"Really, I should not be grateful to anyone who did _me_ such kind service."
"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 in particular, with nothing in the world but beautiful hair! Tom ought to have something better than that."
"I'll study her further, and then tell you what I think."
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 to her own room; and there she stayed. At supper she appeared, but silent and reserved; and after supper she went away again. Next morning Lois was late at breakfast; she had to run a gauntlet of eyes, as she took her seat at a little distance.
"Miss Lothrop looks as if she never had been asleep, nor ever meant to be," 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 like to 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. Lois gave a quiet assent and betook herself to her breakfast.
"I knew it," said Tom. "Morning air has a wonderful effect, if ladies would only believe it. They won't believe it, and they suffer accordingly."
"Another compliment!" said Miss Julia, laughing. "But what do you find, Miss Lothrop, that can attract you so much before breakfast? or after breakfast either, for that matter?"
"Before breakfast is the best time in the twenty-four hours," said Lois.
"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 believe there is anything to enjoy at the Isles. Will Miss Lothrop enlighten us?"
"I do not know that I can," said Lois. "You might not find what I find."