Susan Warner - Nobody

"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 —