anion.

"There is a country flower for you," he observed.

But Miss Caruthers flung the flower impatiently away, and hastened her
steps to catch up with her brother and Lois, who made better speed than
she. Mr. Lenox picked up the iris and followed, smiling again to
himself.

They found Lois seated in her old place, where the gentlemen had seen
her in the morning. She rose at once to give the seat to Miss
Caruthers, and herself took a less convenient one. It was almost a new
scene to Lois, that lay before them now. The lights were from a
different quarter; the colours those of the sinking day; the sea, from
some inexplicable reason, was rolling higher than it had done six hours
ago, and dashed on the rocks and on the reef in beautiful breakers,
sending up now and then a tall jet of foam or a shower of spray. The
hazy mainland shore line was very indistinct under the bright sky and
lowering sun; while every bit of west-looking rock, and every sail, and
every combing billow was touched with warm hues or gilded with a sharp
reflection. The air was like the air nowhere but at the Isles of
Shoals; with the sea's salt strength and freshness, and at times a waft
of perfumes from the land side. Lois drank it with an inexpressible
sense of exhilaration; while her eye went joyously roving from the
lovely light on a sail, to the dancing foam of the breakers, to the
colours of driftwood or seaweed or moss left wet and bare on the rocks,
to the line of the distant ocean, or the soft vapoury racks of clouds
floating over from the west. She well-nigh forgot her companions
altogether; who, however, were less absorbed. Yet for a while they all
sat silent, looking partly at Lois, partly at each other, partly no
doubt at the leaping spray from the broken waves on the reef. There was
only the delicious sound of the splash and gurgle of waters--the scream
of a gull--the breath of the air--the chirrup of a few insects; all was
wild stillness and freshness and pureness, except only that little
group of four human beings. And then, the puzzled vexation and
perplexity in Tom's face, and the impatient disgust in the face of his
sister, were too much for Mr. Lenox's sense of the humorous; and the
silence was broken by a hearty burst of laughter, which naturally
brought all eyes to himself.

"Pardon!" said the young gentleman. "The delight in your face, Julia,
was irresistible."

"Delight!" she echoed. "Miss Lothrop, do you find something he