Susan Warner - Nobody

"Certainly not," said Lois, laughing. "But I have a pleasantremembrance of him, he gave us such a good lunch one day. I am veryglad I am not going to see anybody I ever saw before. Where are theIsles of Shoals? and what are they, that you should go to see them?"

"I'm not going to see them – there's nothing to see, unless you like seaand rocks. I am going for the air, and because I must go somewhere, andI am tired of everywhere else. O, they're out in the Atlantic – sea allround them – queer, barren places. I am so glad I've got you, Lois! Idon't know a soul that's to be there – can't guess what we shall find; but I've got you, and I can get along."

"Do people go there just for health?"

"O, a few, perhaps; but the thing is what I am after – novelty; they arehardly the fashion yet."

"That is the very oddest reason for doing or not doing things!" saidLois. "Because it's the fashion! As if that made it pleasant, oruseful."

"It does!" said Mrs. Wishart. "Of course it does. Pleasant, yes, anduseful too. My dear, you don't want to be out of the fashion?"

"Why not, if the fashion does not agree with me?"

"O my dear, you will learn. Not to agree with the fashion, is to be outwith the world."

"With one part of it," said Lois merrily.

"Just the part that is of importance. Never mind, you will learn. Lois,I am so sleepy, I can not keep up any longer. I must curl down and takea nap. I just kept myself awake till we reached Shampuashuh. You hadbetter do as I do. My dear, I am very sorry, but I can't help it."

So Mrs. Wishart settled herself upon a heap of bags and wraps, took offher bonnet, and went to sleep. Lois did not feel in the least likefollowing her example. She was wide-awake with excitement andexpectation, and needed no help of entertainment from anybody. With herthoroughly sound mind and body and healthy appetites, every detail andevery foot of the journey was a pleasure to her; even the corner of adrawing-room car on a night train. It was such change and variety! andLois had spent all her life nearly in one narrow sphere and theself-same daily course of life and experience. New York had been onegreat break in this uniformity, and now came another. Islands in thesea! Lois tried to fancy what they would be like. So much resorted toalready, they must be very charming; and green meadows, shadowingtrees, soft shores and cosy nooks rose up before her imagination. Mr.Caruthers and his family were at Saratoga, that was well; but therewould be other people, different from the Shampuashuh type; and Loisdelighted in seeing new varieties of humankind as well as new portionsof the earth where they live. She sat wide-awake opposite to hersleeping hostess, and made an entertainment for herself out of theplace and the night journey. It was a starlit, sultry night; the worldoutside the hurrying train covered with a wonderful misty veil, underwhich it lay half revealed by the heavenly illumination; soft, mysterious, vast; a breath now and then whispering of nature'sluxuriant abundance and sweetness that lay all around, out there underthe stars, for miles and hundreds of miles. Lois looked and peered outsometimes, so happy that it was not Shampuashuh, and that she was away, and that she would see the sun shine on new landscapes when the morningcame round; and sometimes she looked within the car, and marvelled atthe different signs and tokens of human life and character that met herthere. And every yard of the way was a delight to her.

Meanwhile, how weirdly and strangely do the threads of human life crossand twine and untwine in this world!

That same evening, in New York, in the Caruthers mansion inTwenty-Third Street, the drawing-room windows were open to let in therefreshing breeze from the sea. The light lace curtains swayed to andfro as the wind came and went, but were not drawn; for Mrs. Caruthersliked, she said, to have so much of a screen between her and thepassers-by. For that matter, the windows were high enough above thestreet to prevent all danger of any one's looking in. The lights wereburning low in the rooms, on account of the heat; and within, inattitudes of exhaustion and helplessness sat mother and daughter intheir several easy-chairs. Tom was on his back on the floor, which, being nicely matted, was not the worst place. A welcome break to themonotony of the evening was the entrance of Philip Dillwyn. Tom got upfrom the floor to welcome him, and went back then to his formerposition.

"How come you to be here at this time of year?" Dillwyn asked. "It wasmere accident my finding you. Should never have thought of looking foryou. But by chance passing, I saw that windows were open and lightsvisible, so I concluded that something else might be visible if I camein."

"We are only just passing through," Julia explained. "Going to Saratogato-morrow. We have only just come from Newport."

"What drove you away from Newport? This is the time to be by the sea."

"O, who cares for the sea! or anything else? it's the people; and thepeople at Newport didn't suit mother. The Benthams were there, and thatset; and mother don't like the Benthams; and Miss Zagumski, thedaughter of the Russian minister, was there, and all the world wascrazy about her. Nothing was to be seen or heard but Miss Zagumski, andher dancing, and her playing, and her singing. Mother got tired of it."

"And yet Newport is a large place," remarked Philip.

"Too large," Mrs. Caruthers answered.

"What do you expect to find at Saratoga?"

"Heat," said Mrs. Caruthers; "and another crowd."

"I think you will not be disappointed, if this weather holds."

"It is a great deal more comfortable here!" sighed the elder lady."Saratoga's a dreadfully hot place! Home is a great deal morecomfortable."

"Then why not stay at home? Comfort is what you are after."

"O, but one can't! Everybody goes somewhere; and one must do aseverybody does."

"Why?"

"Philip, what makes you ask such a question?"

"I assure you, a very honest ignorance of the answer to it."

"Why, one must do as everybody does?"

"Yes."

The lady's tone and accent had implied that the answer wasself-evident; yet it was not given.

"Really," – Philip went on. "What should hinder you from staying in thispleasant house part of the summer, or all of the summer, if you findyourselves more comfortable here?"

"Being comfortable isn't the only thing," said Julia.

"No. What other consideration governs the decision? that is what I amasking."

"Why, Philip, there is nobody in town."

"That is better than company you do not like."

"I wish it was the fashion to stay in town," said Mrs. Caruthers."There is everything here, in one's own house, to make the heatendurable, and just what we miss when we go to a hotel. Large rooms, and cool nights, and clean servants, and gas, and baths – hotel roomsare so stuffy."

"After all, one does not live in one's rooms," said Julia.

"But," said Philip, returning to the charge, "why should not you, Mrs.Caruthers, do what you like? Why should you be displeased in Saratoga,or anywhere, merely because other people are pleased there? Why not doas you like?"

"You know one can't do as one likes in this world," Julia returned.

"Why not, if one can, – as you can?" said Philip, laughing.

"But that's ridiculous," said Julia, raising herself up with a littleshow of energy. "You know perfectly well, Mr. Dillwyn, that peoplebelonging to the world must do as the rest of the world do. Nobody isin town. If we stayed here, people would get up some unspeakable storyto account for our doing it; that would be the next thing."

"Dillwyn, where are you going?" said Tom suddenly from the floor, wherehe had been more uneasy than his situation accounted for.

"I don't know – perhaps I'll take your train and go to Saratoga too. Notfor fear, though."