Nobody Part 26

"They say, everything gets bleached there."

"Then I should like to go. But I couldn't stand the sea and solitude, and I don't believe you can stand it. Tom, this is ridiculous. You're not serious?"

"Not often," said Tom; "but this time I am. I am going to the Isles of Shoals. If Philip will take you to Saratoga, I'll start to-morrow; otherwise I will wait till I get you rooms and see you settled."

"Is there a hotel there?"

"Something that does duty for one, as I understand."

"Tom, this is too ridiculous, and vexatious," remonstrated his sister.

"We want you at Saratoga."

"Well, it is flattering; but you wanted me at St. Augustine a little while ago, and you had me. You can't always have a fellow. I'm going to see the Isles of Shoals before they're the rage. I want to get cooled off, for once, after Florida and Newport, besides."

"Isn't that the place where Mrs. Wishart is gone," said Philip now.

"I don't know--yes, I believe so."

"Mrs. Wishart!" exclaimed Julia in a different tone. "_She_ gone to the Isles of Shoals?"

"'Mrs. Wishart!" Mrs. Caruthers echoed. "Has she got that girl with her?"

Silence. Then Philip remarked with a laugh, that Tom's plan of "cooling off" seemed problematical.

"Tom," said his sister solemnly, "_is_ Miss Lothrop going to be there?"

"Don't know, upon my word," said Tom. "I haven't heard."

"She is, and that's what you're going for. O Tom, Tom!" cried his sister despairingly. "Mr. Dillwyn, what shall we do with him?"

"Can't easily manage a fellow of his size, Miss Julia. Let him take his chance."

"Take his chance! Such a chance!"

"Yes, Philip," said Tom's mother; "you ought to stand by us."

"With all my heart, dear Mrs. Caruthers; but I am afraid I should be a weak support. Really, don't you think Tom might do worse?"

"Worse?" said the elder lady; "what could be worse than for him to bring such a wife into the house?"

Tom gave an inarticulate kind of snort just here, which was not lacking in expression. Philip went on calmly.

"Such a wife--" he repeated. "Mrs. Caruthers, here is room for discussion. Suppose we settle, for example, what Tom, or anybody situated like Tom, ought to look for and insist upon finding, in a wife. I wish you and Miss Julia would make out the list of qualifications."

"Stuff!" muttered Tom. "It would be hard lines, if a fellow must have a wife of his family's choosing!"

"His family can talk about it," said Philip, "and certainly will. Hold your tongue, Tom. I want to hear your mother."

"Why, Mr. Dillwyn," said the lady, "you know as well as I do; and you think just as I do about it, and about this Miss Lothrop."

"Perhaps; but let us reason the matter out. Maybe it will do Tom good.

What ought he to have in a wife, Mrs. Caruthers? and we'll try to show him he is looking in the wrong quarter."

"I'm not looking anywhere!" growled Tom; but no one believed him.

"Well, Philip," Mrs. Caruthers began, "he ought to marry a girl of good family."

"Certainly. By 'good family' you mean--?"

"Everybody knows what I mean."

"Possibly Tom does not."

"I mean, a girl that one knows about, and that everybody knows about; that has good blood in her veins."

"The blood of respectable and respected ancestors," Philip said.

"Yes! that is what I mean. I mean, that have been respectable and respected for a long time back--for years and years."

"You believe in inheritance."

"I don't know about that," said Mrs. Caruthers. "I believe in family."

"Well, _I_ believe in inheritance. But what proof is there that the young lady of whom we were speaking has no family?"

Julia raised herself up from her reclining position, and Mrs. Caruthers sat suddenly forward in her chair.

"Why, she is n.o.body!" cried the first. "n.o.body knows her, nor anything about her."

"_Here_--" said Philip.

"Here! Of course. Where else?"

"Yes, just listen to that!" Tom broke in. "I xxow should anybody know her here, where she has never lived! But that's the way--"

"I suppose a Sandwich Islander's family is known in the Sandwich Islands," said Mrs. Caruthers. "But what good is that to us?"

"Then you mean, the family must be a New York family?"

"N--o," said Mrs. Caruthers hesitatingly; "I don't mean that exactly.

There are good Southern families--"

"And good Eastern families!" put in Tom.

"But n.o.body knows anything about this girl's family," said the ladies both in a breath.

"Mrs. Wishart does," said Philip. "She has even told me. The family dates back to the beginning of the colony, and boasts of extreme respectability. I forget how many judges and ministers it can count up; and at least one governor of the colony; and there is no spot or stain upon it anywhere."

There was silence.