"Does he?" said Lois a little bitterly.
"Yes! Don't you like him? How do you like him, Lois?"
"He is nice, Mrs. Wishart. But if you ask me, I do not think he has enough strength of character."
"If Tom has let them carry him off against his will, he is rather weak."
Lois made no answer. Had he? and had they done it? A vague notion of what might be the truth of the whole transaction floated in and out of her mind, and made her indignant. Whatever one's private views of the danger may be, I think no one likes to be taken care of in this fashion. Of course Tom Caruthers was and could be nothing to her, Lois said to herself; and of course she could be nothing to him; but that his friends should fear the contrary and take measures to prevent it, stirred her most disagreeably. Yes; if things had gone so, then Tom certainly was weak; and it vexed her that he should be weak. Very inconsistent, when it would have occasioned her so much trouble if he had been strong! But when is human nature consistent? Altogether this visit to Appledore, the pleasure of which began so spicily, left rather a flat taste upon her tongue; and she was vexed at that.
There was another person who probably thought Tom weak, and who was curious to know how he had come out of this trial of strength with his relations; but Mr. Dillwyn had wandered off to a distance, and it was not till a month later that he saw any of the Caruthers. By that time they were settled in their town quarters for the winter, and there one evening he called upon them. He found only Julia and her mother.
"By the way," said he, when the talk had rambled on for a while, "how did you get on at the Isles of Shoals?"
"We had an awful time," said Julia. "You cannot conceive of anything so slow."
"How long did you stay?"
"O, ages! We were there four or five weeks. Imagine, if you can.
Nothing but sea and rocks, and no company!"