"That's it--Miss Lothrop. I'm her aunt. How's the sick lady? Dangerous?"

"Not at all, I should say," returned Tom; "but Miss Lothrop is very much confined with her. She will be very glad to see you, I have no doubt. Allow me to see about your room." And so saying, he would have relieved the new comer of a heavy handbag.

"Never mind," she said, holding fast. "You're very obliging--but when I'm away from home I always hold fast to whatever I've got; and I'll go to Miss Lothrop's room. Are there more folks in the house?"

"Certainly. Several. This way--I will show you."

"Then I s'pose there's plenty to help nurse, and they have no call for me?"

"I think Miss Lothrop has done the most of the nursing. Your coming will set her a little more at liberty. She has been very much confined with her sick friend."

"What have the other folks been about?"

"Not helping much, I am afraid. And of course a man is at a disadvantage at such a time."

"Are they all men?" inquired Mrs. Marx suddenly.

"No--I was thinking of my own case. I would have been very glad to be useful."

"O!" said the lady. "That's the sort o' world we live in; most of it ain't good for much when it comes to the pinch. Thank you--much obliged."

Tom had guided her up-stairs and along a gallery, and now indicated the door of Lois's room. Lois was quite as glad to see her aunt as Tom had supposed she would be.

"Aunty!--Whatever has brought you here, to the Isles of Shoals?"

"Not to see the Isles, you may bet. I've come to look after you."

"Why, I'm well enough. But it's very good of you."

"No, it ain't, for I wanted an excuse to see what the place is like.

You haven't grown thin yet. What's all the folks about, that they let you do all the nursing?"

"O, it comes to me naturally, being with Mrs. Wishart. Who should do it?"

"To be sure," said Mrs. Marx; "who should do it? Most folks are good at keepin' out o' the way when they are wanted. There's one clever chap in the house--he showed me the way up here; who's he?"

"Fair hair?"

"Yes, and curly. A handsome fellow. And he knows you."

"O, they all know me by this time."

"This one particularly?"

"Well--I knew him in New York."

"I see! What's the matter with this sick woman?"

"I don't know. She is nervous, and feverish, and does not seem to get well as she ought to do."

"Well, if I was going to get sick, I'd choose some other place than a rock out in the middle of the ocean. _Seems_ to me I would. One never knows what one may be left to do."

"One cannot generally choose where one will be sick," said Lois, smiling.

"Yes, you can," said the other, as sharp as a needle. "If one's in the wrong place, one can keep up till one can get to the right one. You needn't tell me. I know it, and I've done it. I've held up when I hadn't feet to stand upon, nor a head to hold. If you're a mind to, you can. Nervous, eh? That's the trouble o' folks that haven't enough to do. Mercy! I don't wonder they get nervous. But you've had a little too much, Lois, and you show it. Now, you go and lie down. I'll look after the nerves."

"How are they all at home?"

"Splendid! Charity goes round like a bee in a bottle, as usual. Ma's well; and Madge is as handsome as ever. Garden's growin' up to weeds, and I don't see as there's anybody to help it; but that corner peach tree's ripe, and as good as if you had fifteen gardeners."

"It's time I was home!" said Lois, sighing.

"No, it ain't,--not if you're havin' a good time here. _Are_ you havin'

a good time?"

"Why, I've been doing nothing but take care of Mrs. Wishart for this week past."

"Well, now I'm here. You go off. Do you like this queer place, I want to know?"

"Aunty, it is just perfectly delightful!"

"Is it? I don't see it. Maybe I will by and by. Now go off, Lois."

Mrs. Marx from this time took upon herself the post of head nurse. Lois was free to go out as much as she pleased. Yet she made less use of this freedom than might have been expected, and still confined herself unnecessarily to the sick-room.

"Why don't you go?" her aunt remonstrated. "Seems to me you ain't so dreadful fond of the Isles of Shoals after all."

"If one could be alone!" sighed Lois; "but there is always a pack at my heels."

"Alone! Is that what you're after? I thought half the fun was to see the folks."

"Well, some of them," said Lois. "But as sure as I go out to have a good time with the rocks and the sea, as I like to have it, there comes first one and then another and then another, and maybe a fourth; and the game is up."

"Why? I don't see how they should spoil it."

"O, they do not care for the things I care for; the sea is nothing to them, and the rocks less than nothing; and instead of being quiet, they talk nonsense, or what seems nonsense to me; and I'd as lieve be at home."

"What do they go for then?"

"I don't know. I think they do not know what to do with themselves."

"What do they stay here for, then, for pity's sake? If they are tired, why don't they go away?"

"I can't tell. That is what I have asked myself a great many times.

They are all as well as fishes, every one of them."

Mrs. Marx held her peace and let things go their train for a few days more. Mrs. Wishart still gave her and Lois a good deal to do, though her ailments aroused no anxiety. After those few days, Mrs. Marx spoke again.