Loe raamatut: «Nobody», lehekülg 8

CHAPTER XIII
A SUMMER HOTEL

Mrs. Wishart was reminded of Belinda again the next morning. Lois wasbeaming. She managed to keep their talkative neighbour in order duringbreakfast; and then proposed to Mrs. Wishart to take a walk. But Mrs.Wishart excused herself, and Lois set off alone. After a couple ofhours she came back with her hands full.

"O, Mrs. Wishart!" she burst forth, – "this is the very loveliest placeyou ever saw in your life! I can never thank you enough for bringingme! What can I do to thank you?"

"What makes it so delightful?" said the elder lady, smiling at her."There is nothing here but the sea and the rocks. You have found thephilosopher's stone, you happy girl!"

"The philosopher's stone?" said Lois. "That was what Mr. Dillwyn toldme about."

"Philip? I wish he was here."

"It would be nice for you. I don't want anybody. The place is enough."

"What have you found, child?"

"Flowers – and mosses – and shells. O, the flowers are beautiful! But itisn't the flowers, nor any one thing; it is the place. The air iswonderful; and the sea, O, the sea is a constant delight to me!"

"The philosopher's stone!" repeated the lady. "What is it, Lois? Youare the happiest creature I ever saw. – You find pleasure in everything."

"Perhaps it is that," said Lois simply. "Because I am happy."

"But what business have you to be so happy? – living in a corner like

Shampuashuh. I beg your pardon, Lois, but it is a corner of the earth.

What makes you happy?"

Lois answered lightly, that perhaps it was easier to be happy in acorner than in a wide place; and went off again. She would not giveMrs. Wishart an answer she could by no possibility understand.

Some time later in the day, Mrs. Wishart too, becoming tired of themonotony of her own room, descended to the piazza; and was sittingthere when the little steamboat arrived with some new guests for thehotel. She watched one particular party approaching. A young lady inadvance, attended by a gentleman; then another pair following, an olderlady, leaning on the arm of a cavalier whom Mrs. Wishart recognizedfirst of them all. She smiled to herself.

"Mrs. Wishart!" Julia Caruthers exclaimed, as she came upon theverandah. "You are here. That is delightful! Mamma, here is Mrs.Wishart. But whatever did bring you here? I am reminded of CaptainCook's voyages, that I used to read when I was a child, and I fancy Ihave come to one of his savage islands; only I don't see the salvages.They will appear, perhaps. But I don't see anything else; cocoanuttrees, or palms, or bananas, the tale of which used to make my mouthwater. There are no trees here at all, that I can see, nor anythingelse. What brought you here, Mrs. Wishart? May I present Mr.Lenox? – What brought you here, Mrs. Wishart?"

"What brought you here?" was the smiling retort. The answer wasprompt.

"Tom."

Mrs. Wishart looked at Tom, who came up and paid his respects in markedform; while his mother, as if exhausted, sank down on one of the chairs.

"Yes, it was Tom," she repeated. "Nothing would do for Tom but the

Isles of Shoals; and so, Julia and I had to follow in his train. In my grandmother's days that would have been different. What is here, dear

Mrs. Wishart, besides you? You are not alone?"

"Not quite. I have brought my little friend, Lois Lothrop, with me; andshe thinks the Isles of Shoals the most charming place that was everdiscovered, by Captain Cook or anybody else."

"Ah, she is here!" said Mrs. Caruthers dryly; while Julia and Mr. Lenoxexchanged glances. "Much other company?"

"Not much; and what there is comes more from New Hampshire than New

York, I fancy."

"Ah! – And what else is here then, that anybody should come here for?"

"I don't know yet. You must ask Miss Lothrop. Yonder she comes. She hasbeen exploring ever since five o'clock, I believe."

"I suppose she is accustomed to get up at that hour," remarked theother, as if the fact involved a good deal of disparagement. And thenthey were all silent, and watched Lois, who was slowly andunconsciously approaching her reviewers. Her hands were again full ofdifferent gleanings from the wonderful wilderness in which she had beenexploring; and she came with a slow step, still busy with them as shewalked. Her hat had fallen back a little; the beautiful hair was atrifle disordered, showing so only the better its rich abundance andexquisite colour; the face it framed and crowned was fair and flushed, intent upon her gains from rock and meadow – for there was a little bitof meadow ground at Appledore; – and so happy in its sweet absorption, that an involuntary tribute of homage to its beauty was wrung from themost critical. Lois walked with a light, steady step; her carelessbearing was free and graceful; her dress was not very fashionable, butentirely proper for the place; all eyes consented to this, and then alleyes came back to the face. It was so happy, so pure, so unconsciousand unshadowed; the look was of the sort that one does not see in theassemblies of the world's pleasure-seekers; nor ever but in the facesof heaven's pleasure-finders. She was a very lovely vision, and somehowall the little group on the piazza with one consent kept silence, watching her as she came. She drew near with busy, pleased thoughts, and leisurely happy steps, and never looked up till she reached thefoot of the steps leading to the piazza. Nor even then; she had pickedup her skirt and mounted several steps daintily before she heard hername and raised her eyes. Then her face changed. The glance ofsurprise, it is true, was immediately followed by a smile of civilgreeting; but the look of rapt happiness was gone; and somehow nobodyon the piazza felt the change to be flattering. She accepted quietlyTom's hand, given partly in greeting, partly to assist her up the laststeps, and faced the group who were regarding her.

"How delightful to find you here, Miss Lothrop!" said Julia, – "and howstrange that people should meet on the Isles of Shoals."

"Why is it strange?"

"O, because there is really nothing to come here for, you know. I don'tknow how we happen to be here ourselves. – Mr. Lenox, MissLothrop. – What have you found in this desert?"

"You have been spoiling Appledore?" added Tom.

"I don't think I have done any harm," said Lois innocently. "There isenough more, Mr. Caruthers."

"Enough of what?" Tom inquired, while Julia and her friend exchanged aswift glance again, of triumph on the lady's part.

"There is a shell," said Lois, putting one into his hand. "I think thatis pretty, and it certainly is odd. And what do you say to those whiteviolets, Mr. Caruthers? And here is some very beautiful pimpernel – andhere is a flower that I do not know at all, – and the rest is what youwould call rubbish," she finished with a smile, so charming that Tomcould not see the violets for dazzled eyes.

"Show me the flowers, Tom," his mother demanded; and she kept him byher, answering her questions and remarks about them; while Julia askedwhere they could be found.

"I find them in quite a good many places," said Lois; "and every timeit is a sort of surprise. I gathered only a few; I do not like to takethem away from their places; they are best there."

She said a word or two to Mrs. Wishart, and passed on into the house.

"That's the girl," Julia said in a low voice to her lover, walking offto the other end of the verandah with him.

"Tom might do worse," was the reply.

"George! How can you say so? A girl who doesn't know common English!"

"She might go to school," suggested Lenox.

"To school! At her age! And then, think of her associations, and herignorance of everything a lady should be and should know. O you men! Ihave no patience with you. See a face you like, and you lose your witsat once, the best of you. I wonder you ever fancied me!"

"Tastes are unaccountable," the young man returned, with a lover-likesmile.

"But do you call that girl pretty?"

Mr. Lenox looked portentously grave. "She has handsome hair," heventured.

"Hair! What's hair! Anybody can have handsome hair, that will pay forit."

"She has not paid for hers."

"No, and I don't mean that Tom shall. Now George, you must help. Ibrought you along to help. Tom is lost if we don't save him. He mustnot be left alone with this girl; and if he gets talking to her, youmust mix in and break it up, make love to her yourself, if necessary.And we must see to it that they do not go off walking together. Youmust help me watch and help me hinder. Will you?"

"Really, I should not be grateful to anyone who did me such kindservice."

"But it is to save Tom."

"Save him! From what?"

"From a low marriage. What could be worse?"

"Adjectives are declinable. There is low, lower, lowest."

"Well, what could be lower? A poor girl, uneducated, inexperienced, knowing nobody, brought up in the country, and of no family inparticular, with nothing in the world but beautiful hair! Tom ought tohave something better than that."

"I'll study her further, and then tell you what I think."

"You are very stupid to-day, George!"

Nobody got a chance to study Lois much more that day. Seeing that Mrs.Wishart was for the present well provided with company, she withdrew toher own room; and there she stayed. At supper she appeared, but silentand reserved; and after supper she went away again. Next morning Loiswas late at breakfast; she had to run a gauntlet of eyes, as she tookher seat at a little distance.

"Overslept, Lois?" queried Mrs. Wishart.

"Miss Lothrop looks as if she never had been asleep, nor ever meant tobe," quoth Tom.

"What a dreadful character!" said Miss Julia. "Pray, Miss Lothrop, excuse him; the poor boy means, I have no doubt, to be complimentary."

"Not so bad, for a beginner," remarked Mr. Lenox. "Ladies always liketo be thought bright-eyed, I believe."

"But never to sleep!" said Julia. "Imagine the staring effect."

"You are complimentary without effort," Tom remarked pointedly.

"Lois, my dear, have you been out already?" Mrs. Wishart asked. Loisgave a quiet assent and betook herself to her breakfast.

"I knew it," said Tom. "Morning air has a wonderful effect, if ladieswould only believe it. They won't believe it, and they sufferaccordingly."

"Another compliment!" said Miss Julia, laughing. "But what do you find,Miss Lothrop, that can attract you so much before breakfast? or afterbreakfast either, for that matter?"

"Before breakfast is the best time in the twenty-four hours," said Lois.

"Pray, for what?"

"If you were asked, you would say, for sleeping," put in Tom.

"For what, Miss Lothrop? Tom, you are troublesome."

"For doing what, do you mean?" said Lois. "I should say, for anything; but I was thinking of enjoying."

"We are all just arrived," Mr. Lenox began; "and we are slow to believethere is anything to enjoy at the Isles. Will Miss Lothrop enlightenus?"

"I do not know that I can," said Lois. "You might not find what I find."

"What do you find?"

"If you will go out with me to-morrow morning at five o'clock, I willshow you," said Lois, with a little smile of amusement, or of archness, which quite struck Mr. Lenox and quite captivated Tom.

"Five o'clock!" the former echoed.

"Perhaps he would not then see what you see," Julia suggested.

"Perhaps not," said Lois. "I am by no means sure."

She was let alone after that; and as soon as breakfast was over sheescaped again. She made her way to a particular hiding-place she haddiscovered, in the rocks, down near the shore; from which she had amost beautiful view of the sea and of several of the other islands. Hernook of a seat was comfortable enough, but all around it the rocks werepiled in broken confusion, sheltering her, she thought, from anypossible chance comer. And this was what Lois wanted; for, in the firstplace, she was minded to keep herself out of the way of thenewly-arrived party, each and all of them; and, in the second place, she was intoxicated with the delights of the ocean. Perhaps I shouldsay rather, of the ocean and the rocks and the air and the sky, and ofeverything at Appledore, Where she sat, she had a low brown reef insight, jutting out into the sea just below her; and upon this reef thebillows were rolling and breaking in a way utterly and whollyentrancing. There was no wind, to speak of, yet there was much moremotion in the sea than yesterday; which often happens from the effectof winds that have been at work far away; and the breakers which beatand foamed upon that reef, and indeed upon all the shore, were beyondall telling graceful, beautiful, wonderful, mighty, and changeful. Loishad been there to see the sunrise; now that fairy hour was long past, and the day was in its full bright strength; but still she satspellbound and watched the waves; watched the colours on the rocks, thebrown and the grey; the countless, nameless hues of ocean, and thelight on the neighbouring islands, so different now from what they hadbeen a few hours ago.

Now and then a thought or two went to the hotel and its newinhabitants, and passed in review the breakfast that morning. Lois hadtaken scarce any part in the conversation; her place at table put herat a distance from Mr. Caruthers; and after those few first words shehad been able to keep very quiet, as her wish was. But she hadlistened, and observed. Well, the talk had not been, as to quality, onewhit better than what Shampuashuh could furnish every day; nay, Loisthought the advantage of sense and wit and shrewdness was decidedly onthe side of her country neighbours; while the staple of talk was nearlythe same. A small sort of gossip and remark, with commentary, on otherpeople and other people's doings, past, present, and to come. It had nointerest whatever to Lois's mind, neither subject nor treatment. Butthe manner to-day gave her something to think about. The manner wasdifferent; and the manner not of talk only, but of all that was done.Not so did Shampuashuh discuss its neighbours, and not so didShampuashuh eat bread and butter. Shampuashuh ways were more rough, angular, hurried; less quietness, less grace, whether of movement orspeech; less calm security in every action; less delicacy of taste. Itmust have been good blood in Lois which recognized all this, butrecognize it she did; and, as I said, every now and then an involuntarythought of it came over the girl. She felt that she was unlike thesepeople; not of their class or society; she was sure they knew it too, and would act accordingly; that is, not rudely or ungracefully makingthe fact known, but nevertheless feeling, and showing that they felt, that she belonged to a detached portion of humanity. Or they; what didit matter? Lois did not misjudge or undervalue herself; she knew shewas the equal of these people, perhaps more than their equal, in truerefinement of feeling and delicacy of perception; she knew she was notawkward in manner; yet she knew, too, that she had not their ease ofhabit, nor the confidence given by knowledge of the world and all othersorts of knowledge. Her up-bringing and her surroundings had not beenlike theirs; they had been rougher, coarser, and if of as goodmaterial, of far inferior form. She thought with herself that she wouldkeep as much out of their company as she properly could. For there wasbeneath all this consciousness an unrecognized, or at leastunacknowledged, sense of other things in Lois's mind; of Mr. Caruthers'possible feelings, his people's certain displeasure, and her ownpromise to her grandmother. She would keep herself out of the way; easyat Appledore —

"Have I found you, Miss Lothrop?" said a soft, gracious voice, with aglad accent.

CHAPTER XIV
WATCHED

"Have I found you, Miss Lothrop?"

Looking over her shoulder, Lois saw the handsome features of Mr.Caruthers, wearing a smile of most undoubted satisfaction. And, to thescorn of all her previous considerations, she was conscious of a flushof pleasure in her own mind. This was not suffered to appear.

"I thought I was where nobody could find me," she answered.

"Do you think there is such a place in the whole world?" said Tomgallantly. Meanwhile he scrambled over some inconvenient rocks to aplace by her side. "I am very glad to find you, Miss Lothrop, bothways, – first at Appledore, and then here."

To this compliment Lois made no reply.

"What has driven you to this little out-of-the-way nook?"

"You mean Appledore?"

"No, no! this very uncomfortable situation among the rocks here? Whatdrove you to it?"

"You think there is no attraction?"

"I don't see what attraction there is here for you."

"Then you should not have come to Appledore."

"Why not?"

"There is nothing here for you."

"Ah, but! What is there for you? Do you find anything here to like now, really?"

"I have been down in this 'uncomfortable place' ever since near fiveo'clock – except while we were at breakfast."

"What for?"

"What for?" said Lois, laughing. "If you ask, it is no use to tell you,

Mr. Caruthers."

"Ah, be generous!" said Tom. "I'm a stupid fellow, I know; but do tryand help me a little to a sense of the beautiful. Is it thebeautiful, by the way, or is it something else?"

Lois's laugh rang softly out again. She was a country girl, it is true; but her laugh was as sweet to hear as the ripple of the waters amongthe stones. The laugh of anybody tells very much of what he is, makingrevelations undreamt of often by the laugher. A harsh croak does notcome from a mind at peace, nor an empty clangour from a heart full ofsensitive happiness; nor a coarse laugh from a person of refinedsensibilities, nor a hard laugh from a tender spirit. Moreover, peoplecannot dissemble successfully in laughing; the truth comes out in astartling manner. Lois's laugh was sweet and musical; it was a pleasureto hear. And Tom's eyes said so.

"I always knew I was a stupid fellow," he said; "but I never feltmyself so stupid as to-day! What is it, Miss Lothrop?"

"What is what, Mr. Caruthers? – I beg your pardon."

"What is it you find in this queer place?"

"I am afraid it is waste trouble to tell you."

"Good morning!" cried a cheery voice here from below them; and lookingtowards the water they saw Mr. Lenox, making his way as best he couldover slippery seaweed and wet rocks.

"Hollo, George!" cried Tom in a different tone – "What are you doingthere?"

"Trying to keep out of the water, don't you see?"

"To an ordinary mind, that object would seem more likely to be attainedif you kept further away from it."

"May I come up where you are?"

"Certainly!" said Lois. "But take care how you do it."

A little scrambling and the help of Tom's hand accomplished the feat; and the new comer looked about him with much content.

"You came the other way," he said. "I see. I shall know how next time.

What a delightful post, Miss Lothrop!"

"I have been trying to find what she came here for; and she won't tellme," said Tom.

"You know what you came here for," said his friend. "Why cannot youcredit other people with as much curiosity as you have yourself?"

"I credit them with more," said Tom. "But curiosity on Appledore willfind itself baffled, I should say."

"Depends on what curiosity is after," said Lenox. "Tell him, Miss

Lothrop; he will not be any the wiser."

"Then why should I tell him?" said Lois.

"Perhaps I shall!"

Lois's laugh came again.

"Seriously. If any one were to ask me, not only what we but whatanybody should come to this place for, I should be unprepared with ananswer. I am forcibly reminded of an old gentleman who went up MountWashington on one occasion when I also went up. It came on to rain – asudden summer gust and downpour, hiding the very mountain it self fromour eyes; hiding the path, hiding the members of the party from eachother. We were descending the mountain by that time, and it wasticklish work for a nervous person; every one was committed to his ownsweet guidance; and as I went blindly stumbling along, I came every nowand then upon the old gentleman, also stumbling along, on his donkey.And whenever I was near enough to him, I could hear him dismallysoliloquizing, 'Why am I here!' – in a tone of mingled disgust andself-reproach which was in the highest degree comical."

"So that is your state of mind now, is it?" said Tom.

"Not quite yet, but I feel it is going to be. Unless Miss Lothrop canteach me something."

"There are some things that cannot be taught," said Lois.

"And people – hey? But I am not one of those, Miss Lothrop."

He looked at her with such a face of demure innocence, that Lois couldnot keep her gravity.

"Now Tom is," Lenox went on. "You cannot teach him anything, Miss

Lothrop. It would be lost labour."

"I am not so stupid as you think," said Tom.

"He's not stupid – he's obstinate," Lenox went on, addressing himself toLois. "He takes a thing in his head. Now that sounds intelligent; butit isn't, or he isn't; for when you try, you can't get it out of hishead again. So he took it into his head to come to the Isles of Shoals, and hither he has dragged his mother and his sister, and hither byconsequence he has dragged me. Now I ask you, as one who can tell – whathave we all come here for?"

Half-quizzically, half-inquisitively, the young man put the question, lounging on the rocks and looking up into Lois's face. Tom grewimpatient. But Lois was too humble and simple-minded to fall into thesnare laid for her. I think she had a half-discernment of a hiddenintent under Mr. Lenox's words; nevertheless in the simple dignity oftruth she disregarded it, and did not even blush, either withconsciousness or awkwardness. She was a little amused.

"I suppose experience will have to be your teacher, as it is otherpeople's."

"I have heard so; I never saw anybody who had learned much that way."

"Come, George, that's ridiculous. Learning by experience isproverbial," said Tom.

"I know! – but it's a delusion nevertheless. You sprain your ankle amongthese stones, for instance. Well – you won't put your foot in thatparticular hole again; but you will in another. That's the way you do,Tom. But to return – Miss Lothrop, what has experience done for you inthe Isles of Shoals?"

"I have not had much yet."

"Does it pay to come here?"

"I think it does."

"How came anybody to think of coming here at first? that is what Ishould like to know. I never saw a more uncompromising bit ofbarrenness. Is there no desolation anywhere else, that men should cometo the Isles of Shoals?"

"There was quite a large settlement here once," said Lois.

"Indeed! When?"

"Before the war of the revolution. There were hundreds of people; sixhundred, somebody told me."

"What became of them?"

"Well," said Lois, smiling, "as that is more than a hundred years ago,

I suppose they all died."

"And their descendants? – "

"Living on the mainland, most of them. When the war came, they couldnot protect themselves against the English."

"Fancy, Tom," said Lenox. "People liked it so well on these rocks, thatit took ships of war to drive them away!"

"The people that live here now are just as fond of them, I am told."

"What earthly or heavenly inducement? – "

"Yes, I might have said so too, the first hour of my being here, or thefirst day. The second, I began to understand it."

"Do make me understand it!"

"If you will come here at five o'clock to-morrow, Mr. Leno – xin themorning, I mean, – and will watch the wonderful sunrise, the waking upof land and sea; if you will stay here then patiently till ten o'clock, and see the changes and the colours on everything – let the sea and thesky speak to you, as they will; then they will tell you – all you canunderstand!"

"All I can understand. H'm! May I go home for breakfast?"

"Perhaps you must; but you will wish you need not."

"Will you be here?"

"No," said Lois. "I will be somewhere else."

"But I couldn't stand such a long talk with myself as that," said theyoung man.

"It was a talk with Nature I recommended to you."

"All the same. Nature says queer things if you let her alone."

"Best listen to them, then."

"Why?"

"She tells you the truth."

"Do you like the truth?"

"Certainly. Of course. Do not you?"

"Always?"

"Yes, always. Do not you?"

"It's fearfully awkward!" said the young man.

"Yes, isn't it?" Tom echoed.

"Do you like falsehood, Mr. Lenox?"

"I dare not say what I like – in this presence. Miss Lothrop, I am verymuch afraid you are a Puritan."

"What is a Puritan?" asked Lois simply.

"He doesn't know!" said Tom. "You needn't ask him."

"I will ask you then, for I do not know. What does he mean by it?"

"He doesn't know that," said Lenox, laughing. "I will tell you, MissLothrop – if I can. A Puritan is a person so much better than theordinary run of mortals, that she is not afraid to let Nature andSolitude speak to her – dares to look roses in the face, in fact; – hasno charity for the crooked ways of the world or for the peopleentangled in them; a person who can bear truth and has no need offalsehood, and who is thereby lifted above the multitudes of thisworld's population, and stands as it were alone."

"I'll report that speech to Julia," said Tom, laughing.

"But that is not what a 'Puritan' generally means, is it?" said Lois.They both laughed now at the quain't simplicity with which this wasspoken.

"That is what it is," Tom answered.

"I do not think the term is complimentary," Lois went on, shaking herhead, "however Mr. Lenox's explanation may be. Isn't it ten o'clock?"

"Near eleven."

"Then I must go in."

The two gentlemen accompanied her, making themselves very pleasant bythe way. Lenox asked her about flowers; and Tom, who was some thing ofa naturalist, told her about mosses and lichens, more than she knew; and the walk was too short for Lois. But on reaching the hotel she wentstraight to her own room and stayed there. So also after dinner, whichof course brought her to the company, she went back to her solitude andher work. She must write home, she said. Yet writing was not Lois'ssole reason for shutting herself up.

She would keep herself out of the way, she reasoned. Probably thiscompany of city people with city tastes would not stay long atAppledore; while they were there she had better be seen as little aspossible. For she felt that the sight of Tom Caruthers' handsome facehad been a pleasure; and she felt – and what woman does not? – that thereis a certain very sweet charm in being liked, independently of thequestion how much you like in return. And Lois knew, though she hardlyin her modesty acknowledged it to herself, that Mr. Caruthers likedher. Eyes and smiles and manner showed it; she could not mistake it; nay, engaged man though he was, Mr. Lenox liked her too. She did notquite understand him or his manner; with the keen intuition of a truewoman she felt vaguely what she did not clearly discern, and was notsure of the colour of his liking, as she was sure of Tom's. Tom's – itmight not be deep, but it was true, and it was pleasant; and Loisremembered her promise to her grandmother. She even, when her letterwas done, took out her Bible and opened it at that well-known place in2nd Corinthians; "Be not unequally yoked together withunbelievers" – and she looked hard at the familiar words. Then, saidLois to herself, it is best to keep at a distance from temptation. Forthese people were unbelievers. They could not understand one word ofChristian hope or joy, if she spoke them. What had she and they incommon?

Yet Lois drew rather a long breath once or twice in the course of hermeditations. These "unbelievers" were so pleasant. Yes, it was anundoubted fact; they were pleasant people to be with and to talk to.They might not think with her, or comprehend her even, in the greatquestions of life and duty; in the lesser matters of everydayexperience they were well versed. They understood the world and thethings in the world, and the men; and they were skilled and deft andgraceful in the arts of society. Lois knew no young men, – nor old, forthat matter, – who were, as gentlemen, as social companions, to becompared with these and others their associates in graces of person andmanner, and interest of conversation. She went over again and again inmemory the interview and the talk of that morning; and not without asecret thrill of gratification, although also not without a vague halfperception of something in Mr. Lenox's manner that she could not quiteread and did not quite trust. What did he mean? He was Miss Caruthers'property; how came he to busy himself at all with her own insignificantself? Lois was too innocent to guess; at the same time too finelygifted as a woman to be entirely hoodwinked. She rose at last with athird little sigh, as she concluded that her best way was to keep aswell away as she could from this pleasant companionship.

But she could not stay in-doors. For once in her life she was atAppledore; she must not miss her chance. The afternoon was half gone; the house all still; probably everybody was in his room, and she couldslip out safely. She went down on soft feet; she found nobody on thepiazza, not a creature in sight; she was glad; and yet, she would nothave been sorry to see Tom Caruthers' genial face, which was always sovery genial towards her. Inconsistent! – but who is not inconsistent?Lois thought herself free, and had half descended the steps from theverandah, when she heard a voice and her own name. She paused andlooked round.

"Miss Lothrop! – are you going for a walk? may I come with you?" – andtherewith emerged the form of Miss Julia from the house. "Are you goingfor a walk? will you let me go along?"

"Certainly," said Lois.

"I am regularly cast away here," said the young lady, joining her. "Idon't know what to do with myself. Is there anything to do or to seein this place?"

"I think so. Plenty."

"Then do show me what you have found. Where are you going?"

"I am going down to the shore somewhere. I have only begun to findthings yet; but I never in my life saw a place where there was so muchto find."

"What, pray? I cannot imagine. I see a little wild bit of ground, andthat is all I see; except the sea beating on the rocks. It is theforlornest place of amusement I ever heard of in my life!"

"Are you fond of flowers, Miss Caruthers?"