om
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 Lo