ns, to be
compared with these and others their associates in graces of person and
manner, and interest of conversation. She went over again and again in
memory the interview and the talk of that morning; and not without a
secret thrill of gratification, although also not without a vague half
perception of something in Mr. Lenox's manner that she could not quite
read and did not quite trust. What did he mean? He was Miss Caruthers'
property; how came he to busy himself at all with her own insignificant
self? Lois was too innocent to guess; at the same time too finely
gifted as a woman to be entirely hoodwinked. She rose at last with a
third little sigh, as she concluded that her best way was to keep as
well away as she could from this pleasant companionship.

But she could not stay in-doors. For once in her life she was at
Appledore; she must not miss her chance. The afternoon was half gone;
the house all still; probably everybody was in his room, and she could
slip out safely. She went down on soft feet; she found nobody on the
piazza, not a creature in sight; she was glad; and yet, she would not
have been sorry to see Tom Caruthers' genial face, which was always so
very genial towards her. Inconsistent!--but who is not inconsistent?
Lois thought herself free, and had half descended the steps from the
verandah, when she heard a voice and her own name. She paused and
looked round.

"Miss Lothrop!--are you going for a walk? may I come with you?"--and
therewith emerged the form of Miss Julia from the house. "Are you going
for a walk? will you let me go along?"

"Certainly," said Lois.

"I am regularly cast away here," said the young lady, joining her. "I
don't know what to do with myself. _Is_ there anything to do or to see
in this place?"

"I think so. Plenty."

"Then do show me what you have found. Where are you going?"

"I am going down to the shore somewhere. I have only begun to find
things yet; but I never in my life saw a place where there was so much
to find."

"What, pray? I cannot imagine. I see a little wild bit of ground, and
that is all I see; except the sea beating on the rocks. It is the
forlornest place of amusement I ever heard of in my life!"

"Are you fond of flowers, Miss Caruthers?"

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

Lois pre