Nobody

"Flowers? No, not very. O, I like them to dress a dinner table, or tomake rooms look pretty, of course; but I am not what you call 'fond' ofthem. That means, loving to dig in the dirt, don't it?"

Lois presently stooped and gathered a flower or two.

"Did yon ever see such lovely white violets?" she said; "and is notthat eyebright delicate, with its edging of colour? There arequantities of flowers here. And have you noticed how deep and rich thecolours are? No, you have not been here long enough perhaps; but theyare finer than any I ever saw of their kinds."

"What do you find down at the shore?" said Miss Caruthers, looking verydisparagingly at the slight beauties in Lois's fingers. "There are noflowers there, I suppose?"

"I can hardly get away from the shore, every time I go to it," saidLois. "O, I have only begun to explore yet. Over on that end ofAppledore there are the old remains of a village, where the people usedto live, once upon a time. I want to go and see that, but I haven't gotthere yet. Now take care of your footing, Miss Caruthers – "

They descended the rocks to one of the small coves of the island. Outof sight now of all save rocks and sea and the tiny bottom of the covefilled with mud and sand. Even the low bushes which grow so thick onAppledore were out of sight, huckleberry and bayberry and others; thewildness and solitude of the spot were perfect. Miss Caruthers found adry seat on a rock. Lois began to look carefully about in the mud andsand.

"What are you looking for?" her companion asked, somewhat scornfully.

"Anything I can find!"

"What can you find in that mud?"

"This is gravel, where I am looking now."

"Well, what is in the gravel?"

"I don't know," said Lois, in the dreamy tone of rapt enjoyment. "Idon't know yet. Plenty of broken shells."

"Broken shells!" ejaculated the other. "Are you collecting brokenshells?"

"Look," said Lois, coming to her and displaying her palm full of seatreasures. "See the colours of those bits of shell – that's a bit of amussel; and that is a piece of a snail shell, I think; and aren't thoselittle stones lovely?"

"That is because they are wet!" said the other in disgust. "They willbe nothing when they are dry."

Lois laughed and went back to her search; and Miss Julia waited awhilewith impatience for some change in the programme.

"Do you enjoy this, Miss Lothrop?"

"Very much! More than I can in any way tell you!" cried Lois, stoppingand turning to look at her questioner. Her face answered for her; itwas all flushed and bright with delight and the spirit of discovery; apretty creature indeed she looked as she stood there on the wet gravelof the cove; but her face lost brightness for a moment, as Loisdiscerned Tom's head above the herbs and grasses that bordered the bankabove the cove. Julia saw the change, and then the cause of it.

"Tom!" said she, "what brought you here?"

"What brought you, I suppose," said Mr. Tom, springing down the bank."Miss Lothrop, what can you be doing?" Passing his sister he went tothe other girl's side. And now there were two searching and peeringinto the mud and gravel which the tide had left wet and bare; and MissCaruthers, sitting on a rock a little above them, looked on; muchmarvelling at the follies men will be guilty of when a pretty facedraws them on.

"Tom – Tom! – what do you expect to find?" she cried after awhile. ButTom was too busy to heed her. And then appeared Mr. Lenox upon thescene.

"You too!" said Miss Caruthers. "Now you have only to go down into themud like the others and complete the situation. Look at Tom! Pokingabout to see if he can find a whole snail shell in the wet stuff there.Look at him! George, a brother is the most vexatious thing to take careof in the world. Look at Tom!"

Mr. Lenox did, with an amused expression of feature.

"Bad job, Julia," he said.

"It is in one way, but it isn't in another, for I am not going to bebaffled. He shall not make a fool of himself with that girl."

"She isn't a fool."

"What then?" said Julia sharply.

"Nothing. I was only thinking of the materials upon which your judgmentis made up."

"Materials!" echoed Julia. "Yours is made up upon a nice complexion.

That bewilders all men's faculties. Do you think she is very pretty,

George?"

Mr. Lenox had no time to answer, for Lois, and of course Tom, at thismoment left the cove bottom and came towards them. Lois was beaming, like a child, with such bright, pure pleasure; and coming up, showedupon her open palm a very delicate little white shell, not a snailshell by any means. "I have found that!" she proclaimed.

"What is that?" said Julia disdainfully, though not with rudeness.

"You see. Isn't it beautiful? And isn't it wonderful that it should notbe broken? If you think of the power of the waves here, that have beatto pieces almost everything – rolled and ground and crushed everythingthat would break – and this delicate little thing has lived through it."

"There is a power of life in some delicate things," said Tom.

"Power of fiddlestick!" said his sister. "Miss Lothrop, I think thisplace is a terrible desert!"

"Then we will not stay here any longer," said Lois. "I am very fond ofthese little coves."

"No, no, I mean Appledore generally. It is the stupidest place I everwas in in my life. There is nothing here."

Lois looked at the lady with an expression of wondering compassion.

"Your experience does not agree with that of Miss Caruthers?" said

Lenox.

"No," said Lois. "Let us take her to the place where you found me thismorning; maybe she would like that."

"We must go, I suppose," groaned Julia, as Mr. Lenox helped her up overthe rocks after the lighter-footed couple that preceded them. "George,I believe you are in the way."

"Thanks!" said the young man, laughing. "But you will excuse me forcontinuing to be in the way."

"I don't know – you see, it just sets Tom free to attend to her. Look athim – picking those purple irises – as if iris did not grow anywhereelse! And now elderberry blossoms! And he will give her lessons inbotany, I shouldn't wonder. O, Tom's a goose!"

"That disease is helpless," said Lenox, laughing again.

"But George, it is madness!"

Mr. Lenox's laugh rang out heartily at this. His sovereign mistress wasnot altogether pleased.

"I do certainly consider – and so do you, – I do certainly considerunequal marriages to be a great misfortune to all concerned."

"Certainly – inequalities that cannot be made up. For instance, too talland too short do not match well together. Or for the lady to be richand the man to be poor; that is perilous."

"Nonsense, George! don't be ridiculous! Height is nothing, and money isnothing; but family – and breeding – and habits – "

"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!"

"No, not a farthing. Seriously, don't you think we might mend ourquarters?"

"You can," said Tom. "Of course I can't go while Mrs. Wishart is sick.

I can't leave those two women alone here to take care of themselves.

You can take Julia and my mother away, where you like."

"And a good riddance," muttered Lenox, as the other ran down the stepsand went off.

"He won't stir," said Julia. "You see how right I was."

"Are you sure about it?"

"Why, of course I am! Quite sure. What are you thinking about?"

"Just wondering whether you might have made a mistake."

"A mistake! How? I don't make mistakes."

"That's pleasant doctrine! But I am not so certain. I have beenthinking whether Tom is likely ever to get anything better."

"Than this girl? George, don't you think he deserves somethingbetter? My brother? What are you thinking of?"

"Tom has got an enormous fancy for her; I can see that. It's not playwith him. And upon my honour, Julia, I do not think she would do anything to wear off the fancy."

"Not if she could help it!" returned Julia scornfully.

"She isn't a bit of a flirt."

"You think that is a recommendation? Men like flirts. This girl don'tknow how, that is all."

"I do not believe she knows how to do anything wrong."

"Now do set up a discourse in praise of virtue! What if she don't?

That's nothing to the purpose. I want Tom to go into political life."

"A virtuous wife wouldn't hurt him there."

"And an ignorant, country-bred, untrained woman wouldn't help him, would she?"

"Tom will never want help in political life, for he will never go intoit. Well, I have said my say, and resign myself to Appledore for twoweeks longer. Only, mind you, I question if Tom will ever get anythingas good again in the shape of a wife, as you are keeping him from now.It is something of a responsibility to play Providence."

The situation therefore remained unchanged for several days more. Mrs.Wishart needed constant attention, and had it; and nobody else saw Loisfor more than the merest snatches of time. I think Lois made thesemoments as short as she could. Tom was in despair, but stuck to hispost and his determination; and with sighs and groans his mother andsister held fast to theirs. The hotel at Appledore made a good thing ofit.

Then one day Tom was lounging on the piazza at the time of thesteamer's coming in from Portsmouth; and in a short time thereafter anew guest was seen advancing towards the hotel. Tom gave her a glanceor two; he needed no more. She was middle-aged, plain, and evidentlynot from that quarter of the world where Mr. Tom Caruthers was known.Neatly dressed, however, and coming with an alert, business step overthe grass, and so she mounted to the piazza. There she made straightfor Tom, who was the only person visible.

"Is this the place where a lady is lying sick and another lady istendin' her?"

"That is the case here," said Tom politely. "Miss Lothrop isattending upon a sick friend in this house."

"That's it – Miss Lothrop. I'm her aunt. How's the sick lady? Dangerous?"

"Not at all, I should say," returned Tom; "but Miss Lothrop is verymuch confined with her. She will be very glad to see you, I have nodoubt. Allow me to see about your room." And so saying, he would haverelieved the new comer of a heavy handbag.

"Never mind," she said, holding fast. "You're very obliging – but whenI'm away from home I always hold fast to whatever I've got; and I'll goto Miss Lothrop's room. Are there more folks in the house?"

"Certainly. Several. This way – I will show you."

"Then I s'pose there's plenty to help nurse, and they have no call forme?"

"I think Miss Lothrop has done the most of the nursing. Your comingwill set her a little more at liberty. She has been very much confinedwith her sick friend."

"What have the other folks been about?"

"Not helping much, I am afraid. And of course a man is at adisadvantage at such a time."

"Are they all men?" inquired Mrs. Marx suddenly.

"No – I was thinking of my own case. I would have been very glad to beuseful."

"O!" said the lady. "That's the sort o' world we live in; most of itain't good for much when it comes to the pinch. Thank you – muchobliged."

Tom had guided her up-stairs and along a gallery, and now indicated thedoor of Lois's room. Lois was quite as glad to see her aunt as Tom hadsupposed she would be.

"Aunty! – Whatever has brought you here, to the Isles of Shoals?"

"Not to see the Isles, you may bet. I've come to look after you."

"Why, I'm well enough. But it's very good of you."

"No, it ain't, for I wanted an excuse to see what the place is like.You haven't grown thin yet. What's all the folks about, that they letyou do all the nursing?"

"O, it comes to me naturally, being with Mrs. Wishart. Who should doit?"

"To be sure," said Mrs. Marx; "who should do it? Most folks are good atkeepin' out o' the way when they are wanted. There's one clever chap inthe house – he showed me the way up here; who's he?"

"Fair hair?"

"Yes, and curly. A handsome fellow. And he knows you."

"O, they all know me by this time."

"This one particularly?"

"Well – I knew him in New York."

"I see! What's the matter with this sick woman?"

"I don't know. She is nervous, and feverish, and does not seem to getwell as she ought to do."

"Well, if I was going to get sick, I'd choose some other place than arock out in the middle of the ocean. Seems to me I would. One neverknows what one may be left to do."

"One cannot generally choose where one will be sick," said Lois, smiling.

"Yes, you can," said the other, as sharp as a needle. "If one's in thewrong place, one can keep up till one can get to the right one. Youneedn't tell me. I know it, and I've done it. I've held up when Ihadn't feet to stand upon, nor a head to hold. If you're a mind to, youcan. Nervous, eh? That's the trouble o' folks that haven't enough todo. Mercy! I don't wonder they get nervous. But you've had a little toomuch, Lois, and you show it. Now, you go and lie down. I'll look afterthe nerves."

"How are they all at home?"

"Splendid! Charity goes round like a bee in a bottle, as usual. Ma'swell; and Madge is as handsome as ever. Garden's growin' up to weeds, and I don't see as there's anybody to help it; but that corner peachtree's ripe, and as good as if you had fifteen gardeners."

"It's time I was home!" said Lois, sighing.

"No, it ain't, – not if you're havin' a good time here. Are you havin'a good time?"

"Why, I've been doing nothing but take care of Mrs. Wishart for thisweek past."

"Well, now I'm here. You go off. Do you like this queer place, I wantto know?"

"Aunty, it is just perfectly delightful!"

"Is it? I don't see it. Maybe I will by and by. Now go off, Lois."

Mrs. Marx from this time took upon herself the post of head nurse. Loiswas free to go out as much as she pleased. Yet she made less use ofthis freedom than might have been expected, and still confined herselfunnecessarily to the sick-room.

"Why don't you go?" her aunt remonstrated. "Seems to me you ain't sodreadful fond of the Isles of Shoals after all."

"If one could be alone!" sighed Lois; "but there is always a pack at myheels."

"Alone! Is that what you're after? I thought half the fun was to seethe folks."

"Well, some of them," said Lois. "But as sure as I go out to have agood time with the rocks and the sea, as I like to have it, there comesfirst one and then another and then another, and maybe a fourth; andthe game is up."

"Why? I don't see how they should spoil it."

"O, they do not care for the things I care for; the sea is nothing tothem, and the rocks less than nothing; and instead of being quiet, theytalk nonsense, or what seems nonsense to me; and I'd as lieve be athome."

"What do they go for then?"

"I don't know. I think they do not know what to do with themselves."

"What do they stay here for, then, for pity's sake? If they are tired, why don't they go away?"

"I can't tell. That is what I have asked myself a great many times.

They are all as well as fishes, every one of them."

Mrs. Marx held her peace and let things go their train for a few daysmore. Mrs. Wishart still gave her and Lois a good deal to do, thoughher ailments aroused no anxiety. After those few days, Mrs. Marx spokeagain.

"What keeps you so mum?" she said to Lois. "Why don't you talk, asother folks do?"

"I hardly see them, you know, except at meals."

"Why don't you talk at meal times? that's what I am askin' about. Youcan talk as well as anybody; and you sit as mum as a stick."

"Aunty, they all talk about things I do not understand."

"Then I'd talk of something they don't understand. Two can play atthat game."

"It wouldn't be amusing," said Lois, laughing.

"Do you call their talk amusing? It's the stupidest stuff I ever didhear. I can't make head or tail of it; nor I don't believe they can.Sounds to me as if they were tryin' amazin' hard to be witty, andcouldn't make it out."

"It sounds a good deal like that," Lois assented.

"They go on just as if you wasn't there!"

"And why shouldn't they?"

"Because you are there."

"I am nothing to them," said Lois quietly.

"Nothing to them! You are worth the whole lot."

"They do not think so."

"And politeness is politeness."

"I sometimes think," said Lois, "that politeness is rudeness."

"Well, I wouldn't let myself be put in a corner so, if I was you."

"But I am in a corner, to them. All the world is where they live; and

I live in a little corner down by Shampuashuh."

"Nobody's big enough to live in more than a corner – if you come tothat; and one corner's as good as another. That's nonsense, Lois."

"Maybe, aunty. But there is a certain knowledge of the world, and habitof the world, which makes some people very different from other people; you can't help that."

"I don't want to help it?" said Mrs. Marx. "I wouldn't have you likethem, for all the black sheep in my flock."