpt?