"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."
"You are very stupid to-day, George!"
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.
"Overslept, Lois?" queried Mrs. Wishart.
"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.