"Lois, my dear, have you been out already?" Mrs. Wishart asked. Lois gave a quiet assent and betook herself to her breakfast.
"I knew it," said Tom. "Morning air has a wonderful effect, if ladies would only believe it. They won't believe it, and they suffer accordingly."
"Another compliment!" said Miss Julia, laughing. "But what do you find, Miss Lothrop, that can attract you so much before breakfast? or after breakfast either, for that matter?"
"Before breakfast is the best time in the twenty-four hours," said Lois.
"Pray, for what?"
"If you were asked, you would say, for sleeping," put in Tom.
"For what, Miss Lothrop? Tom, you are troublesome."
"For doing what, do you mean?" said Lois. "I should say, for anything; but I was thinking of enjoying."
"We are all just arrived," Mr. Lenox began; "and we are slow to believe there is anything to enjoy at the Isles. Will Miss Lothrop enlighten us?"
"I do not know that I can," said Lois. "You might not find what I find."