"And I think you aremistaken in your other statement; she can talk on some subjects.Probably you did not hit the right ones."
"Well, she does not know anything," said Miss Julia.
"That is bad. Perhaps it might be mended."
"How? Nonsense! I beg your pardon, Mr. Dillwyn; but you cannot make anaccomplished woman out of a country girl, if you don't begin before sheis twenty. And imagine Tom with such a wife! and me with such a sister!"
"I cannot imagine it. Don't you see, Tom, you must give it up?" Dillwynsaid lightly.
"I'll go to the Isles of Shoals and think about that," said Tom.
Wherewith he got up and went off.
"Mamma," said Julia then, "he's going to that place to meet that girl.Either she is to be there with Mrs. Wishart, or he is reckoning to seeher by the way; and the Isles of Shoals are just a blind. And the onlything left for you and me is to go too, and be of the party!"
"Tom don't want us along," said Tom's mother.
"Of course he don't want us along; and I am sure we don't want iteither; but it is the only thing left for us to do. Don't you see?She'll be there, or he can stop at her place by the way, going andcoming; maybe Mrs. Wishart is asking her on purpose – I shouldn't be atall surprised – and they'll make up the match between them. It would bea thing for the girl, to marry Tom Caruthers!"
Mrs. Caruthers groaned, I suppose at the double prospect before her andbefore Tom. Philip was silent. Miss Julia went on discussing andarranging; till her brother returned.
"Tom," said she cheerfully, "we've been talking over matters, and I'lltell you what we'll do – if you won't go with us, we will go with you!"
"Where?"
"Why, to the Isles of Shoals, of course."
"You and mother!" said Tom.
"Yes. There is no fun in going about alone. We will go along with you."
"What on earth will you do at a place like that?"
"Keep you from being lonely."
"Stuff, Julia! You will wish yourself back before you've been there anhour; and I tell you, I want to go fishing. What would become ofmother, landed on a bare rock like that, with nobody to speak to, andnothing but crabs to eat?"
"Crabs!" Julia echoed. Philip burst into a laugh.
"Crabs and mussels," said Tom. "I don't believe you'll get anythingelse."
"But is Mrs. Wishart gone there?"
"Philip says so."
"Mrs. Wishart isn't a fool."
And Tom was unable to overthrow this argument.
CHAPTER XII
APPLEDORE
It was a very bright, warm August day when Mrs. Wishart and her youngcompanion steamed over from Portsmouth to the Isles of Shoals. It wasLois's first sight of the sea, for the journey from New York had beenmade by land; and the ocean, however still, was nothing but a mostwonderful novelty to her. She wanted nothing, she could well-nighattend to nothing, but the movements and developments of this vast andmysterious Presence of nature. Mrs. Wishart was amused and yet halfprovoked. There was no talk in Lois; nothing to be got out of her; hardly any attention to be had from her. She sat by the vessel's sideand gazed, with a brow of grave awe and eyes of submissive admiration; rapt, absorbed, silent, and evidently glad. Mrs. Wishart was provokedat her, and envied her.
"What do you find in the water, Lois?"
"O, the wonder of it!" said the girl, with a breath of rapture.
"Wonder! what wonder? I suppose everything is wonderful, if you look atit. What do you see there that seems so very wonderful?"
"I don't know, Mrs. Wishart. It is so great! and it is so beautiful!and it is so awful!"
"Beautiful?" said Mrs. Wishart. "I confess I do not see it. I supposeit is your gain, Lois. Yes, it is awful enough in a storm, but notto-day. The sea is quiet."
Quiet! with those low-rolling, majestic soft billows. The quiet of alion asleep with his head upon his paws. Lois did not say what shethought.
"And you have never seen the sea-shore yet," Mrs. Wishart went on."Well, you will have enough of the sea at the Isles. And those arethey, I fancy, yonder. Are those the Isles of Shoals?" she asked apassing man of the crew; and was answered with a rough voiced, "Yaw, mum; they be th' oisles."
Lois gazed now at those distant brown spots, as the vessel drew nearerand nearer. Brown spots they remained, and, to her surprise, small brown spots. Nearer and nearer views only forced the conviction deeper.The Isles seemed to be merely some rough rocky projections from oldOcean's bed, too small to have beauty, too rough to have value. Werethose the desired Isles of Shoals? Lois felt deep disappointment.Little bits of bare rock in the midst of the sea; nothing more. Notrees, she was sure; as the light fell she could even see no green. Whywould they not be better relegated to Ocean's domain, from which theywere only saved by a few feet of upheaval? why should anybody livethere? and still more, why should anybody make a pleasure visit there?
"I suppose the people are all fishermen?" she said to Mrs. Wishart.
"I suppose so. O, there is a house of entertainment – a sort of hotel."
"How many people live there?"
"My dear, I don't know. A handful, I should think, by the look of theplace. What tempts them, I don't see."
Nor did Lois. She was greatly disappointed. All her fairy visions werefled. No meadows, no shady banks, no soft green dales; nothing she hadever imagined in connection with country loveliness. Her expectationssank down, collapsed, and vanished for ever.
She showed nothing of all this. She helped Mrs. Wishart gather hersmall baggage together, and followed her on shore, with her usual quietthoughtfulness; saw her established in the hotel, and assisted her toget things a little in order. But then, when the elder lady lay down to"catch a nap," as she said, before tea, Lois seized her flat hat andfled out of the house.
There was grass around it, and sheep and cows to be seen. Alas, notrees. But there were bushes certainly growing here and there, and Loishad not gone far before she found a flower. With that in her hand shesped on, out of the little grassy vale, upon the rocks that surroundedit, and over them, till she caught sight of the sea. Then she made herway, as she could, over the roughnesses and hindrances of the rocks, till she got near the edge of the island at that place; and sat down alittle above where the billows of the Atlantic were rolling in. Thewide sea line was before her, with its mysterious and infinite depth ofcolour; at her feet the waves were coming in and breaking, slow andgently to-day, yet every one seeming to make an invasion of the littlerocky domain which defied it, and to retire unwillingly, foiled, beaten, and broken, to gather new forces and come on again for a newattack. Lois watched them, fascinated by their persistence, theirsluggish power, and yet their ever-recurring discomfiture; admired thechanging colours and hues of the water, endlessly varying, cool andlovely and delicate, contrasting with the wet washed rocks and the darkline of sea-weed lying where high tide had cast it up. The breeze blewin her face gently, but filled with freshness, life, and pungency ofthe salt air; sea-birds flew past hither and thither, sometimesuttering a cry; there was
