Nobody

"What is her family?" asked Mr. Lenox, pursing up his lips as if for awhistle.

"No family at all. Just country people, living at Shampuashuh."

"Don't you know, the English middle class is the finest in the world?"

"No! no better than ours."

"My dear, we have no middle class."

"But what about the English middle class? why do you bring it up?"

"It owes its great qualities to its having the mixed blood of thehigher and the lower."

"Ridiculous! What is that to us, if we have no middle class? But don'tyou see, George, what an unhappy thing it would be for Tom to marrythis girl?"

Mr. Lenox whistled slightly, smiled, and pulled a purple iris blossomfrom a tuft growing in a little spot of wet ground. He offered it tohis disturbed companion.

"There is a country flower for you," he observed.

But Miss Caruthers flung the flower impatiently away, and hastened hersteps to catch up with her brother and Lois, who made better speed thanshe. Mr. Lenox picked up the iris and followed, smiling again tohimself.

They found Lois seated in her old place, where the gentlemen had seenher in the morning. She rose at once to give the seat to MissCaruthers, and herself took a less convenient one. It was almost a newscene to Lois, that lay before them now. The lights were from adifferent quarter; the colours those of the sinking day; the sea, fromsome inexplicable reason, was rolling higher than it had done six hoursago, and dashed on the rocks and on the reef in beautiful breakers, sending up now and then a tall jet of foam or a shower of spray. Thehazy mainland shore line was very indistinct under the bright sky andlowering sun; while every bit of west-looking rock, and every sail, andevery combing billow was touched with warm hues or gilded with a sharpreflection. The air was like the air nowhere but at the Isles ofShoals; with the sea's salt strength and freshness, and at times a waftof perfumes from the land side. Lois drank it with an inexpressiblesense of exhilaration; while her eye went joyously roving from thelovely light on a sail, to the dancing foam of the breakers, to thecolours of driftwood or seaweed or moss left wet and bare on the rocks,to the line of the distant ocean, or the soft vapoury racks of cloudsfloating over from the west. She well-nigh forgot her companionsaltogether; who, however, were less absorbed. Yet for a while they allsat silent, looking partly at Lois, partly at each other, partly nodoubt at the leaping spray from the broken waves on the reef. There wasonly the delicious sound of the splash and gurgle of waters – the screamof a gull – the breath of the air – the chirrup of a few insects; all waswild stillness and freshness and pureness, except only that littlegroup of four human beings. And then, the puzzled vexation andperplexity in Tom's face, and the impatient disgust in the face of hissister, were too much for Mr. Lenox's sense of the humorous; and thesilence was broken by a hearty burst of laughter, which naturallybrought all eyes to himself.

"Pardon!" said the young gentleman. "The delight in your face, Julia, was irresistible."

"Delight!" she echoed. "Miss Lothrop, do you find something here inwhich you take pleasure?"

Lois looked round. "Yes," she said simply. "I find something everywhereto take pleasure in."

"Even at Shampuashuh?"

"At Shampuashuh, of course. That is my home."

"But I never take pleasure in anything at home. It is all such an oldstory. Every day is just like any other day, and I know beforehandexactly how everything will be; and one dress is like another, and oneparty is like another. I must go away from home to get any realpleasure."

Lois wondered if she succeeded.

"That's a nice look-out for you, George," Caruthers remarked.

"I shall know how to make home so agreeable that she will not want towander any more," said the other.

"That is what the women do for the men, down our way," said Lois, smiling. She began to feel a little mischief stirring.

"What sort of pleasures do you find, or make, at home, Miss Lothrop?"

Julia went on. "You are very quiet, are you not?"

"There is always one's work," said Lois lightly. She knew it would bein vain to tell her questioner the instances that came up in hermemory; the first dish of ripe strawberries brought in to surprise hergrandmother; the new potatoes uncommonly early; the fine yield of herraspberry bushes; the wonderful beauty of the early mornings in hergarden; the rarer, sweeter beauty of the Bible reading and talk withold Mrs. Armadale; the triumphant afternoons on the shore, from whichshe and her sisters came back with great baskets of long clams; andcountless other visions of home comfort and home peace, thingsaccomplished and the fruit of them enjoyed. Miss Caruthers could notunderstand all this; so Lois answered simply,

"There is always one's work."

"Work! I hate work," cried the other woman. "What do you call work?"

"Everything that is to be done," said Lois. "Everything, except what wedo for mere pleasure. We keep no servant; my sisters and I do all thatthere is to do, in doors and out."

"Out– of – doors!" cried Miss Caruthers. "What do you mean? You cannotdo the farming?"

"No," said Lois, smiling merrily; "no; not the farming. That is done bymen. But the gardening I do."

"Not seriously?"

"Very seriously. If you will come and see us, I will give you some newpotatoes of my planting. I am rather proud of them. I was just thinkingof them."

"Planting potatoes!" repeated the other lady, not too politely. "Thenthat is the reason why you find it a pleasure to sit here and seethose waves beat."

The logical concatenation of this speech was not so apparent but thatit touched all the risible nerves of the party; and Miss Carutherscould not understand why all three laughed so heartily.

"What did you expect when you came here?" asked Lois, still sparklingwith fun.

"Just what I found!" returned the other rather grumbly.

CHAPTER XV

TACTICS

Miss Caruthers carried on the tactics with which she had begun. Loishad never in her life found her society so diligently cultivated. Ifshe walked out, Miss Caruthers begged to be permitted to go along; shewished to learn about the Islands. Lois could not see that she advancedmuch in learning; and sometimes wondered that she did not prefer herbrother or her lover as instructors. True, her brother and her loverwere frequently of the party; yet even then Miss Julia seemed to chooseto take her lessons from Lois; and managed as much as possible toengross her. Lois could see that at such times Tom was often annoyed, and Mr. Lenox amused, at something, she could not quite tell what; andshe was too inexperienced, and too modest withal, to guess. She onlyknew that she was not as free as she would have liked to be. SometimesTom found a chance for a little walk and talk with her alone; and thosequarters of an hour were exceedingly pleasant; Tom told her aboutflowers, in a scientific way, that is; and made himself a reallycharming companion. Those minutes flew swiftly. But they never weremany. If not Julia, at least Mr. Lenox was sure to appear upon thescene; and then, though he was very pleasant too, and more thancourteous to Lois, somehow the charm was gone. It was just as well,Lois told herself; but that did not make her like it. Except with Tom,he did not enjoy herself thoroughly in the Caruthers society. She felt, with a sure, secret, fine instinct, what they were not high-bred enoughto hide; – that they did not accept her as upon their own platform. I donot think the consciousness was plain enough to be put into words; nevertheless it was decided enough to make her quite willing to avoidtheir company. She tried, but she could not avoid it. In the house asout of the house. Tom would seek her out and sit down beside her; andthen Julia would come to learn a crochet stitch, or Mrs. Carutherswould call her to remedy a fault in her knitting, or to hold her woolto be wound; refusing to let Mr. Lenox hold it, under the plea thatLois did it better; which was true, no doubt. Or Mr. Lenox himselfwould join them, and turn everything Tom said into banter; till Loiscould not help laughing, though yet she was vexed.

So days went on. And then something happened to relieve both parties ofthe efforts they were making; a very strange thing to happen at theIsles of Shoals. Mrs. Wishart was taken seriously ill. She had not beenquite well when she came; and she always afterwards maintained that theair did not agree with her. Lois thought it could not be the air, andmust be some imprudence; but however it was, the fact was undoubted.Mrs. Wishart was ill; and the doctor who was fetched over fromPortsmouth to see her, said she could not be moved, and must becarefully nursed. Was it the air? It couldn't be the air, he answered; nobody ever got sick at the Isles of Shoals. Was it some imprudence?Couldn't be, he said; there was no way in which she could be imprudent; she could not help living a natural life at Appledore. No, it wassomething the seeds of which she had brought with her; and the strongsea air had developed it. Reasoning which Lois did not understand; butshe understood nursing, and gave herself to it, night and day. Therewas a sudden relief to Miss Julia's watch and ward; nobody was indanger of saying too many words to Lois now; nobody could get a chance; she was only seen by glimpses.

"How long is this sort of thing going on?" inquired Mr. Lenox oneafternoon. He and Julia had been spending a very unrefreshing hour onthe piazza doing nothing.

"Impossible to say."

"I'm rather tired of it. How long has Mrs. Wishart been laid up now?"

"A week; and she has no idea of being moved."

"Well, are we fixtures too?"

"You know what I came for, George. If Tom will go, I will, andthankful."

"Tom," said the gentleman, as Tom at this minute came out of the house,"have you got enough of Appledore?"

"I don't care about Appledore. It's the fishing." Tom, I may remark, had been a good deal out in a fishing-boat during this past week."That's glorious."

"But you don't care for fishing, old boy."

"O, don't I!"