"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!"