"Why ain"t they here now?"
"Dead and gone?" suggested Tom, half laughing.
"Of course! I mean, why ain"t the village here, and the people? The people are somewhere--the children and grandchildren of those that lived here; what"s become of "em?"
"That"s true," said Tom; "they are somewhere. I believe they are to be found scattered along the coast of the mainland."
"Got tired o" livin" between sea and sky with no ground to speak of.
Well, I should think they would!"
"Miss Lothrop says, on the contrary, that they never get tired of it, the people who live here; and that nothing but necessity forced the former inhabitants to abandon Appledore."
"What sort of necessity?"
"Too exposed, in the time of the war."
"Ah! likely. Well, we"ll go, Mr. Caruthers; this sort o" thing makes me melancholy, and that" against my principles to be." Yet she stood still, looking.
"Miss Lothrop likes this place," Tom remarked.
"Then it don"t make her melancholy."
"Does anything?"
"I hope so. She"s human."
"But she seems to me always to have the sweetest air of happiness about her, that ever I saw in a human being."
"Have you got where you can see _air?_" inquired Mrs. Marx sharply. Tom laughed.
"I mean, that she finds something everywhere to like and to take pleasure in. Now I confess, this bit of ground, full of graves and old excavations, has no particular charms for me; and my sister will not stay here a minute."
"And what does Lois find here to delight her?
"Everything!" said Tom with enthusiasm. "I was with her the first time she came to this corner of the island,--and it was a lesson, to see her delight. The old cellars and the old stones, and the graves; and then the short green turf that grows among them, and the flowers and weeds--what _I_ call weeds, who know no better--but Miss Lois tried to make me see the beauty of the sumach and all the rest of it."
"And she couldn"t!" said Mrs. Marx. "Well, I can"t. The noise of the sea, and the sight of it, eternally breaking there upon the rocks, would drive me out of my mind, I believe, after a while." And yet Mrs.
Marx sat down upon a turfy bank and looked contentedly about her.
"Mrs. Marx," said Tom suddenly, "you are a good friend of Miss Lothrop, aren"t you?"
"Try to be a friend to everybody. I"ve counted sixty-six o" these old cellars!"
"I believe there are more than that. I think Miss Lothrop said seventy."
"She seems to have told you a good deal."
"I was so fortunate as to be here alone with her. Miss Lothrop is often very silent in company."
"So I observe," said Mrs. Marx dryly.
"I wish you"d be my friend too!" said Tom, now taking a seat by her side. "You said you are a friend of everybody."
"That is, of everybody who needs me," said Mrs. Marx, casting a side look at Tom"s handsome, winning countenance. "I judge, young man, that ain"t your case."
"But it is, indeed!"
"Maybe," said Mrs. Marx incredulously. "Go on, and let"s hear."
"You will let me speak to you frankly?"
"Don"t like any other sort."
"And you will answer me also frankly?"
"I don"t know," said the lady, "but one thing I can say, if I"ve got the answer, I"ll give it to you."
"I don"t know who should," said Tom flatteringly, "if not you. I thought I could trust you, when I had seen you a few times."
"Maybe you won"t think so after to-day. But go on. What"s the business?"
"It is very important business," said Tom slowly; "and it concerns--Miss Lothrop."
"You have got hold of me now," said Lois"s aunt. "I"ll go into the business, you may depend upon it. What _is_ the business?"
"Mrs. Marx, I have a great admiration for Miss Lothrop."
"I dare say. So have some other folks."
"I have had it for a long while. I came here because I heard she was coming. I have lost my heart to her, Mrs. Marx."
"Ah!--What are you going to do about it? or what can _I_ do about it?
Lost hearts can"t be picked up under every bush."
"I want you to tell me what I shall do."
"What hinders your making up your own mind?"
"It is made up!--long ago."
"Then act upon it. What hinders you? I don"t see what I have got to do with that."
"Mrs. Marx, do you think she would have me if I asked her? As a friend, won"t you tell me?"
"I don"t see why I should,--if I knew,--which I don"t. I don"t see how it would be a friend"s part. Why should I tell you, supposin" I could?
She"s the only person that knows anything about it."
Tom pulled his moustache right and left in a worried manner.