"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."