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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15149-8.txt b/15149-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75832ae --- /dev/null +++ b/15149-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11368 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Palace Beautiful, by L. T. Meade + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Palace Beautiful + A Story for Girls + +Author: L. T. Meade + +Release Date: February 22, 2005 [EBook #15149] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Suzanne Lybarger and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL. + +A STORY FOR GIRLS. + +BY + +L.T. MEADE, + +_Author of "A World of Girls," "Scamp and I," "Daddy's Boy," &c., &c._ + + +NEW YORK: +WM. L. ALLISON CO., PUBLISHERS. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. Early Days + + II. The First Month of their Trouble + + III. Miss Martineau + + IV. To the Rescue + + V. The Contents of the Cabinet + + VI. Many Visitors + + VII. Shortlands + + VIII. Thirty Pounds a Year + + IX. A Strange Letter and a Proposed Visit to London + + X. Ways and Means of Earning a Living + + XI. Bread and Butter + + XII. They Would Not be Parted + + XIII. Mrs. Ellsworthy's Letter + + XIV. Quite Contrary + + XV. In Spite of Opposition + + XVI. Penelope Mansion + + XVII. Escorted by Miss Slowcum + + XVIII. In St. Paul's Cathedral + + XIX. A Bright Day + + XX. Getting Lost + + XXI. How to Paint China and How to Form Style + + XXII. Cross Purposes + + XXIII. Dark Days + + XXIV. Dove's Joke + + XXV. Daisy's Promise + + XXVI. A Delightful Plan + + XXVII. The Poor Doves + + XXVIII. A Startling Discovery + + XXIX. A Blessing + + XXX. Voice of the Prince + + XXXI. A "Continual Reader" + + XXXII. Jasmine Begins to Soar + + XXXIII. Visiting the Publishers + + XXXIV. A Plan + + XXXV. Their Quarter's Allowance + + XXXVI. _The Joy-Bell_ + + XXXVII. Endorsing a Cheque + + XXXVIII. Daisy's Request + + XXXIX. The Journey + + XL. A Bitter Disappointment + + XLI. Mrs. Dredge to the Rescue + + XLII. A New Employment + + XLIII. In the Field + + XLIV. Too Much for Dove + + XLV. The Prince to the Rescue + + XLVI. Delivered from the Ogre + + XLVII. Almost Defeated + + XLVIII. One Shoe Off and One Shoe On + + XLIX. Spanish Lace + + L. A Dazzling Day + + LI. A Letter + + LII. "I Love Mrs. Ellsworthy" + + LIII. Telegraph Wires + + LIV. A Discovery + + LV. An Invitation for the Ladies of Penelope Mansion + + LVI. A Palace Beautiful + + + + +THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL. + +_A STORY FOR GIRLS._ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY DAYS. + + +The three girls were called after flowers. This is how it came about: + +When Primrose opened her eyes on the world she brought back a little +bit of spring to her mother's heart. + +Mrs. Mainwaring had gone through a terrible trouble--a trouble so dark +and mysterious, so impossible to feel reconciled to, that her health +had been almost shattered, and she had almost said good-bye to hope. + +The baby came in the spring-time, and the soft, velvety touch of the +little face, and the sight of the round baby limbs, had made Mrs. +Mainwaring smile: had caused her to pluck up heart, and to determine +resolutely to take this new blessing, and to begin to live again. + +The baby came in the month of March, just when the primroses were +beginning to open their pale and yet bright blossoms. Mrs. Mainwaring +said that the child was a symbol of spring to her, and she called her +Primrose. + +The next girl was born in Italy, in the middle of a rich and brilliant +summer. Flowers were everywhere, and the baby, a black-haired, +dark-eyed little mite, had a starry look about her. She was called +Jasmine, and the name from the very first suited her exactly. + +The third and youngest of the sisters also came in the summer, but she +was born in an English cottage. Her mother, who had been rich when +Jasmine was born, was now poor; that is, she was poor as far as money +is concerned, but the three little daughters made her feel rich. She +called the child from the first her little country wild flower, and +allowed Primrose and Jasmine to select her name. They brought in +handfuls of field daisies, and begged to have the baby called after +them. + +The three girls grew up in the little country cottage. Their father +was in India, in a very unhealthy part of the country. He wrote home +by every mail, and in each letter expressed a hope that the Government +under which he served would allow him to return to England and to his +wife and children. Death, however, came first to the gallant captain. +When Primrose was ten years old, and Daisy was little more than a +baby, Mrs. Mainwaring found herself in the humble position of an +officer's widow, with very little to live on besides her pension. + +In the Devonshire village, however, things were cheap, rents were low, +and the manners of life deliciously fresh and primitive. + +Primrose, Jasmine, and Daisy grew up something like the flowers, +taking no thought for the morrow, and happy in the grand facts that +they were alive, that they were perfectly healthy, and that the sun +shone and the sweet fresh breezes blew for them. They were as +primitive as the little place where they lived, and cared nothing at +all for fashionably-cut dresses; or for what people who think +themselves wiser would have called the necessary enjoyments of life. +Mrs. Mainwaring, who had gone through a terrible trouble before the +birth of her eldest girl, had her nerves shattered a second time by +her husband's death; from that moment she was more ruled by her girls +than a ruler to them. They did pretty much what they pleased, and she +was content that they should make themselves happy in their own way. + +It was lucky for the girls that they were amiable, and had strength of +character. + +Primrose was delightfully matter-of-fact. When she saw that her mother +allowed them to learn their lessons anyhow she made little rules for +herself and her sisters--the rules were so playful and so light that +the others, for mere fun, followed them--thus they insisted on their +mother hearing them their daily tasks; they insisted on going +regularly twice a week to a certain old Miss Martineau, who gave them +lessons on an antiquated piano, and taught them obsolete French. +Primrose was considered by her sisters very wise indeed but Primrose +also thought Jasmine wise, and wise with a wisdom which she could +appreciate without touching; for Jasmine had got some gifts from a +fairy wand, she was touched with the spirit of Romance, and had a +beautiful way of looking at life which her sisters loved to encourage. +Daisy was the acknowledged baby of the family--she was very pretty, +and not very strong, was everybody's darling, and was, of course, +something of a spoilt child. + +Primrose had a face which harmonized very well with her quaint, sweet +name; her hair was soft, straight, and yellow, her eyes were light +brown, her skin was fair, and her expression extremely calm, gentle, +and placid. To look at Primrose was to feel soothed--she had a +somewhat slow way of speaking, and she never wasted her words. Jasmine +was in all particulars her opposite. She was dark, with very bright +and lovely eyes; her movements were quick, her expression full of +animation, and when excited--and she was generally in a state of +excitement--her words tumbled out almost too quickly for coherence. +Her cheeks would burn, and her eyes sparkle, over such trivial +circumstances as a walk down a country lane, as blackberry-hunting, as +strawberry-picking--a new story-book kept her awake half the +night--she was, in short, a constant little volcano in this quiet +home, and would have been an intolerable child but for the great +sweetness of her temper, and also for the fact that every one more or +less yielded to her. + +Daisy was very pretty and fair--her hair was as yellow as Primrose's, +but it curled, and was more or less always in a state of friz; her +eyes were wide open and blue, and she was just a charming little +child, partaking slightly of the qualities of both her elder sisters. + +These girls had never had a care or an anxiety--when they were hungry +they could eat, when they were tired sleep could lull them into +dreamless rest--they had never seen any world but the narrow world of +Rosebury, the name of the village where they lived. Even romantic +Jasmine thought that life at Rosebury, with perhaps a few more books +and a few more adventures must form the sum and substance of her +existence. Of course there was a large world outside, but even Jasmine +had not begun to long for it. + +Primrose was sixteen, Jasmine between thirteen and fourteen, and Daisy +ten, when a sudden break came to all this quiet and happy routine. +Mrs. Mainwaring without any warning or any leave-taking, suddenly +died. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE FIRST MONTH OF THEIR TROUBLE. + + +There are mothers and mothers. Mrs. Mainwaring was the kind of mother +who could not possibly say a harsh word to her children--she could not +be severe to them, she could never do anything but consider them the +sweetest and best of human beings. The girls ruled her, and she liked +to be ruled by them. After her husband's death, and after the first +agony of his loss had passed away, she sank into a sort of subdued +state--she began to live in the present, to be content with the little +blessings of each day, to look upon the sunshine as an unmitigated +boon, and on the girls' laughter as the sweetest music. She had been +rich in her early married life, but Captain Mainwaring had lost his +money, had lost all his large private means, through a bank failure, +and before Daisy came into the world Mrs. Mainwaring knew that she was +a very poor woman indeed. Before the captain went to India he insured +his life for £1000, and after his death Mrs. Mainwaring lived very +placidly on her small pension, and for any wants which she required +over and above what the pension could supply she drew upon the £1000. +She did not care, as a more sensible woman would have done, to invest +this little sum as so much capital; no, she preferred to let it lie in +the bank, and to draw upon it from time to time, as necessity arose. +She had no business friends to advise her, for the few acquaintances +she made at Rosebury knew nothing whatever of the value of money. Like +many another woman who has been brought up in affluence, neither had +Mrs. Mainwaring the faintest idea of how fast a small sum like £1,000 +can dwindle. She felt comfortable during the latter years of her life +at the knowledge that she had a good balance in the bank. It never +occurred to her as a possibility that she who was still fairly young +could die suddenly and without warning. This event, however, took +place, and the girls were practically unprovided for. + +Mrs. Mainwaring had never really worked for her children, but a mother +who had worked hard for them, and toiled, and exerted all her strength +to provide adequately for their future, might not perhaps have been +loved so well. She died and her children were broken-hearted. They +mourned for her each after her own fashion, and each according to her +individual character. Primrose retained her calmness and her common +sense in the midst of all her grief; Jasmine was tempestuous and +hysterical, bursting into laughter one minute and sobbing wildly the +next. Little Daisy felt frightened in Jasmine's presence--she did not +quite believe that mother would never come back, and she clung to +Primrose, who protected and soothed her; in short, took a mother's +place to her, and felt herself several years older on the spot. + +For a month the girls grieved and shut themselves away from their +neighbors, and refused to go out, or to be in any measure comforted. A +month in the ordinary reckoning is really a very short period of time, +but to these girls, in their grief and misery, it seemed almost +endless. One night Jasmine lay awake from the time she laid her head +on the pillow till the first sun had dawned; then Primrose took +fright, and began to resume her old gentle, but still firm authority. + +"Jasmine," she said, "we have got our black dresses--they are made +very neatly, and we have done them all ourselves. Staying in the house +this lovely weather won't bring dear mamma back again; we will have +tea a little earlier than usual, and go for a walk this evening." + +Jasmine, whenever she could stop crying, had been longing for a walk, +but had crushed down the desire as something unnatural, and +disrespectful to dear mamma, but of course if Primrose suggested it it +was all right. Her face brightened visibly, and as to Daisy, she sat +down and began to play with the kitten on the spot. + +That evening the three desolate young creatures put on their new black +dresses, and went down a long, rambling, charming country lane. The +air was delicious--Jasmine refused to cover her hot little face with a +crape veil--they came back after their ramble soothed and refreshed. +As they were walking up the village street a girl of the name of +Poppy, their laundress's child, stepped out of a little cottage, +dropped a courtesy, and said, in a tone of delight-- + +"Oh, Miss Mainwaring, I'm glad to see you out; and Miss Jasmine, +darling, the little canary is all reared and ready for you. I took a +sight of pains with him, and he'll sing beautiful before long. Shall I +bring him round in the morning, Miss Jasmine?" + +"Yes, of course, Poppy; and I'm greatly obliged to you," answered +Jasmine, in her old bright tones. Then she colored high, felt a good +deal ashamed of herself, and hurried after Primrose, who had pulled +down her crape veil, and was holding Daisy's hand tightly. + +That night the sisters all slept well; they were the better for the +fresh air, and also for the thought of seeing Poppy and the canary +which she had reared for Jasmine in the morning. + +Sharp to the hour Poppy arrived with her gift; she was a pretty little +village girl, who adored the Misses Mainwaring. + +"The bird will want a heap of sunshine," she said; "he's young, and my +mother says that all young things want lots and lots of sun. May I +pull up the blind in the bay window, Miss Primrose; and may I hang +Jimmy's cage just here?" + +Primrose nodded. She forgot, in her interest over Jimmy, to remember +that the bay window looked directly on to the village street. + +"And please, miss," said Poppy, as she was preparing to return home, +"Miss Martineau says she'll look in this evening, and that she was +glad when she saw you out last night, young ladies, and acting +sensible again." + +Primrose had always a very faint color; at Poppy's words it deepened +slightly. + +"We've tried to act in a sensible way all through," she said, with +gentle dignity. "Perhaps Miss Martineau does not quite understand. We +love one another very much; we are not going to be foolish, but we +cannot help grieving for our mother." + +At these words Jasmine rushed out of the room and Poppy's round eyes +filled with tears. + +"Oh, Miss Primrose--," she began. + +"Never mind, Poppy," said Primrose; "we'll see Miss Martineau +to-night. I am glad you told us she was coming." + +The neighbors at Rosebury were all of the most sociable type; the +Mainwaring girls knew every soul in the place, and when their mother +died there was quite a rush of sympathy for them, and the little +cottage might have been full from morning till night. Primrose, +however, would not have it; even Miss Martineau, who was their +teacher, and perhaps their warmest friend, was refused admittance. The +neighbors wondered, and thought the girls very extraordinary and a +little stuck-up, and their sympathy, thrown back on themselves, began +to cool. + +The real facts of the case, however, were these: Primrose, Jasmine and +Daisy would have been very pleased to see Poppy Jenkins, or old Mrs. +Jones, who sometimes came in to do choring, or even the nice little +Misses Price, who kept a grocery shop at the other end of the village +street; they would also have not objected to a visit from good, hearty +Mrs. Fry, the doctor's wife, but had they admitted any of these +neighbors they must have seen Miss Martineau, and Miss Martineau, once +she got a footing in the house, would have been there morning, noon +and night. + +Poor Jasmine would not have at all objected to crying away some of her +sorrow on kind Mrs. Fry's motherly breast; Primrose could have had +some really interesting talk which would have done her good with the +Misses Price; they were very religious people, and their brother was a +clergyman, and they might have said some things which would comfort +the sore hearts of the young girls. Little Daisy could have asked some +of her unceasing questions of Poppy Jenkins, and the three would +really have been the better for the visits and the sympathy of the +neighbors did not these visits and sympathy also mean Miss Martineau. +But Miss Martineau at breakfast, dinner, and tea--Miss Martineau, with +her never-ending advice, her good-natured but still unceasingly +correcting tone, was felt just at first to be unendurable. She was +sincerely fond of the girls, whom she had taught to play incorrectly, +and to read French with an accent unrecognized in Paris, but Miss +Martineau was a worry, was a great deal too officious, and so the +girls shut themselves away from her and from all other neighbors for +the first month after their mother's death. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MISS MARTINEAU. + + +Primrose was the soul of hospitality; having decided that Miss +Martineau was to be admitted that evening, it occurred to her that she +might as well make things pleasant for this angular, good-humored, and +somewhat hungry personage. Primrose could cook charmingly, and when +dinner was over she turned to her sisters, and said in her usual +rather slow way-- + +"I am going to make some cream-cakes for tea; and Jasmine, dear, you +might put some fresh flowers in the vases; and Daisy--"; she paused as +she looked at her sister--the child's blue eyes were fixed on her, she +noticed with a pang that the little face was pale, and the dimpled +mouth looked sad. + +"Daisy," she said, suddenly, "you can go into the garden, and have a +romp with the Pink." + +"The Pink" was Daisy's favorite kitten. + +Daisy laughed aloud, Jasmine started up briskly from the dinner-table, +and Primrose, feeling that she had done well, went into the kitchen to +consult with Hannah, the old cook, over the making of the +cream-cakes. + +The result of all this was that when Miss Martineau, sharp at four +o'clock (the hours were very primitive at Rosebury), arrived at the +Mainwarings' door, the outward aspect of the house bore no tokens of +violent grief on the part of its inmates--the blinds were drawn up, +not quite to the top, for that would have been ugly, and Jasmine was +full of artistic instincts, but they were drawn up to let in plenty of +sunlight, the white muslin curtains were draped gracefully, some pots +of fresh flowers could be seen on the window-ledge, and a canary in a +rather battered cage hung from a hook above, and disported himself +cheerfully in the sunlight. + +Miss Martineau was very old-fashioned in her ideas, and she did not +much like the look of the bay window. + +She comforted herself, however, with the reflection that even under +the direst afflictions blinds must be drawn up some time, and that she +would doubtless find the poor dear girls in a state of tempestuous +grief within. She imagined herself soothing Jasmine, holding +Primrose's hand, and allowing Daisy to sit on her knee. Miss Martineau +was most kind-hearted, and would have done anything for the three +girls, whom she dearly loved, only, like many another good-hearted +person, she would wish to do that anything or something in her own +way. + +"Good evening, Hannah," she said, as the old cook opened the door; +"you have had a sad affliction--a terrible affliction. I hope the dear +young ladies are--" Miss Martineau paused for a word, then she +said--"tranquil." + +"Oh yes, miss," answered Hannah. "Walk in, please, Miss +Martineau--this way--the young ladies is hoping you'll take a cup of +tea with them, miss." Miss Martineau found herself the next instant in +one of the most cheerful sitting-rooms to be found at Rosebury--it had +always been a pretty room--furnished daintily with the odds and ends +of rich and choice furniture which had belonged to Mrs. Mainwaring in +her wealthy days. Now it was bright with flowers, and the western sun +poured in at one angle of the wide bay window. The three girls, in +their very simple black dresses, with no crape, came forward in a +little group to meet her. In their hearts they were slightly excited +and upset, but rather than give way they put on an air of extra +cheerfulness. Miss Martineau, fond as she was of them, felt absolutely +scandalized--to keep her out of the house for a whole month, and then +to admit her in this fashion--such a lot of sunlight--such a heap of +flowers, no crape on the black dresses, and Jasmine's face quite +bright and her hair as curly as usual. Miss Martineau began a little +set speech, but Jasmine interrupted her. + +"Do come, and have some tea," she said. "Primrose has made some +delicious cream-cakes, and we are all so hungry, aren't we, +Eyebright?" turning to her little sister as she spoke. + +"Yes," replied Daisy; "Pink is hungry, too--I chased Pink about fifty +times round the garden, and she's quite starving. May Pink have some +cream in a saucer for her tea, Primrose?" + +Primrose nodded, took Miss Martineau's hand, and led her to the place +of honor at the table, and sitting down herself, began to pour out the +fragrant tea. + +If Miss Martineau had a weakness, it was for really good tea and for +cream-cakes. She took off her gloves now, arranged her bonnet-strings, +put back her veil, and prepared to enjoy herself. Instead of talking +common-place condolences, she chatted on little matters of local +interest with the sisters. Jasmine took care to supply Miss Martineau +with plenty of cream-cakes--Primrose saw that her cup was well +replenished. Miss Martineau was poor and very saving, and it occurred +to her, as she partook of the Mainwaring's nice tea, that she might do +without much supper by-and-by. This reflection put her into an +excellent humor. + +When the tea was over Primrose led her to a comfortable seat by the +window. + +"My dear," she said, "it is well that I should sit just here, within +full view of the street?--your window is, well, a little too like +seeing company, my loves, and if my bonnet is seen by passers-by +you'll have everybody calling directly." + +"Oh, we mean to see everybody now," said Jasmine "we--we--we think it +best, don't we, Primrose?" + +"Yes," said Primrose, in her gentle tones. "It does not make us think +less of dear mamma to see people--and--and--we have decided to go on +much as usual now." + +"You might have admitted me before, dears," replied Miss Martineau--"I +felt so intensely for you--I could never get you out of my head. I was +a good deal hurt by your refusing to admit me, my dear girls, for in +all respects I would have wished to be a mother to you." + +"Please, don't," said Jasmine. + +"We _couldn't_ have another mother," said little Daisy, clinging close +to Primrose, and looking up into her sister's sweet face. + +Primrose stooped and kissed her. + +"You may run into the garden, darling, and take the Pink," she said. + +Miss Martineau had no intention of leaving the Mainwarings without +speaking out her mind. It was one of this good lady's essential +privileges to speak out her mind to the younger generation of the +Rosebury world. Who had a better right to do this than she? for had +she not educated most of them? had she not given them of the best of +her French and her music? and was she not even at this present moment +Jasmine's and Daisy's instructress? Primrose she considered her +finished and accomplished pupil. Surely the girls, even though they +had refused to admit her for a month, would turn to her now with full +confidence. She settled herself comfortably in the arm-chair in which +Primrose had placed her, and saying, in her high-pitched and thin +voice-- + +"Now, my dears, you will take seats close to me--not too close, loves, +for I dislike being crushed, and I have on my Sunday silk. My dear +girls, I want us now to have a really comfortable talk. There is a +great deal that needs discussion, and I think there is nothing like +facing a difficult subject resolutely, and going through it with +system. I approve of your sending Daisy into the garden, Primrose. She +is too young to listen to all that we must go into. I purpose dears, +after the manner of our school-hours, to divide our discourse into +heads--two heads will probably be sufficient for this evening. First, +the severe loss you have just sustained--that we will talk over, and +no doubt mingle our tears together over; take courage, my dear +children, such an unburdening will relieve your young hearts. +Second--Jasmine, you need not get so very red, my dear--second, we +will discuss something also of importance; how are you three dear +girls going to live?" + +Here Miss Martineau paused, took off her spectacles, wiped them, and +put them on again. She felt really very kindly, and would have worked +herself to a skeleton, if need be, for the sake of the Mainwarings, +whom she sincerely loved. Jasmine's red face, however, grew still +redder. + +"Please, Miss Martineau--yes, Primrose, I will speak--please, Miss +Martineau, we cannot discuss dear mamma with you. There is nothing to +discuss, and nothing to tell--I won't--I can't--Primrose, I won't +listen, and I won't talk." + +Miss Martineau shook her head, and looked really angrily at Jasmine. + +"Nothing to tell," she said, sorrowfully. "Is your poor dear mother +then so soon forgotten? I could not have believed it. Alas! alas! how +little children appreciate their parents." + +"You are not a parent yourself, and you know nothing about it," said +Jasmine, now feeling very angry, and speaking in her rudest tone. + +Primrose's quiet voice interposed. + +"I think, Miss Martineau," she began, "that the first subject will be +more than Jasmine and I can quite bear--you must forgive us, even if +you fail quite to understand us. It is no question of forgetting--our +mother will never be forgotten--it is just that we would rather not. +You must allow us to judge for ourselves on this point," concluded +Primrose, with that dignity that suited her so well. Primrose, for all +her extreme quietness and simplicity of manner and bearing, could look +like a young princess when she chose, and Miss Martineau, who would +have quarrelled fiercely with Jasmine, submitted. + +"Very well," she said, in a tone of some slight offence; "I came here +with a heart brimful of sympathy; it is repulsed; it goes back as it +came, but I bear no offence." + +"Shall we discuss your second subject, dear Miss Martineau?" continued +Primrose. "I know that you have a great deal of sense and experience, +and I know that you have a knack of making money go very far indeed. +You ask us what our plans are--well, I really don't think we have got +any, have we, Jasmine?" + +"No," said Jasmine, in her shortest tones. "We mean to live as we +always did. Why can't people leave us in peace?" + +Miss Martineau cleared her throat, looked with some compassion at +Jasmine, whom she thought it best to treat as a spoilt child, and then +turned her attention to Primrose. + +"My dear," she said, "I am willing to waive my first head, to cast it +aside, to pass it over, and consider my second. My dear Primrose, the +first thing to consider in making your plans--I take no notice of +Jasmine's somewhat childish remarks--is _on_ what you have to live." + +Primrose knit her brows. + +"I suppose," she said slowly, "we shall have what we always had--we +spent very little money in the past, and, of course, we shall require +still less now. We are fond of Rosebury; I think we shall do for the +present at least just what Jasmine says, and stay on quietly here." + +Miss Martineau cleared her throat again. + +"My dear girl," she said, "even to live here you must have something +to live on. Now, are you aware that your mother's annuity as a +captain's widow ceases with her death? I believe something very +trifling will still be allowed to you, as his orphans, but on that +point I'm rather in the dark." + +"Mother always did get ten pounds a year apiece for us," said +Primrose. + +"Well, yes, my dear, we will suppose, and trust, and hope that that +small sum will still be continued; but even at Rosebury you three +girls cannot live on thirty pounds a year." + +"But there is the money in the bank," said Jasmine speaking in a more +interested tone. "You remember Primrose dear, how whenever mother +wanted some money she just wrote a cheque, and we took it down to Mr. +Danesfield, and he gave us nice shining gold for it. Sometimes it was +ten pounds, sometimes it was five pounds, and sometimes it was only +two pounds; but whenever we went to Mr. Danesfield's bank with +mother's cheque he gave us the money. I suppose, Primrose, you can +have a cheque-book now, and Mr. Danesfield can give you the money." + +"Yes," said Primrose, in a cheerful tone, "I forgot about the money in +the bank; mother often told me there was plenty. Even if we can't +quite live on our thirty pounds a year, we can manage with what money +dear mamma had in the bank." + +Miss Martineau's face had become extremely lined and anxious. + +"My dears," she said, "I fear I've done a rude thing; I fear I've +taken a liberty; but the fact is, you are so alone, poor darlings, and +Mr. Danesfield is an old friend of mine--and--and--I took the liberty +of asking him what your mother's balance was. He said, my dears--my +poor dears--that it was not quite two hundred pounds." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +TO THE RESCUE. + + +Miss Martineau told her news with considerable agitation. She +considered it a terrible revelation. It seemed to her a very fearful +and disastrous thing that three girls brought up like the Mainwarings, +three girls still almost children, should be thrown on the world +without any means for their support. + +Simple and primitive as their lives had been at Rosebury, they still +had been tenderly nurtured and warmly sheltered--no cold blast of +unkindness or neglect had visited them--they had been surrounded ever +by both love and respect. The love came principally from their mother +and from one another, but the respect came from all who knew them. The +Mainwaring girls, in their plain dresses and with their +unsophisticated manners, looked like ladies, and invariably acted as +such. + +Soon after making her communication Miss Martineau took her leave; she +hurried home, and sitting down in her dingy little parlor, began to +think. + +"No, thank you, Susan," she said to her little maid-of-all-work, "I +shan't want any supper to-night. I have been at tea with my dear +pupils, the Misses Mainwaring. You may bring the lamp presently, +Susan, but not quite yet; it is a pity to waste the daylight, and +there is quite another quarter of an hour in which I can see to knit. +Yes, give me my knitting-basket; I can get on with Widow Joseph's +mittens." + +"And, if you please, ma'am," asked Susan, lingering for a moment at +the door, "may I ask how, all things considering, the dear young +ladies is?" + +"On the whole, tranquil, Susan--yes, I may say it with confidence; my +dear pupils may be considered in a resigned state of mind." + +Susan closed the door after her, and Miss Martineau took up her +knitting. Knitting woollen mittens is an occupation which harmonizes +very well with reflection and while the old lady's active fingers +moved her thoughts were busy. + +"Thirty pounds a year," she said softly to herself, "thirty pounds +certain, and a lump sum of two hundred in the bank. Doubtless they owe +some of that for their mother's funeral and their own mourning. They +probably owe quite thirty pounds of that, and to make it safe, I had +better say forty. That leaves a balance of one hundred and sixty; +just enough to put away for emergencies, illness, and so forth. My +dear girls, my dear Primrose, and Jasmine, and my pretty little pet +Daisy, you cannot touch your little capital; you may get a few pounds +a year for it, or you may not--Mr. Danesfield must decide that--but +all the money you can certainly reckon on for your expenses is thirty +pounds per annum, and on that you cannot live." + +Here Miss Martineau threw down her knitting, and began with some +agitation to pace up and down her tiny room. + +"What was to be done with these lonely and defenceless girls? how were +they to meet the world? how were they to earn their living?" + +Miss Martineau had never before found herself propounding so painful +and interesting a problem; her mind worked round it, and tried to +grapple with it, but though she stayed up far into the night, and even +had recourse to figures, and marked down on paper the very lowest sum +a girl could possibly exist on, she went to bed, having found no +solution to this vexed question. + +Even Miss Martineau, ignorant and narrow-minded as she was, could +scarcely pronounce Primrose fit to do much in the educational world; +Jasmine's, of course, was only a little giddy pate, and she required a +vast amount of teaching herself; and pretty Daisy was still but a +young child. + +Miss Martineau went to bed and to sleep; she dreamed troubled dreams, +but in the morning she awoke strengthened and restored, even by such +restless slumbers, and quite resolved to do something. + +"Sophia Martineau," she said--for living quite alone she was fond of +holding conversations with herself--"Sophia Martineau, those girls are +placed, to put it figuratively, at your door, and take them up you +must. Gold you have none to bestow, but you can give interest; you +can, in short, rouse others to help the helpless. This is your bounden +duty, and you had better see to it at once." + +Miss Martineau went briskly downstairs, ate her frugal breakfast, and +then made her plans. These plans were decisive enough. At Rosebury no +one thought of being so silly as to be over-educated. None of the +young brains of the rising generation were over-forced or +over-stimulated, and Miss Martineau felt no compunction whatever in +writing a short note to each of six little pupils, and telling them +that they need not come to her that morning, for she meant to give +them a holiday. + +Having done this, and sent Susan out with the notes, she went +upstairs, and once more put on her black silk dress, her old-fashioned +mantle, and her high poke bonnet. Thus attired, she started on an +expedition which she trusted would lead to many happy results for the +Mainwarings. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE CONTENTS OF THE CABINET. + + +The uneasiness Miss Martineau felt was by no means shared by the +girls. Primrose had in reality a very practical nature; she could +housekeep well, and no baker or butcher who ventured to show his face +in Rosebury would dream of cheating this bright young lady. No one +could make half-a-crown, or even a shilling, go farther than Primrose +could. No one could more cleverly convert an old dress into a new, but +her little experiences ended here. She had kept the house for her +mother, and been both thrifty and saving, but real responsibility had +never been hers. The overpowering sensation of knowing that she must +make so much money meet so many absolute necessities had never touched +her young life. Miss Martineau's words had made her a little +thoughtful, but by no means anxious. If she and her sisters could not +live on thirty pounds a year there was still the money in the bank. + +Primrose thought two hundred pounds, if not a large, at least a very +comfortable sum. The only real effect that her old governess's words +had on her was to make her a little extra saving. + +Jasmine never liked Primrose when she was in a saving mood, and she +grumbled audibly when, the morning after Miss Martineau's visit, her +elder sister suggested that they should do without some black cotton +dresses which the day before they had decided to buy and to make for +themselves. + +"Such nonsense!" said Jasmine, stamping her little foot impatiently; +"you know we want the dresses, Primrose. You know poor Daisy can't run +and play in the garden in her black cashmere frock, and I can't dig or +weed. You know, when we decided to go on just as usual, just as if +mamma--was--was--" + +Here Jasmine paused, gulped down a sob, and said, hastily, "We want +our print dresses, and we can't do without them. You are just +frightened, Primrose, by what Miss Martineau said." + +"I am not at all frightened," answered Primrose, calmly; "only I think +we ought to be careful." + +"And we are so rich, too," said Jasmine. "I never thought we had two +hundred pounds in the bank. Why it's heaps and lots of money. +Primrose, what are you so grave about?" + +"Only," said Primrose, in her slow voice, "only Miss Martineau thought +it very, very little money. She looked so grave when she spoke about +it--indeed, she seemed almost sad. Jasmine, I really think Miss +Martineau quite loves us." + +"Perhaps," said Jasmine, in an indifferent tone. "Well, Rose, if you +are quite determined to be shabby and saving, I may as well join Daisy +in the garden." + +Jasmine stooped down, kissed her sister lightly on the forehead, and +then ran out of the room. A moment or two later Primrose heard +laughing voices floating in through the open window. She was glad in +her heart that Jasmine and Daisy were beginning to do things just as +usual, and yet somehow their laughter gave her a pang. + +The little cottage was a tiny place; it consisted downstairs of one +long low room, with a bay window at the extreme end. This room the +Mainwarings called the drawing-room, and it was really furnished with +great daintiness and care. At one end was the bay window, at the other +were glass doors which opened directly into the garden. The kitchen +was at the other end of the narrow hall, and this also looked on the +garden. Hannah, the one servant, was often heard to object to this +arrangement. She gave solid reasons for her objections, declaring +roundly that human nature was far more agreeable to her than any part +of the vegetable kingdom; but though Hannah found her small kitchen +rather dull, and never during the years she stayed with them developed +the slightest taste for the beauties of Nature, she was sincerely +attached to the Mainwaring girls, and took care to serve them well. + +Upstairs were two bedrooms--one looking to the street, in which the +girls slept, the prettiest room with the garden view being reserved +for Mrs. Mainwaring. Hannah occupied a small and attic-like apartment +over the kitchen. + +When Jasmine ran into the garden Primrose slowly rose from her seat +and went upstairs. It occurred to her that this was a fitting +opportunity to do something which she longed and dreaded to +accomplish. + +Since her mother's death, since the moment when the three young girls +had bent over the coffin and strewed flowers over the form they loved, +the sisters had not gone near this room. + +Hannah had dusted it and kept it tidy, but the blinds had been drawn +down and the sun excluded. The girls had shrunk from entering this +chamber; it seemed to them like a grave. They passed it with reverent +steps, and spoke in whispers as they stole on tiptoe by the closed +door. + +It occurred, however, to Primrose that now was an opportunity when she +might come into the room and put some of her mother's treasures +straight. She unlocked the door and entered; a chill, cold feeling +struck on her. Had she been Jasmine she would have turned and fled, +but being Primrose, she instantly did what her clear common sense told +her was the sensible course. + +"We have made up our minds to go on as usual," she said to herself; +"and letting in the sunlight and the daylight is not forgetting our +dear mother." + +Then she pulled up the blinds, and threw the window-sashes wide open. + +A breath of soft warm air from the garden instantly filled the dreary +chamber, and Primrose, sitting down by an old-fashioned little +cabinet, slipped a key into the lock of the centre drawer, and opened +it. + +Mrs. Mainwaring had been by no means a tidy or careful person--she +hated locks, and seemed to have a regular aversion to neatly-kept +drawers or wardrobes, but this one little cabinet, which had belonged +to the girls' father, was a remarkable exception to the general rule. + +Mrs. Mainwaring never, even to Primrose, parted with the key of this +cabinet. Whenever the girls were present it was locked--even Daisy +could not coax mother to show her the contents of any of those +tempting little drawers--"only mementoes, darling--only mementoes," +the lady would say, but the girls knew that mother herself often in +the dead of night looked into the locked drawers, and they generally +noticed that the next day she was weaker and sadder than usual. + +On the top of the cabinet a miniature painting of Captain Mainwaring +was always to be found, and the girls used to love to keep a vase of +the choicest flowers close to father's picture. + +When Mrs. Mainwaring died, Jasmine cried nearly the whole of one night +at the thought of the little old-fashioned cabinet--for now she felt +quite sure that no one would ever dare to open it, "and I don't like +to think of the mementoes being never seen again," she sobbed: "It +seems cruel to them." + +Then Primrose promised to undertake this dreaded task, and here was +her opportunity. + +Primrose was not at all a nervous girl, and with the soft summer air +filling the chamber, and driving out all the ghosts of solitude and +gloom, she commenced her task. She determined to look through the +contents of the little cabinet with method, and she resolved to begin +with the large centre drawer. She pulled it open, and was surprised to +find that it was nearly empty. + +A few papers, on which verses and quotations from Books of Sermons +were copied in her mother's hand-writing, lay about; these, and one +parcel which was carefully wrapped up in soft white tissue-paper, were +the sole contents of the centre drawer. Primrose pulled the parcel +from where it lay half-hidden at the back of the drawer. She felt +self-possessed, but her fingers trembled slightly as she touched it. +It was folded up most carefully--the wrappings were kept in their +place by white satin ribbon, and on a slip of white paper which had +been placed on the top of the parcel, and secured by the ribbon, +Primrose read a few words: + +"Arthur's little desk--for Primrose now." + +She felt her color coming high, and her heart beating. Who was +Arthur?--she had never heard of him--her father's name had been John. +Who was the unknown Arthur, whose desk was now given to her? + +She untied the parcel slowly, but with shaking fingers. + +The little desk was a battered one, ink-stained, and of a slight and +cheap construction. Inside it contained one treasure, a thick letter, +with the words "For Primrose" written in her mother's writing on the +envelope. + +An unexpected message from those who are dead will set the strongest +nerves quivering. At sight of this letter Primrose laid her pretty +yellow head down on the little old cabinet, and sobbed long and +bitterly. + +How long she might have wept she could never say, but her tears were +suddenly brought to an abrupt termination. When she entered her +mother's room she had not locked the door, and now a voice sounded at +her elbow: + +"Eh!--my word--dear, dear, deary me! Now, Miss Primrose, to think of +you creeping up like this, and 'worriting' yourself over the secrets +in the little bit of a cabinet. Your poor mamma knew what she was +about when she kept that cabinet locked, and for all the good they'll +ever do, she might well have burnt the bits of fallals she kept there. +There, darling, don't spoil your pretty eyes crying over what's dead +and gone, and can never be put right again--never. Shut up the +cabinet, Miss Primrose, and put your hair a bit straight, for Mrs. +Ellsworthy, from Shortlands, is down in the drawing-room, and wanting +to see you most particular 'bad.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MANY VISITORS. + + +Miss Martineau's plans had been full of directness. Having made up her +mind, she wasted no precious moments. The girls must be helped; she +could only give them counsel, but others could do more. Miss Martineau +determined to go at once to the fountainhead. In short, she would +attack the one and only rich person who lived in the neighborhood of +Rosebury. Shortlands was a big place, and the Ellsworthys were +undoubtedly big people. Money with them was plentiful. They considered +themselves county folk; they lived in what the Rosebury people +believed to be royal style. + +Miss Martineau had for one short blissful week of her life spent the +time at Shortlands. She had been sent for in an emergency, to take the +place of a nursery governess who was ill. Her French had been of +little account in this great house, and her music had not been +tolerated. The poor old lady had indeed been rather snubbed. But what +of that? She was able to go back to her own intimate friends, and +entertain them with accounts of powdered footmen, of richly-dressed +London ladies, of a world of fashion which these people believed to be +Paradise. + +Twice during her week's sojourn she had been addressed by Mrs. +Ellsworthy. No matter; from that day she considered herself one of the +great lady's acquaintances. Miss Martineau could be heroic when she +pleased, and there was certainly something of the heroic element about +her when she ventured to storm so mighty a citadel at eleven o'clock +in the morning. + +Her very boldness, however, won her cause. The footman who opened the +door might look as supercilious as he pleased, but he was obliged to +deliver her messages, and Mrs. Ellsworthy, with a good-humored smile, +consented to see her. + +Their interview was short, but Miss Martineau, when she launched on +her theme, quite forgot that she was poor and her auditor rich. Mrs. +Ellsworthy, too, after a few glances into the thin and earnest face of +the governess, ceased to think of that antiquated poke bonnet, or the +absurdly old-fashioned cut of that ugly mantle. + +The two who talked so earnestly were women--women with kind and large +hearts, and their theme was engrossing. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy bound herself by no promises, but she contrived to +send the governess away with a heart full of hope. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy had never yet called on any of the people who lived in +the straggling village of Rosebury. Therefore, when her carriage, with +its prancing horses and perfect appointments, drew up at the +Mainwarings' door, the old-fashioned little place felt quite a flutter +through its heart. + +Poppy Jenkins, the laundress's pretty daughter, came out into the +street, and stared with all her eyes. The doctor's wife, who lived at +the opposite side of the street, gazed furtively and enviously from +behind her muslin blinds. The baker and the butcher neglected their +usual morning orders; and Hannah, the Mainwarings' servant, felt +herself, as she expressed it, all of a tremble from top to toe. + +"Let me brush your hair, Miss Primrose," she said, when she had at +last succeeded in inducing her young lady to dry her tears; "and are +your hands nice and clean, Miss Primrose? and your collar, is it neat? +It's very condescending of Mrs. Ellsworthy to call." + +"I wonder what she has come about," said Primrose; "she never knew my +mother." + +Primrose felt at that moment the great lady's visit to be an +intrusion. + +"I'll just run into the garden and stop Miss Jasmine and Miss Daisy +rushing into the drawing-room all in a mess," said Hannah. "Oh! sakes +alive! why, the young ladies will be seen anyhow from the French +window." + +Hannah hurried off, wondering if she could smuggle these troublesome +members of her flock out of sight through the kitchen. + +Alas! she was too late--when Primrose, slim and graceful, and with her +pretty eyes only slightly reddened by her crying fit, entered the +drawing-room, she saw the French doors open, and her guest pacing +tranquilly round the garden, hold the Pink in her arms, while Daisy +danced in front of her, and Jasmine, chattering volubly, walked by her +side. + +"I'm so glad you like those carnations," Jasmine was saying. "Mamma +was very fond of them. Shall I set some slips for you? I will with +pleasure." + +"If Pink ever has a kitten you shall have it," said Daisy solemnly. + +At this moment Primrose joined her sisters. + +"Oh, Primrose--something so delightful!" began Jasmine. + +"She thinks the Pink a perfect beauty. She wants another pussy just +like it," burst from Daisy's pretty dimpled lips. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy, still keeping the Pink in her arms, held out her +other hand to Primrose. + +"I have introduced myself to your sisters, dear Miss Mainwaring. I am +Mrs. Ellsworthy, of Shortlands--a near neighbor. You must not consider +my visit an intrusion." + +Before Primrose could reply Jasmine exclaimed volubly-- + +"Indeed we don't--we are quite delighted; we were feeling ourselves +awfully dull. Miss Martineau said every one would call now she had +been. We did not want to see every one, but you are different." + +"You are delightful," echoed Daisy. + +Primrose felt herself almost cross. "Girls, do stop chattering," she +said. "Mrs. Ellsworthy, I hope you will excuse my sisters; and won't +you come into the drawing-room?" + +"I am charmed with your sisters," answered the great lady--"they are +fresh, they are original. Dear Miss Mainwaring, why need we leave this +delightful garden? can we not have our little talk here?" + +"With pleasure," said Primrose, but her stiffness did not disappear; +she still had a slightly sore feeling at the bottom of her heart, and +the thought that Mrs. Ellsworthy never took the trouble to know dear +mamma kept recurring. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy was quite woman of the world enough to read Primrose, +and to guess what was in her heart. She saw at a glance that the girls +were ladies, and would not be patronized. Her task had seemed easy +enough when she assured Miss Martineau that the poor young Mainwarings +must be helped. When she ordered her carriage and drove into Rosebury +she made up her mind to discuss their affairs boldly with them, and to +offer them practical advice, and, if necessary, substantial +assistance. The eldest girl, if she was at all presentable, might be +got into some family as a nursery governess or companion, and she felt +quite sure that she had sufficient interest to procure admissions for +Jasmine and Daisy into some of the schools especially started to +educate the orphan daughters of army men. + +But in the garden, although it was a very shabby little garden, this +programme did not seem quite so easy. Jasmine and Daisy were +delightful children; they hailed her instantly as a comrade; they +thought nothing whatever of her wealth or her position. Shortlands +conveyed no meaning to their unsophisticated minds; they fully +believed that Mrs. Ellsworthy envied them their carnations, and would +have been made happy by the possession of a kitten similar to the +Pink. Primrose, on the contrary, was proud and shy, and had no idea of +treating any stranger in a confidential manner. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy chatted on, but she never got beyond commonplaces; she +invited the girls to visit her at Shortlands, and Primrose, reading a +great desire in Daisy's blue eyes, answered simply, "Thank you; we +shall like to come very much." + +"I'll manage it when I get them to my own house," thought Mrs. +Ellsworthy; "it's quite absurd to be baffled by three little chits, +but I'll settle everything in a satisfactory fashion when I get them +to Shortlands." + +Aloud she said, "My dears, I shall be very glad to see you--and can +you come to-morrow? To-morrow I shall be quite alone." + +"Primrose," burst from Daisy, "there's a Newfoundland dog, and a +mastiff, and two English terriers at Shortlands. The Newfoundland is +black and woolly and the mastiff is tawny, like a lion." + +"Will you really show us over your beautiful conservatories?" asked +Jasmine. "Primrose, she was telling us about her flowers; and they +must be lovely." + +"I'll show you everything, and take you everywhere," responded Mrs. +Ellsworthy, stooping down to kiss Jasmine's upturned face. "You'll +bring your sisters to-morrow, Miss Mainwaring," she continued, turning +to the grave Primrose. + +"Thank you--yes. It is kind of you to ask us," answered Primrose. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy drove away in state, and the sisters saw her off from +their door-steps. They made a pretty group as they stood +together--Daisy's arms clasped her elder sister's waist, and Jasmine +shaded her dark eyes from the full blaze of the sun with her little +white dimpled hand. + +As the great lady drove away Jasmine had actually the audacity to blow +a kiss to her. + +The neighbors at the opposite side of the street felt quite +scandalized, and said to themselves that surely the poor young ladies +had seen the last of Mrs. Ellsworthy, after such a piece of +impertinence. But the lady of Shortlands was really delighted. + +"To think of my being here all these years, and never knowing those +charming creatures," she soliloquized. Just then she saw Miss +Martineau crossing the street, and she ordered her coachman to draw +up. + +"I have been with them, dear Miss Martineau--they are delightful--so +fresh--and so--so pretty! They are coming to Shortlands to-morrow. +Good-bye--warm morning, is it not? Home, Tomlinson." + +The girls had entered the little house, cheered by Mrs. Ellsworthy's +visit. Primrose, it is true, did not share her younger sisters' +enthusiasm, but even she was pleased, and owned to herself that Mrs. +Ellsworthy was a very different neighbor from the village folk. + +Primrose's mind, however, was a good deal absorbed by what she had +discovered in her mother's little old-fashioned cabinet. A letter +directed to herself lay there unopened. She longed to break the seal, +and to acquaint herself with the contents of this message from the +dead. She longed to read the letter, but she knew she could only do so +at some quiet moment. She must peruse those beloved words when she was +alone and quite sure of being undisturbed. She thought she might slip +away into a little glade at the back of the house that afternoon, and +there read her letter, and ponder over its contents. + +Events, however, were to occur which would prevent Primrose carrying +out this scheme. + +Immediately after dinner Miss Martineau's well-known knock was heard +at the hall-door, and Miss Martineau herself, bristling with +excitement and curiosity, invaded the girls in their drawing-room. + +"Now, my dears, tell me all about her. Is she not fascinating? She is +greatly pleased with you three--you have made a most proper +impression; and you are to go to spend the day at Shortlands +to-morrow. Now, my loves, tell me what arrangements she has come to--I +am so _deeply_ interested, my poor darlings." + +Miss Martineau, as she spoke, kept her eyes fixed on Primrose; but +that young lady only gave her a puzzled look, and, after a short +pause, said quietly-- + +"I don't understand you. We have made no special arrangements. Mrs. +Ellsworthy was friendly, and she asked us to come and see her at +Shortlands; and we are going. Miss Martineau, I am so very busy this +afternoon; will you forgive me if I run away?" + +Primrose left the room, and Miss Martineau, turning to Jasmine, +clasped her hands in some excitement. + +"Oh, my dear!" she exclaimed, "I do hope Primrose won't spoil +everything by those little proud airs of hers; they really are--yes, I +am grieved to be obliged to say it--but they really are affected. Now, +Jasmine darling, a great deal depends on this visit--yes, a great +deal. You and Daisy must be on your very best behavior. You have never +been in a great house like Shortlands, and it is only right that I, +your instructress, should tell you how you are to behave. You must +take no liberties, dear; and you must not speak too much, or too fast; +and you must look _very_ grateful when Mrs. Ellsworthy notices you, +loves. Oh, my poor dears! I feel over anxious, for so much depends on +to-morrow." + +It was now Jasmine's turn to stare, and to begin to say--"I don't +understand you." But Daisy burst out volubly-- + +"We are going up to Shortlands to run about--she said so. She said we +were to see the dogs--the black woolly Newfoundland and the tawny +mastiff; and she has got a snow-white Persian kitten, only she likes +the Pink best; and I promised her that if ever the Pink had a little +kit of her own she should have it. Mrs. Ellsworthy didn't say a word +about being horrid, and proper, and waiting until you are spoken to. I +won't go to Shortlands if I have to behave like that, I won't," +concluded spoiled Daisy, pouting her lips. + +Jasmine bent forward and kissed her. "You may do just what you like, +darling little Eyebright," she said. + +"Oh, Miss Martineau, really Mrs. Ellsworthy is not at all what you +picture her. I should say she was the kind of lady who likes a real +romp. Anyhow, she does not at all want people to be stiff with her. +Daisy, and she, and I were as jolly as possible until Primrose came +downstairs, and I suppose Primrose agreed with you, and thought it was +manners to be formal. But, poor dear, she did not like it a bit. We +three were having such a chatter before Primrose came. She is going to +show me all her conservatories to-morrow, and she took a great fancy +to my carnations. I promised her some slips. Oh dear! oh dear! who is +that knocking at the hall door? Daisy, run and peep from behind the +curtain, and let me know." + +Daisy started off on the instant, and returned in a moment with the +intelligence that Mr. Danesfield, the manager of the bank, was +standing on the steps, and that his face was very red. + +On hearing this intelligence poor Miss Martineau's face also became +suffused with a deep flush, and she pushed her poke bonnet a little +backward in her excitement. An awful idea had suddenly darted through +her brain. + +Perhaps Mr. Danesfield had called to announce some misfortune. Perhaps +the two hundred pounds was lost; perhaps there was no balance at the +bank! + +When the good gentleman was ushered into the room she glanced at him +mysteriously, and even while he was shaking hands with Jasmine and +Daisy, began letting fall short, but mysterious sentences-- + +"Mrs. Ellsworthy has called--_much_ pleased--inclined to take them up. +They are to spend to-morrow at Shortlands." Mr. Danesfield raised his +eyebrows, pulled Daisy to stand between his knees; and, staring at +Miss Martineau over his gold-rimmed glasses, said-- + +"Eh! eh!--Shortlands--Ellsworthy's--worthy folk!" here he laughed, +pleased with his pun; "yes, Miss Martineau, a good opportunity, +undoubtedly!" + +At this moment Primrose came into the room, and Miss Martineau, +judging that she might best serve her cause by retiring from the scene +of action, went away. + +Mr. Danesfield did not pay a long visit. He had known the Mainwarings, +although not very intimately, for years. He was a good-hearted, kind, +and very busy man, and during their mother's lifetime he had taken but +little notice of the girls. + +To-day, however, he seemed to regard them with fresh interest. He +assured Primrose that if he could assist her in any business capacity +he would only be too pleased to do so. "Our good friend Miss Martineau +assures me that your means are likely to be a little straitened, my +dear. I am sincerely sorry, although there are worse troubles--yes, +assuredly, far worse troubles. It cannot do a healthy girl any harm to +work. Yes, come to me for advice if you care to, and look on me as an +old friend. And hark ye, Miss Primrose, I am glad Mrs. Ellsworthy has +called. Make the most of your opportunity at Shortlands, my dears. +Yes; I'll look in another day with pleasure. Good-bye, good-bye." + +When Mr. Danesfield went away the two elder sisters looked at each +other. What did it all mean? What mystery was there in the air? +Jasmine thought both Miss Martineau and Mr. Danesfield very +disagreeable but Primrose pondered these things and felt anxious. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SHORTLANDS. + + +"A most extraordinary thing has happened," said Mrs. Ellsworthy that +evening to her husband. "We have lived for several years at +Shortlands, and except when we have people in the house I have +actually been without any society. My dear Joseph, you will forgive my +counting you as nobody at all. Well, we have lived here, and I have +often been dull beyond words, and yet the nicest creatures have been +within a stone's throw of me." + +Mr. Ellsworthy was at least twenty years older than his wife--a +reserved individual, with a rather long and melancholy face. Mrs. +Ellsworthy was plump, and round, and pretty--kittenish some people +called her. + +She was certainly fond of emphasizing her words, and of going into +raptures, and her husband now only raised his eyebrows, and said, +"Well, Kate?" in a somewhat lethargic voice. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy left her seat, and drew a small easy-chair close to +the fire, for though the weather was hot Mrs. Ellsworthy always +insisted on indulging in this evening luxury. + +Planting herself luxuriously in this chair, the little lady began her +narrative. + +"Now, Joseph, I will tell you my story. Do you remember that +outlandish-looking governess who came up here for a week to try to +keep Frankie in order before we sent him to school? Oh, what a +blessing it is to have that boy at school! Do you remember Miss +Martineau, Joseph?" + +"There was an authoress of the name, my love; but surely she died +before we came to Shortlands?" + +"Joseph, how stupid you are! I mean a dear, obsolete creature in the +village. However, it is not the slightest matter whether you remember +her or not. She came here again this morning, and begged of me to +interest myself in the cause of three destitute orphans who lived in a +little house in the village. She spoke most kindly about them, but +said they were a little unfinished, and not, in her opinion, very +capable; but she described them as pretty and young, and, oh, so +appallingly poor! And somehow the good old creature touched my heart, +and I said I would certainly help them. I ordered the carriage and +drove into the village. I expected to see--well, you know, the sort of +girl who is likely to be found in a little village like Rosebury, +Joseph--the awkward and shy young miss. I imagined them as being so +grateful for my notice; indeed, a little overpowered; for, you know, I +don't know the Rosebury folk. Well, my dear, what do you think I +found?" + +"It is really difficult to tell, Kate. I should judge, however, from +your excited manner and your unusual enthusiasm, that you found young +ladies." + +"Joseph, you are a genius. I did. In the funniest, pokiest, queerest +little house that you can possibly imagine; I discovered three +charming, well-bred girls. The two youngest made friends with me in +their shabby little garden. They greeted me, I assure you, with the +most delightful frankness and ease. I told them who I was, and they +were not the least impressed; on the contrary, the one they called +Jasmine--oh! she is a pretty creature--fancied I was dying for some +carnations like hers, and the little one holds out hopes that some day +I may possess a kitten similar to the one she thrust into my arms. +They were as shabbily dressed as possible, but who could look at them, +dear pets, and think twice about their dresses? We got on most +pleasantly, and found we had many interests in common, for the little +one shared my love for animals, and the elder my passion for flowers. +On this scene the eldest sister made her appearance. I assure you, +Joseph, it is almost too absurd, but it is a fact; she actually +contrived to snub me. I read as plainly as possible in those pretty, +serene eyes of hers the question, 'How is it that you, who never +condescended to know my mother, intrude upon us now, in our loss?' She +was most gentle and most dignified, but I could as soon take liberties +with her as with--with--you, Joseph, when you choose to exert your +authority. After Miss Mainwaring came, I thought it best to run away; +but before I went I extracted a promise from the three darlings to +come and spend the day here to-morrow. Really, Joseph, I have had a +surprising day; but I remember now that Miss Martineau did say +something about these children being well born." + +Mr. Ellsworthy again raised his eyebrows. + +"I had an acquaintance once of the name," he said, "but I lost sight +of him years ago. It is a good name. Well, Kate, you will do what you +can for your _protegées_. I am glad you have found some objects of +interest close to your own gates." + +Here Mrs. Ellsworthy dropped her slightly frivolous tone, and rising +from her seat, went up to her husband. + +"Joseph," she said, "I want you to contrive to be at home for lunch +to-morrow. I want you to see my girls, and to advise me how best to +help them. Primrose is so proud and so inexperienced; the two younger +ones, of course, know nothing of either poverty or riches; they live +as the flowers live, and are happy for the same reason. Do you know, +Joseph, that the eldest of these sisters is not seventeen, and the +youngest only ten; that they seem to be absolutely without relations, +almost without friends, and that between them they have only a +Government grant of thirty pounds a year." + +Here Mrs. Ellsworthy's pretty bright blue eyes filled with tears, and +her husband, stooping down, kissed her. + +"I will make a point of seeing those girls to-morrow Kate," he said. +"I am glad you have come across them." + +Then he went off to his library, where he sat, and read, and lost +himself in great thoughts far into the night. It is to be feared that +during these hours he forgot the Mainwarings and their troubles. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy had appointed noon the next day to receive her young +guests, and punctual to the moment the three walked into her +drawing-room. + +Daisy instantly commented on this fact. "There's the last stroke of +twelve striking from the church clock," she exclaimed. "Oh, please! +where's the Persian kitten?" + +"I have brought you all the carnations that were in flower," said +Jasmine. "Smell them; aren't they delicious? Mamma used to love them +so--I would not give them to any one but you." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy stooped and kissed Jasmine, and taking her hand, gave +it a little squeeze. "Thank you, my love," she said--"I value your +beautiful flowers--you shall arrange them yourself in this amber +vase." + +"They are such a vivid crimson, they would look best against white," +answered Jasmine, raising her eyes a little anxiously. "I like to +arrange flowers to look like a picture. Mamma always allowed me to +arrange the flowers, and Primrose will in the future." Here Jasmine +went up to Primrose, and took her hand, and the elder sister smiled at +her with great affection, and said, looking at Mrs. Ellsworthy, "We +call Jasmine our artist at home." + +"And our poet--she makes poetry about the Pink at home," said Daisy. +"Oh, dear!" she continued, giving a deep sigh, "I can't see the +Persian kitten anywhere. I do hope what Miss Martineau said is not +true." + +"What did she say, my dear?" asked the lady of Shortlands. + +"Oh, a lot of nonsense--that this was a great house, and we were to +sit on chairs, and not speak unless you spoke to us, and we were not +to play with the Persian kitten, nor see the dogs. She said you were +a very grand lady, and that was the proper way to go on--we didn't +agree with her, did we, Jasmine?" + +"No, of course we didn't," said Jasmine; "we knew better." + +"We said you were a romp," continued Daisy. "You seemed like it in our +garden. I wouldn't have come if I thought you were one of those ladies +who wanted little girls to sit on chairs. Oh! do say you are a romp." + +Here there was a laugh heard behind them, and Mr. Ellsworthy came up +and joined the group. He greeted the girls kindly, and very soon +discovered that their father had been the old acquaintance whom he had +known of the name. Then he and Primrose went off together, and Mrs. +Ellsworthy took the two young girls' hands. + +"My darling," she said, "with the single exception of my only son, +Frankie, who is at present at school, I am the greatest romp in +existence. Now let us come out into the sunshine and enjoy ourselves." + +The few hours the girls spent at Shortlands passed only too quickly +for Jasmine and Daisy. Mrs. Ellsworthy laid herself out to be +charming, and no one could be more charming than she when she chose. +She had naturally a good deal of sympathy, and taking her cue from the +little ones, she entered into their lives, and became one with them. +Jasmine and Daisy became quite merry. An indiscriminating observer +would have said: "How shocking to hear such merry laughter--their +mother has only been dead a month." But Mrs. Ellsworthy had far too +kind a heart to do these children such an injustice. She knew that the +dark lines under Jasmine's bright eyes were caused by the passion of a +great grief; but she also knew that with such a nature sunshine must +follow storm. Daisy in the midst of her play, too, began suddenly to +cry. + +"What is the matter, my little one?" asked the lady of the house. The +child put her arms round her neck, and whispered through sobs: "I am +so happy now; but I know I'll be miserable bye-and-bye. I'll want so +badly to tell mamma about you, and mamma won't be there." + +Primrose was also serenely happy--she was glad to hear her sisters' +laughter, and she liked to walk about the beautiful place, and to feel +the soft summer air on her cheeks. + +The village of Rosebury lay low; but Shortlands stood on rising +ground, and the more bracing air did Primrose good. When she saw how +happy Mrs. Ellsworthy made her sisters she forgave her for not calling +on her mother. + +Mr. Ellsworthy took a good deal of notice of Primrose, and showed her +some of his pet books, and talked to her in a sensible grown-up way. +Jasmine and Daisy were young for their years, but Primrose was old, +and she liked to ask practical questions. Had she known Mr. Ellsworthy +a little better she might have even consulted him as to the best way +of laying out thirty pounds per annum, so as to cover all the expenses +of three girls who wished to live as ladies; but she was both shy and +reserved; and when Mr. Ellsworthy, goaded on by certain looks from his +wife, referred to the subject of money, Primrose started aside from it +like any frightened young fawn. + +The day, the happy day for all three, passed only too quickly, and it +was Mrs. Ellsworthy at last who determined to plunge boldly into the +heart of the subject which was uppermost in her thoughts. + +"Primrose," she said, taking the elder sister aside, "you must forgive +me for speaking plainly to you, dear. I call you Primrose, because you +do not seem to me altogether a stranger, and my husband knew your +father. I may call you Primrose, may I not, love?" + +"Please, do," said Primrose, with that sweet smile which came only +rarely to her quiet face; "I like it--it is my name. When people say +Miss Mainwaring I feel--lonely." + +"You are Primrose, then, to me, dear. Now, Primrose, take my hand, +and sit quietly in this chair. I am going to confess something to you. +I called to see you and your sisters yesterday morning, intending to +patronize you." + +"To patronize us--why?" asked Primrose. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy laughed in a slightly nervous manner. + +"My dear child, we won't go into the whys and the wherefores. I found +I could not do it, that is all. I have not, however, half finished my +confession. I called to see you because Miss Martineau asked me to." + +Here Primrose flushed a very rosy pink, and Mrs. Ellsworthy saw a +displeased look fill her eyes. + +"You must not be angry with Miss Martineau, Primrose. She loves you +three girls very much. She is most anxious about you. She--my dear, +she told me of your poverty." + +Here Primrose rose from her seat and said, in the quietest tone-- + +"We are certainly poor, but I don't think that is anybody's concern. +We don't mind it ourselves--at least, not much. You see, we have never +known riches, and we cannot miss what we have never had. It would be a +great pity for people to try to make us discontented. I think it was +ill-bred of Miss Martineau to mention our private affairs to you; but +still, as we have got to know you through these means, I forgive her. +You are a very delightful friend. Mrs. Ellsworthy, I think you must +let us go home now--Daisy is not accustomed to being up so late." + +"Of all the tiresome, hard-to-be-understood young people I ever came +across, Primrose Mainwaring beats them," thought Mrs. Ellsworthy to +herself; but aloud she said very sweetly-- + +"Yes, dear--and you shall drive home in the carriage I could not hear +of your walking." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THIRTY POUNDS A YEAR. + + +Miss Ellsworthy thought Primrose both tiresome and obtuse, but here +she was mistaken. + +Miss Martineau's solemn looks, Mr. Danesfield's emphatic injunctions +to make the most of their visit to Shortlands, and, above all, the +expression of deep distress on Mrs. Ellsworthy's charming face when +she spoke of their poverty, were by no means thrown away on her. + +She felt very grave as the three sisters were driven home in the +Ellsworthys' luxurious carriage. She scarcely joined at all in +Jasmine's chatter, nor did she notice Daisy's raptures over a tiny +white pup--Mrs. Ellsworthy's parting gift. + +On their arrival at home the Pink greeted this unlooked-for addition +to the family with a furious assault; and Jasmine, Daisy, and Hannah +were all intensely excited over the task of dividing the combatants; +but Primrose felt but small interest, and owned that she had a slight +headache. + +Nevertheless, when the younger girls retired to bed she sat up, and, +taking out an account-book, began an impossible task. Even all the +resources of this young and vigorous brain could not make thirty +pounds cover a year's expenses. Again and again Primrose tried. The +rent of the cottage was twelve pounds a year. She pronounced this +extravagant, and wondered if they could possibly get a cheaper +dwelling. + +Then there were Hannah's wages. Well, of course, they could do without +Hannah--it would be very painful to part with her, but anything would +be better than the humiliating conclusion that Mrs. Ellsworthy and +Miss Martineau considered them too poor to live. Then, of course, they +could do without meat--what did healthy girls want with meat? +Only--and here Primrose sighed deeply--Daisy was not _very_ strong. +Eggs were cheap enough in Rosebury, and so was butter, and they could +bake their own bread; and as to clothes, they would not want any more +for a long time. Here Primrose again felt herself pulled up short, for +Jasmine's walking-shoes were nearly worn through. + +She went to bed at last, feeling very depressed and anxious. Thirty +pounds was really a much smaller sum of money than she had given it +credit for being. Try as she might, it would not stretch itself over +the expenses of even the humblest establishment of three. She was much +comforted, however, by the reflection that there remained a large sum +to their credit in the bank. Primrose found her faith shaken in the +capacities of an income of thirty pounds a year; but a sum total of +two hundred pounds she still believed to be almost inexhaustible. She +resolved to go and consult Mr. Danesfield on the morrow. + +Mr. Danesfield was generally to be found in his private room at the +bank by ten o'clock in the morning. Very soon after that hour on the +following day a clerk came to say that one of the young ladies from +Woodbine Cottage wanted to see him. "The eldest young lady, and she +says her business is very pressing," continued the man. + +The bank at Rosebury was only a branch office of a large establishment +in the nearest town. It happened that that morning Mr. Danesfield was +particularly busy, and anxious to get away to the large bank at an +early hour. For more reasons than one, therefore he felt annoyed at +Primrose's visit. + +"Poor child," he said to himself, "I have certainly nothing very good +to tell her; and I have undoubtedly no time to waste over her this +morning." + +Aloud, however, he said to his clerk-- + +"Ask Miss Mainwaring to step this way--and, Dawson, order my trap to +be at the door in ten minutes." + +"I won't keep you very long, Mr. Danesfield," began Primrose, in a +quick and rather nervous manner for her. + +Mr. Danesfield was always the soul of politeness, however irritable he +might feel. + +"Sit down, my dear young lady," he said; "I am delighted to see you, +and I can give you exactly five minutes." + +"I want to ask you two questions," began Primrose. "The questions are +short. They are about money; and you understand all about that." + +"Not all, my dear girl--money is far too great a theme to be wholly +comprehended by one single individual." + +Primrose tapped her foot impatiently--then, after a brief pause, she +raised her clear brown eyes, and looked full at the banker. + +"How much money have we in the bank, Mr. Danesfield?" + +"My dear child, not much--very little, scarcely anything. 'Pon my +word, I am sorry for you, but your entire capital does not amount to +quite two hundred pounds." + +Primrose received this information calmly. + +"Thank you," she said--"I just wanted to know from yourself. Now, I +have one other question to ask you, and then I will go. My sisters and +I have thirty pounds a year to live on. By drawing a little on our +capital, say, taking ten or fifteen pounds a year from it, can we +live, Mr. Danesfield?" + +Mr. Danesfield rose from his seat, and coming over to Primrose, laid +his hand on her shoulder-- + +"Live! my poor, dear child; you and your sisters would starve. No, +Miss Mainwaring, there is nothing for you three girls to do but to +turn to and earn your living. Your friends, I doubt not, will help, +and you must take their help. I shall be delighted to give advice. +Now, my dear child, my trap is at the door, and I must go. Good +morning--good morning." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A STRANGE LETTER AND A PROPOSED VISIT TO LONDON. + + +Primrose was always direct in her movements--she made up her mind +quickly; from her earliest childhood she was in the habit of acting +with decision. + +After her short interview with Mr. Danesfield she went straight home, +and without paying any attention to the clear voice of her pet Daisy, +who called to her from the garden, or to Jasmine's little +impatient--"Sister, I want you to help me to arrange the trimming on +my new black skirt," she ran upstairs, and locked herself into her +mother's room. + +There she once more opened the old davenport, and took from it the +thick packet, which contained a shabby little desk, inside of which +lay a letter directed to herself. + +Now at last she opened the letter, and in her own great perplexity +read the message from the grave. + +The letter was dated about three months back, and was in her mother's +neatest and most easily read writing. + +"My dear daughter," it began, "I have no present reason to suppose +that my life will be cut short, therefore I cannot tell whether this +letter will be read by you now, while you are young, or years hence, +when your youth is over. + +"One thing I have resolved--you shall not know the little secret it +contains during my lifetime. I keep it from you, my darling, because I +could not bear you to speak of it to me, because at the time it gave +me such agony that I have locked it up in my heart, and no one, not +even my own child, must open the doors where my dead secret lies. + +"Primrose, whenever I die, this letter will reach you--you will find +it in the ordinary course of things in my cabinet; but even in this +letter I cannot tell you all the story--you must go to Hannah for +particulars--she has been with me all my married life, and knows as +much as I do. + +"Once, when you were a little child of only six years old, I came into +the room where you slept, and I heard her saying to you, as she tucked +you up for the night-- + +"You must be very good to your mamma, Miss Primrose, for she has known +trouble." + +"Neither you nor she saw me, and you raised your dear eyes to her +face, and I heard you say-- + +"'What is trouble, nursey Hannah?' + +"'Trouble is a burden too heavy to be borne,' Hannah answered, 'but +when you came, Missy, it went away--you were like the spring to my +missus, and that is why she called you Primrose.' + +"That night I called Hannah aside, and I made the faithful creature +promise that she would never again allude to my trouble to any of my +children. She promised, and kept her word. + +"Now, darling, you shall learn what nearly broke my heart; what would +have quite broken it had God not sent me my three girls. + +"Primrose, something more bitter than death came to your mother. Your +father is dead--I know where his bones lie--I know that I shall meet +him again, and I don't rebel. My other trouble was far, far worse than +that-- + +"Darling, you are not my eldest child--you are not the first bonny +baby who lay in my arms. Years before you were born I had a son. Oh! +how can I speak of him?--he seemed to be more beautiful than any other +child--he had ways--he had looks--Primrose, I can't go on, you must +ask Hannah to tell you what my boy was like. I had him for five years, +then I lost him; he did not die--he was stolen from me. Can you wonder +now that your mother sometimes looks sad, and that even you and +Jasmine and Daisy fail now and then to make me smile? + +"My bonny boy was stolen. I never saw him dead; I never could go to +his grave to put flowers there--twenty years ago now he was taken from +me, and I have had neither trace nor tidings of him. + +"Hannah will tell you particulars, Primrose, for I cannot. My trouble +far surpassed the bitterness of death. Only for you three, I could not +have lived-- + + "Your mother, + "Constance Mainwaring." + +Primrose had scarcely finished reading this letter, and had by no +means taken in the full meaning of its contents, when light, soft +footsteps paused outside the room, and she heard the handle of the +door being very softly turned. + +Cramming the letter into her pocket, and shutting the lid of the +little cabinet, she ran and unlocked the door. Jasmine was standing +without. + +"I looked for you everywhere, Primrose, and I did not mean really to +disturb you here; I thought you might be here, and I tried the handle +very softly, meaning to steal away again. Are you very busy, +Primrose?" + +"I can come with you if you want me for anything, Jasmine," answered +Primrose, putting her hand to her head in a dazed sort of way. + +Jasmine's brow cleared, and her face grew bright instantly. + +"It's rather exciting," she said; "I'm so glad you can come. It is +about Poppy Jenkins--Poppy is downstairs--she is going away--she has +come to say good-bye. Do you know, Primrose, that she is actually +going to London?" + +Jasmine looked so delighted and eager that Primrose could not help +smiling, and taking her sister's hand, they ran downstairs together. + +Poppy, who had very black eyes, cheeks with a brilliant color, and +hair like a raven's wing, was standing in the drawing-room twisting +her apron strings and chatting volubly to Daisy. She had known the +girls all her life, and not only loved them dearly, but respected them +much. To Poppy Jenkins there never were three such beautiful and +altogether charming young ladies as the Misses Mainwaring. + +When Primrose appeared she dropped her a curtsey--perhaps she +respected Primrose the most, and loved her the least. + +"It's to say good-bye, miss," she began, "I called in, hoping for last +words with you three dear young ladies. I is summoned to London, Miss +Primrose." + +Nothing could exceed the air of modest pride with which Poppy made +this declaration; she quite expected Primrose to be both startled and +dazzled, and said afterwards that it was rather like a little stream +of cold water trickling down her back when Miss Mainwaring replied +quietly-- + +"London is a long way off, Poppy--why are you going there?" + +"I has an aunt in the boarding-house way, Miss Primrose--she keeps a +very select establishment; and most particular; don't admit no +gentlemen. It's for ladies only, aunt's boarding-house is, miss, and +she wrote to mother that it's a flourishing concern, and she wants a +girl who will be honest, and handy, and country-bred, to help wait on +the ladies. She has offered the situation to me, miss, as in duty +bound, I being her own niece, and mother is pleased to accept. I calls +it a dazzling prospect, Miss Primrose." + +"I am delighted," began Primrose; but Jasmine interrupted her. +"Dazzling," she repeated, "of course it is dazzling, Poppy. I am so +very glad you are going. I only wish I were going. If there is a +wonderful, delightful, charming place, it is London. I have read about +it, and I have dreamed about it, and I have pictured it. What fun you +will have! Of course your aunt will take you to see all the sights. +Oh, do sit down. Primrose, we ought to tell her about the places she +should see, ought we not?" + +Primrose nodded, and Poppy dropped on to the edge of the nearest +chair, and, clasping her red and hard-worked hands in front of her, +prepared herself to listen. + +"First of all, Poppy," began Jasmine, after waiting for her sister to +speak; but Primrose was strangely silent. + +"First of all, Poppy, you must go to the places which improve your +mind; now, I do hope you are not going to be giddy, running just after +pretty things; but I suppose your aunt, who is so wise, and who keeps +the boarding-house, will see to that. Well, first of all you had +better go to Westminster Abbey. Oh, Poppy! I have read such glorious +descriptions of it--the lights from the painted windows--the +wonderfully ancient look of the old pillars, and then the music; it +peals down the aisles and echoes through the fretted roofs; you will +be greatly overpowered at Westminster Abbey, Poppy; but you must +remember that you are a very privileged person, and be thankful for +being permitted to see with your own eyes such a lovely, lovely, +glorious place!" + +"It do sound, from your description, very awe-inspiring, Miss +Jasmine," answered Poppy. "Is there no other place where one might get +more, so to speak, into the festive mood, miss?" + +"Oh yes, you silly Poppy, lots and lots; but we'll come to those +presently. You'll have to see the Houses of Parliament, where our laws +are made--if you don't feel grave there, you ought. Then you must +visit the Tower, where people's heads were cut off--it's very solemn +indeed at the Tower; and, of course, you will pay a visit to the Zoo, +and you can see the lions fed, and you can look at the monkey-house." + +"I likes monkeys," said Poppy, whose face had been growing graver and +graver while Jasmine was talking; "and if you'll throw in a little bit +of gazing into shop windows, Miss Jasmine, and learning the newest +cuts of a bonnet, and the most genteel fit of a mantle, why, then, +I'll do even that dreadful Tower, as in duty bound. My mother calls +London a vast sea and a world of temptation, and nothing but vanity +from end to end; but when I thinks of the beautiful ladies in aunt's +boarding-house, and of the shop windows I feels that it is dazzling." + +"I wish that I were going," repeated Jasmine, whose cheeks were +flushed, and her starry eyes brighter than usual; "I wish I were +going. Oh, Primrose, think of you, and Daisy, and me saying our +prayers in the Abbey!" + +"We must not think of it," said Primrose; "God hears our prayers +wherever we say them, Jasmine, darling." + +"Yes," answered Jasmine; "and I am not going to complain. Well, Poppy, +you are a very lucky girl, and I hope you'll be as good as gold, and +as happy as the day is long." + +"And if ever you does come to London, Miss Jasmine," said Poppy, rising +to her feet, "you'll remember aunt's boarding-house, for ladies only; +and proud I'll be to wait on you, miss." + +"But we can't come, Poppy dear--we are very poor now--we have only got +thirty pounds a year to live on." + +To Poppy, who had never been known in her life to possess thirty +pence, this sum sounded by no means modest. + +"Might I make bold to inquire, miss," she asked, "if the thirty pounds +is once for all, or if it's a yearly recurrence?" + +"Oh, it's an income, Poppy--how stupid you are!" + +"Then I'll consult my aunt in town, miss, and try to find out if you +three dear young ladies couldn't contrive a London visit out of part +of the savings." + +After this sapient speech Poppy bade the Mainwarings good-bye. They +looked after her retreating form down the street with many regrets, +for they were very fond of her, and Jasmine at least envied her. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +WAYS OF EARNING A LIVING. + + +That night, after her sisters were in bed, Primrose again sat up +late--once again she read her mother's letter; then burying her face +in her hands, she sat for a long, long time lost in thought. + +Jasmine and Daisy, all unconcerned and unconscious, slept overhead, +but Hannah was anxious about her young mistress, and stepped into the +drawing-room, and said in her kind voice-- + +"Hadn't you better be getting your beauty sleep, missie?" + +"Oh, Hannah! I am so anxious," said Primrose. + +"Now, deary, whatever for?" asked the old servant. + +Primrose hesitated. She wanted to talk to Hannah about her mother's +letter; she half took it out of her pocket, then she restrained +herself. + +"Another time," she whispered to herself. Aloud she said-- + +"Hannah, Mrs. Ellsworthy and Miss Martineau hinted to me what Mr. +Danesfield said plainly to-day--we three girls have not got money +enough to live on." + +"Eh, dear!" answered Hannah, dropping on to the nearest chair, "and +are you putting yourself out about that, my pretty? Why, tisn't likely +that you three young ladies could support yourselves. Don't you fret +about that, Miss Primrose; why, you'll get quite old with fretting, +and lose all your nice looks. You go to bed, my darling--there's a +Providence over us, and he'll find ways and means to help you." + +Primrose rose to her feet, some tears came to her eyes, and taking +Hannah's hard old hand, she stooped and kissed her. + +"I won't fret, Hannah," she said, "and I'll go to bed instantly. Thank +you for reminding me about God." Then she lit her bedroom candle and +went very gently up the stairs to her bedroom, but as she laid her +head on the pillow she said to herself--"Even Hannah sees that we +can't live on our income." + +The next morning early Primrose said rather abruptly to her two +sisters-- + +"I have found out the meaning of Miss Martineau's fussiness and Mrs. +Ellsworthy's kindness. They are both sorry for us girls, for they know +we can't live on thirty pounds a year." + +"Oh, what nonsense!" said Jasmine; "any one can live on thirty pounds +a year. Didn't you see how Poppy opened her eyes when we mentioned +it;--she thought it quite a lot of money, and said we could come to +London out of the savings. I am sure, Primrose, if any one ought to +know, it is Poppy, for her mother is really very poor." + +"Mr. Danesfield, too, says we can't live on it," continued Primrose; +"and when I asked Hannah last night, she said 'Of course not'--that no +one expected us to. Now look here, Jasmine, this is all quite fresh to +you and Daisy, but I'm accustomed to it, for I have known it for +twenty-four hours, and what I say is this, if we can't live on our +income we have got to make some more income to live on. If thirty +pounds a year is not enough for us at the end, neither is it enough +for us at the beginning, so we had better see about earning an income +at once, or we'll get into debt, which will be quite awful. Jasmine, I +am afraid the days of our merry childhood are over, and I am so sorry +for you and Daisy, for you are both very young." + +"Oh, I don't mind," said Jasmine--"I--I--I'd do anything--I fancy I +could make dresses best, or--Oh, suppose I wrote poetry, and sold it? +You know you and Daisy do like my poems. Do you remember how you cried +over the one I called 'An Ode to the Swallow?'" + +"No, I didn't cry over that one," interrupted Daisy. "I thought that +one rather stupid--I cried over the one in which you spoke about my +darling Pink being caught in a trap, and having her leg broken." + +"Oh, that one," repeated Jasmine--"I thought that one a little vulgar. +I only made it up to please you, Daisy. Primrose, don't you notice +what a lot of poems there are in all the magazines, and of course, +somebody must write them. I should not be a bit surprised if I could +add to our income by writing poetry, Primrose. All the books, nearly +all the magazines and newspapers, come from London. Poppy will not be +going to London until to-morrow--I'll run round this morning and ask +her to try and find out for me which of the publishers want poems like +my 'Ode to the Swallow.' Perhaps they'd like it in the ---- _Review_; +only the ---- _Review_ is so horribly deep. My ode is deep too, for +Daisy cannot understand it. Perhaps I could send my poem about Pink to +one of the other magazines. Oh, Primrose! may I run round to Poppy, +and see if she can help us?" + +Primrose smiled very faintly, and it dawned across her again in rather +a painful manner what a mere child her little sister was. + +"I think I wouldn't, darling," she said. "Poppy could not really help +you about publishers. Look here, Jasmine and Daisy; here is a letter I +found in mamma's cabinet yesterday--it is directed to me, but the news +it contains is for us all; will you and Daisy go out into the garden +and read it together. You will be very much astonished when you read +the letter--poor mamma, what she must have suffered! While you are +reading I will go out. Mr. Danesfield says I may consult him, and as I +know he is a wise man, I will do so." + +"Would you like to take my ode with you?" inquired Jasmine. + +"No, not to-day, dear--if I am not in to dinner, don't wait for me." + +"I know one thing; we'll be very saving about that dinner," remarked +Jasmine, shaking back her curly locks. "If you are not in, Primrose, +Daisy and I will divide an egg between us--I read somewhere that eggs +were very nourishing, and half a one each will do fine. Come into the +garden now, Eyebright. Oh, Primrose! I don't feel a bit low about +adding to our income. If we choose we can eat so very little, and +then if the ---- _Review_ likes my poetry, I can spin it off by the +yard." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +BREAD AND BUTTER. + + +Primrose, her head a little more erect than usual, her step firm, and +a proud bright light in her eyes, went quickly down the little +rambling village street. The plain black dress she wore set off her +yellow hair and extremely fair complexion to the best advantage. She +had never looked sweeter or more independent than at this moment, +when, for the first time in her young life, she was about to ask for +help. + +Mr. Danesfield was not so busy this morning, and he saw his young +visitor without delay. + +"Sit down, my dear," he said; "I am very pleased to see you. You want +to ask for my advice? I will give it with the greatest pleasure." + +Primrose raised her head slowly. "I have been thinking over what you +said yesterday," she began. "As it is quite impossible for my sisters +and me to live on our little income, even with the help of what you +have in the bank, we must try to help ourselves, must we not?" + +"This is a brave thought, my dear--of course you must help +yourselves, and you will be none the worse for doing so." + +"We must earn money," continued Primrose. "How can girls like us, who +are not educated--for I know we are not _really_ educated--add to our +incomes?" + +Mr. Danesfield knit his brows. "Child," he said, "you ask me a +puzzler. I have no children of my own, and I know very little about +young folk. Of one thing, however, I am quite certain; Daisy can earn +no money, nor can Jasmine. You, Primrose, might with some difficulty +get a little place as a nursery governess; you are a nice, +presentable-looking girl, my dear." + +Primrose flushed, and the tears, wrung from great pain, came into her +eyes. + +"There is just one thing," she said, in a tremulous voice; "whatever +happens, we three girls won't be parted. On that point I have quite +firmly made up my mind." + +Mr. Danesfield again knit his brows, and this time he fidgeted +uneasily on his chair. + +"Look here, Primrose," he said: "I am an old bachelor, and I don't +know half nor a quarter the ways in which a woman may earn her living. +I have always been told that a woman is a creature of resources. Now +it is a well-known fact that an old bachelor has no resources. You go +and put your question to Miss Martineau, my dear. Miss Martineau is a +kind soul--'pon my word, now, a very kind soul--and she has managed +wonderfully to exist herself on absolutely nothing. You go to Miss +Martineau, Primrose, and get some secrets from her. Everything in my +power you may depend on my doing. I will exert my interest, and my +purse is at your service." + +Here Primrose got up. + +"Good-bye, Mr. Danesfield," she said. "I know you mean to be very +kind, but we three must keep together, and we must be independent." +Then she left the office, and went again down the street. + +Mr. Danesfield looked after her as she walked away. + +"Poor, proud young thing!" he said to himself. "Life will be a +tussle for her, or I am much mistaken. She is really growing +wonderfully nice-looking, too. How she flushed up when I said she +was presentable--poor child! poor child! That mother of theirs +might have done something to provide for those girls--lady-like +girls--distinguished-looking. I expect the mother was a weak, poor +soul. Well, I hope Miss Martineau will think of something. I must call +and see Miss Martineau; 'pon my word I don't know what to suggest for +the children to do." + +When Primrose arrived at Miss Martineau's, that lady was just +dismissing the last of her morning pupils. She was standing on her +steps in her neat brown alpaca dress, over which she wore a large +black apron of the same material with a bib to it. This apron had +capacious pockets, which at the present moment were stuffed with her +pupils' French exercises. On her head she had an antique-looking cap, +made of black lace and rusty black velvet, and ornamented with queer +little devices of colored beads. + +She was delighted to see Primrose, and took her at once into her +little sitting-room. "Now my dear, you will stay and have dinner with +me. You don't mind having no meat, dear. My middle-day meal to-day +consists of a salad and a rice soufflée. You are welcome to share it +with me, Primrose." + +"Thank you," said Primrose, "but I am not at all hungry. If you do not +mind, I will talk to you while you dine. Miss Martineau, I have come +to ask your advice." + +Miss Martineau came up instantly and kissed the young girl on both +cheeks. + +"My love, I am delighted. It gives me the sincerest pleasure to give +counsel to the young and inexperienced. Have you come from Mrs. +Ellsworthy, dearest?" + +"Not at all," answered Primrose. "Mrs. Ellsworthy has nothing to say +to me. She is only a friend, nothing more. Miss Martineau, we have +discovered that we cannot live on our little income. Please will you +tell me how we can add to it, so that we three can keep together?" + +"Keep together--impossible!" replied Miss Martineau. "There is nothing +whatever before you, Primrose, but to face the inevitable. The +inevitable means that you must break up your home--that you obtain, +through the kind patronage of the Ellsworthys, a situation as +governess, or companion, or something of that sort--and that the +little girls, Jasmine and Daisy, are put into a good school for the +orphan daughters of military men. The Ellsworthys will use their +influence toward this end. They are very kind--they have taken up your +cause warmly. Primrose, my dear, it sounds hard, but plain speaking is +best. You must be parted from your sisters. This is inevitable. You +have got to face it." + +"It is not inevitable," answered Primrose--then she paused, and her +face turned very white. + +"It is not inevitable," she repeated, "for this reason because neither +you nor Mrs. Ellsworthy have the smallest control over my sisters or +myself. I asked for your advice, but if this is the best you can give, +it is useless. Mrs. Ellsworthy never cared to know my mother, and she +is not going to part my mother's children now. Good-bye, Miss +Martineau--no, I am not hungry, I have a headache. Oh, I am not +offended--people mean to be kind, but there are things which one +cannot bear. No, Miss Martineau, the inevitable course you and Mrs. +Ellsworthy have been kind enough to sketch out, my sisters and I will +certainly not adopt." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THEY WOULD NOT BE PARTED. + + +Primrose walked down the street, passing by the little cottage which +for so many years had been her home. Her sisters did not expect her to +return to dinner, and her heart was too full to allow her to go in +just then. + +So they were to be parted--this was the advice of those who called +themselves their friends. Primrose, Jasmine, and Daisy, her three +flowers, as mother had called them, were no longer to grow sweetly in +one garden together. They were to be parted--Primrose was to go one +way, and the little ones another. Impulsive Jasmine would no longer +cry out her griefs on Primrose's neck, or tell her joys and griefs, +her hopes and aspirations, to the calm and elder sister. Daisy--their +baby, as Primrose called her--might be ill or sad, or lonely, and she, +Primrose, would no longer be there to comfort her. + +Parted! No, they should not be parted--all their young lives they had +lived together, and whether they starved, or whether they feasted, +they would live together still. Thank God, no one had any real +control over them--their very loneliness would now, therefore, be +their safety--they might sketch out their own career, and no one could +prevent them. + +Primrose said to herself-- + +"After all, I am glad I know the very worst. People mean to be kind; +but, oh! how can they understand what we three girls are to one +another?" + +She walked quickly in her agitation, and passing the village green, +came suddenly upon Poppy Jenkins, who was hurrying home to her +mother's cottage. + +"Well, Miss Primrose, I'm off to-morrow," said Poppy, dropping one of +her quick curtseys, and a more vivid red than usual coming into her +bright cheeks. + +"Yes, Poppy," answered Primrose; "I hope you will be very happy in +London"--then a sudden thought occurring to her, she ran after the +young girl and laid her hand on her shoulder. + +"Poppy, give me your London address--I may want it." + +"Oh law! Miss Primrose, do you think you'd be saving out of the thirty +pounds regular income and coming up to London on a visit?" + +"We may come to London, Poppy--I can't say," answered Primrose in a +sad voice--"anyhow, I should like to have your address--may I have +it?" + +"Surely, miss--aunt lives in a part they call central--she says the +rents are very high, but it's all done for the convenience of the +beautiful ladies who boards with her. Aunt's address is Penelope +Mansion--Wright Street, off the Edgware Road. It's a beautiful +sounding address, isn't it, Miss Primrose?" + +Primrose smiled again--a smile, however, which made poor little Poppy +feel rather down-hearted, and then she continued her walk. + +"It is very difficult to know what to do," she said to herself--"it +makes one feel quite old and careworn. If only that brother who was +lost long ago was now living, how nice it would be for us girls. I +wonder if he is really dead--I suppose he is, or mamma would have +heard something about him. Twenty years ago since it happened--longer +than my whole life. Poor mother! poor, dear mother! what she must have +suffered! I understand now why her pretty sweet face looked so sad, +and why her hair was grey before her time. What a pity my brother has +not lived--he certainly would not wish us girls to be parted." + +Primrose walked on a little farther, then she retraced her steps and +went home. She found Jasmine and Daisy in a state of the greatest +excitement. Mrs. Ellsworthy had called, and had been nicer and sweeter +and more charming than ever--she had brought Daisy a doll of the most +perfect description, and had presented the flower-loving Jasmine with +a great bouquet of exotics, which looked almost out of place in the +humble little cottage. + +"And there is a long letter for you, Primrose," continued Jasmine; +"and she says she hopes you will read it very quickly, and that she +may come down to-morrow morning to talk it over with you. She says +there is a plan in the letter, and that it is a delightful plan--I +wonder what it can be? Will you read the letter now, Primrose?--shall +I break the seal and read it aloud to you?" + +"No," answered Primrose, almost shortly for her--"Mrs. Ellsworthy's +letter can keep," and then she slipped the thick white envelope into +her pocket. + +"Why sister darling, how pale you look!--are you tired?" + +"A little," said Primrose--"I had no dinner--I should like a cup of +tea." + +Jasmine flew out of the room to get it for her, and Daisy nestled up +to her elder sister's side. + +"Primrose," she whispered, "Jasmine and I read that letter in the +garden together. Oh! we were so surprised to know we had a little baby +brother long ago. We went to Hannah and asked her about him, and +Hannah cried--I never saw Hannah cry so long and so hard. She said he +was the sweetest baby. Oh, how I wish we had him now!--he would be +much, much nicer than my new doll." + +"But if he were with us now he would be a man, Eyebright--a big, brave +man, able to help us poor girls." + +Daisy considered-- + +"I can only think of him as a baby," she said. "Hannah said he was +lost in London. How I wish we could go to London and find our +brother!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +MRS. ELLSWORTHY'S LETTER. + + +The girls had finished tea, and Hannah had removed all traces of the +evening meal before Primrose would even glance at the thick letter +which was addressed to her. She did so at last, at the earnest +entreaties of her two sisters--for Daisy climbed on the sofa beside +her, and put her arms round her neck, and coaxed her to read what dear +Mrs. Ellsworthy had written, and Jasmine took the letter and placed it +in her lap, and seated herself on a footstool at her feet, and the two +young girls looked interested and excited, and their eyes were bright +with anticipation, and even some impatience. + +Primrose, on the contrary, appeared indifferent. She broke the seal of +the thick letter languidly, and began to read its contents aloud, in +an almost apathetic voice. + +This was what Mrs. Ellsworthy had written: + + +"MY DEAR PRIMROSE, + +"(You remember our compact that I was to call you Primrose.) I had not +courage to say to you the other day all that was in my heart. My dear +child, it seems rather absurd to say it, but I felt afraid of you. In +the eyes of the world I am considered a great lady--for I have riches, +and my husband holds a good position--whereas you, Primrose, would be +considered by that same world nothing but a simple village maid. +Nevertheless, the innocent and unsophisticated girl contrived to keep +the woman of the world at a distance, and to let her see very plainly +that she thought her curious questions impertinent. When I read this +expression of opinion so plainly in your eyes, Primrose, I felt +afraid, and questioned no further. My dear, it is a fact that cowards +always resort to pen and ink when they want to express a frank +opinion. I am now going to say on paper what I feared to put into so +many words the other night. First of all, you are mistaken about me. I +am not what you think me. + +"Oh, yes! I know very well what that proud little heart of yours tells +you about me. It says, 'She is great and rich, and she is curious +about us girls, and she wants to patronize us--'" + +Here Primrose had to put down her letter, for she was interrupted by +an exclamation from Daisy-- + +"But we _don't_ think like that of our darling, pretty Mrs. +Ellsworthy--do we, Jasmine?" + +"Go on reading, Primrose," said Jasmine. + +Primrose continued-- + +"You are all wrong about me, my dear, dear girls, and yet, after a +measure, you are right; for in a certain sense I _am_ curious about +you; and most undoubtedly I want to help you. I know already a certain +portion of your story, and already I can partly read your characters. +The part of your story I know is this: You are ladies by birth--you +are very ignorant of the world--and you have not at all sufficient +money to live on. Your characters are as follows: + +"Primrose, I am not at all afraid of you on paper. You, Primrose, are +proud and independent. You are also sadly obstinate, and it is +extremely probable that you will take your own way, which I can see +beforehand will not be a wise one." + +"Oh! oh! oh!" came interruption No. 2 to the reading of the letter, +and Jasmine's arms were flung tightly round Primrose's neck. + +"How can she talk of you like that? How little she knows you, my +'queen of roses.'" + +Primrose smiled, kissed Jasmine between her eyebrows and went on +reading. + +"Jasmine's character," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy in her letter, "is as +yet unformed. She has high aspirations and generous impulses--if she +is well managed, and if you don't spoil her, Primrose, she will +probably develop into a very noble woman. I love Jasmine very dearly +already. + +"As to your little sister, she is as fresh, and innocent, and dainty +as her name; but take warning, Primrose, she is not over strong--there +is a look about the little one which makes me dread the thought of her +encountering any of the roughnesses of life. + +"Now, my dear girl, I have read my little bit of a lecture; you are +probably extremely angry with me, but I don't care. I now come to the +practical part of my letter; I am desirous to help you three, and I +want to help you in the way most suited to your individual characters. +The sad fact cannot be gain-said--you must give up your home--you must +earn your livings. May I help you to find a way to put bread into your +mouths? I have thought it all out, and I think I know a plan. If you +will agree to it, you may keep your independence, Primrose; Jasmine +may be developed into the kind of woman God meant her to become; and +little Daisy need not fear the rude blasts of adverse fate." + +Here Daisy, who only partly understood the letter, burst into tears, +and Primrose, taking her in her arms, allowed the closely written +sheets to fall on the floor. + +"I know what it means," she exclaimed, speaking with sudden fire and +passion; "the same thing has been said to me by two different people +already to-day. Mr. Danesfield said it after his fashion, Miss +Martineau after hers, and now Mrs. Ellsworthy repeats the words. Oh, +yes, I know what it means--separation--I will _never_ consent to it!" + +Jasmine had been kneeling on the floor and picking up the scattered +sheets of Mrs. Ellsworthy's letter; she now raised her eyes in utter +astonishment to her elder sister's face. Primrose was not accustomed +to giving utterance to strong feelings. Primrose's words were wont to +be calm and somewhat measured. Jasmine knew that she herself flew into +tempests of grief, or anger, or excitement--she was always being +chided for not restraining her feelings--she was always being gently +lectured for using too strong expressions. What did Primrose mean by +throwing down this kind though somewhat mysterious, letter, and by +making use of so ghastly a word as "separation?" Who was going to +divide them? Certainly not kind Mrs. Ellsworthy. + +"Had we not better hear what she says, even though you don't seem +quite to like her, Primrose?" asked Jasmine, holding up the sheets. + +"There are two sheets more, quite full of writing--shall I read them +aloud to you and Daisy?" + +But Primrose had not got over the excitement which was growing within +her all day; she took the letter out of Jasmine's hands, folded it, +and returned it to its envelope. + +"I must speak," she said; "we can finish that letter afterwards--the +letter does not greatly matter, after all. Do you know, Jasmine, and +do you know, Daisy, that these people who all mean to be so kind, and +who, I suppose, really feel good-natured towards us, are trying to +take our lives into their own hands? They are not our guardians, but +they want to rule us--they say we cannot live on our income, and they +will show us how we are to live. Mr. Danesfield will give money, if +needed; Miss Martineau will give us heaps and oceans of advice; and +Mrs. Ellsworthy will give patronage, and perhaps money too. They mean +to be kind, as I said, and they think they ought to guide our lives. +Of course, they consider us very young and very ignorant, and so they +say they will provide for me in one way, and Jasmine in another, and +Daisy in another. Now what I say is this; let us choose our own lives, +Jasmine and Daisy; don't let us do anything rude to our friends, for I +know they are our friends, but let us be firm and keep together. These +people want to divide us; I say, let us keep together." + +"Of course," said Jasmine; "is that really what the letter +means--separation? Here, give it to me--" She snatched it from her +sister, and flung it with energy to the other end of the apartment. +Daisy nestled her soft little face up close to her eldest +sister's--Daisy was still feeling things incomprehensible, and was +also a little frightened. + +"Go on," continued Jasmine, "go on talking, Primrose--we are quite +with you, Daisy and I--what nonsense the people must have in their +heads if they think we three are going to part!" + +"But we are in a very painful and difficult position," continued +Primrose. "We have certainly got to earn our bread, and we don't at +all know how to earn it. We are not educated enough to go anywhere as +governesses, although Miss Martineau did say that I might perhaps get +a little place in the nursery; but in any case people would not want +three governesses in one family, and, of course, Daisy is too young to +earn anything for many a long day. Jasmine, I have been thinking over +all this most seriously--I have been thinking over it for some hours, +and it seems to me there is nothing at all for us to do but to go to +London." + +"Where Poppy is going?" interrupted Jasmine; "delicious--lovely--my +dream of dreams! Go on, Primrose darling; I could listen to you all +night." + +"But we mustn't go only for pleasure," continued Primrose; "indeed, we +must not go at all for pleasure. We must go to work hard, and to +learn, so that bye-and-bye we may be really able to support +ourselves. Now, there is only one way in which we can do that. We must +take that two hundred pounds which Mr. Danesfield has in the bank, and +we must live on it while we are being educated. We can go to a cheap +part of London, and find poor lodgings--we won't mind how poor they +are, if only they are very clean, with white curtains, and dimity +round the beds. We'll be quite happy there, and we'll make our two +hundred pounds go very far. With great care, and with our thirty +pounds a year, it might last for four or five years, and by that time +Daisy will have grown big, and you, Jasmine, will have grown up, +and--and--perhaps you will have found a magazine to take your poems." + +"Oh! oh! I never heard of anything so delicious!" exclaimed Jasmine. +"Long before the five years are out I'll be on the pinnacle of fame. +London will inspire me; oh, it is the home of beauty and delight! +Where is Mrs. Ellsworthy's letter?--we will never finish it? I am +going to burn it on the spot rather than allow any other idea to be +put into your head, Primrose?" + +Primrose smiled again, and before she could prevent her, her impetuous +sister had torn Mrs. Ellsworthy's letter into ribbons, and had set +fire to it in the empty grate. + +"We must not be too sanguine about London," she said; "only it does +seem the only independent thing to do. Then, too, there is that letter +of dear mamma's and all that sad account of the little baby brother +who was lost so long ago. Hannah says that he was lost in London--he +must be a man now; perhaps we shall meet him in London. It certainly +does seem as if it were right for us to go." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +QUITE CONTRARY. + + +"I have done it, my dear Joseph," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "I went to see +the children, and I wrote to that little proud princess Primrose. It +will be really very nice if they all come here. We have such heaps and +heaps of money, more than we know what to do with; money becomes +uninteresting when you have so much. I think I have tried most of the +pleasures that money can buy. I have heaps of dresses, and quantities +of jewels, and my lovely country home, and my season in town, but what +I have never yet had, and what I have earnestly longed for, was a +daughter. A boy, after all, has to go to school, and to fight his way +in the world--our boy is at school, and a very good place for him--but +a woman wants a girl of her own to quite satisfy her heart. + +"Now it seems to me that I may have three girls. We must keep up the +fiction of Primrose being useful to you in your library, Joseph--you +must give her letters to write, and you must be very patient with her +when she makes mistakes, for the dear child has not been educated, +and will probably make the worst of secretaries. Never mind, you must +try to appear delighted, and to seem as if you never could have got on +until Primrose Mainwaring came to help you. + +"Then the little ones--of course they are coming under the supposition +that they are only to stay until I have found them berths in one of +those horrid charity schools for the orphan daughters of military +men--but I promise you those berths shall be hard to find. The three +will insensibly consider themselves our adopted children. Oh, what a +delightful plan it is! and how picturesque I shall feel with my girls! +Joseph, did you ever see a brighter or more bewitching little soul +than our Jasmine?" + +"Our Jasmine?" repeated Mr. Ellsworthy; "she is by no means ours yet, +my love. Well, I trust your plan will succeed--they are nice girls, +and I like to feel I am doing a kindness to poor Mainwaring's +daughters. I shall be very pleased indeed if they make your life any +happier, Kate." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy stooped down and kissed her husband's brow--she was +all impatience for the morning to arrive, for surely early then would +come an answer to the letter she had written. + +But Mrs. Ellsworthy was doomed to disappointment. The next day brought +no answer from the Mainwaring girls. The good little lady bore her +suspense as best she could until noon, then she ordered her carriage +and drove into the village. + +Jasmine herself opened the cottage door for her. Jasmine was looking +excited, and there were red rings round her eyes as if she had been +crying, and yet at the same time those bright eyes of hers were +shining, and her lips were quivering between smiles and tears. + +"Oh, you have come!" she exclaimed; "Primrose is in the village--she +has gone to Mr. Danesfield about our money. Please come into the +drawing-room. We are rather upset, for we are beginning to pack, and +Hannah is washing out the anti-macassars and the white muslin +curtains, for we think the muslin curtains will look so nice in our +cheap lodgings. We are very busy, awfully busy, but do come in and sit +down. Eyebright, here is Mrs. Ellsworthy. Mrs. Ellsworthy, isn't +Eyebright a silly?--she is quite fretting because she won't see those +last seeds of hers come up in the garden. Now, if she was asked to +leave the Pink I would say nothing, but of course the Pink comes too." + +"Yes, dear, and Daisy shall have plenty of garden ground for fresh +seeds. Oh! my dear children," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy, "I shall be +so delighted to welcome you all to Shortlands, only I think you might +have replied to my letter." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy was by this time seated in a low arm-chair by the +window, and Jasmine was standing before her, while Daisy sat demurely +on the floor, and folded up the anti-macassars. + +"We might have answered your letter?" repeated Jasmine. "Well now, do +you know, to be quite frank and open, your letter was a little bit of +a lecture. You did give it to darling old Primrose, and somehow or +other you made Daisy cry. You spoke about a plan, and you said it was +a delightful plan, but--but before we read that part of your letter +Primrose thought of another plan of her own, and _it_ was so +exquisite, so perfect, that we tore up your plan for fear we should be +tempted by it. We don't know your plan, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and we don't +want it, for we have made our own, and ours is--yes, ours is lovely!" + +Mrs. Ellsworthy had an expressive face, and while Jasmine was talking +it changed and grew anxious; her husband's words, "She is not our +Jasmine yet," returned to her. Like many rich and pretty women, she +was unaccustomed to opposition, and when it came it but whetted her +desire, and made her also feel irritable. + +"It is rude to tear up the letters of kind friends," she said. "I made +a proposal which would have been in every way suitable to you girls, +and you did not even trouble yourselves to read it. No, my loves, I am +not angry. Daisy, come and give me a kiss; Jasmine, hold my hand. Now +shall I tell you the little plan which you would not read about last +night?" + +"Oh, we would not be rude to you for the world," said Jasmine. "Daisy, +come here, and give Mrs. Ellsworthy one of your sweetest kisses. Of +course I will hold your hand--I love you, and so does Daisy, and so +does--" + +"No, so does _not_ Primrose," answered Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose is +the opposing element--still I trust I may conquer her. Now, my +children, may I tell the plan?" + +"Oh yes, do tell us," they both answered; but Jasmine added, "It will +not be of the slightest use, for we have made our own." + +"Well, dear, plans of girls as young as you are made to be altered. +Now listen to my scheme. + +"Mr. Ellsworthy writes for the papers and for one or two magazines. He +has scientific tastes, and writing in this way gives interest to his +life; but his eyes are not very strong, and he has for some time been +wishing for some nice girl to whom he can dictate his thoughts. It +seems to him, and to me too, that Primrose is just the sort of girl he +wants, and if she will come and live with us at Shortlands, he will +pay her something for giving him a couple of her hours daily--thus, +you see, she will be earning her living and will be quite independent. +You and Daisy, Jasmine, are to come to us on a visit, until we can +find a school where, for your father's sake, your education may be +finished." + +"You mean a school for the orphan daughters of army men," said +Jasmine, "I know. Well, thank you very much, but I'm afraid your plan +won't answer. Neither Daisy nor I would at all like to go to a school +for orphans. We don't fancy the idea of school, and dear mamma once +said that she would never allow her girls to be taught at school, so, +of course, that point is settled. Then you know we could not always +remain with you on a visit, for we are no relations of yours--you +never heard of us at all until a few days ago, although we have lived +here most of our lives. Of course you don't mean to keep us always on +a visit, so it would be very silly to begin a thing which could not go +on. Then about Primrose--may I be quite honest with you about +Primrose?" + +"Oh yes, my dear." + +"Well now, she doesn't write well--not really--her hand moves so +slowly, and I have seen some spelling mistakes now and then in her +letters--I fly over the page myself, but then I only can read my own +writing. I am greatly afraid that poor Mr. Ellsworthy would find +Primrose a bad secretary. No, no, no; ours is a much, much better +plan. You see, Mrs. Ellsworthy, you must not be angry with us--we love +you very much--we are greatly obliged to you, but we have quite made +up our minds--we will not be separated. Ah! here comes Primrose. +Primrose, darling, here is Mrs. Ellsworthy--she is just going to +listen to our plan--she has told us hers, and I have been explaining +to her that it will not answer, for Daisy and I are determined not to +go to school, and you know, Primrose, you are really stupid with your +pen." + +"How do you do, Mrs. Ellsworthy?" said Primrose--she came in looking +fagged and tired, and with a worried expression between her eyebrows. +"Mrs. Ellsworthy," she said, "I am most grateful to you for being so +kind to us. I know you won't approve at all of our plan--you will +agree with Mr. Danesfield, who said he thought we had taken leave of +our senses, but I think we have made up our minds, and as we have no +guardian, there is no one to prevent us doing as we please." + +"Oh, Primrose, how sad you look!" said Jasmine. "Has Mr. Danesfield +been disagreeable to you? Well, I know our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy +won't. Tell her our plan quickly. Primrose, she says you don't love +her--tell her you do love her. Oh, she is sweet and dear and +kind--tell her our plan--she won't throw cold water on what we wish to +do--she won't think it wrong that we three girls should wish to keep +together." + +"Our plan is this," said Primrose, "I have asked Mr. Danesfield to +give us what money he has of ours, and then we three are going to sell +our furniture here, and to give up the cottage, and say good-bye to +dear Hannah, and we are going to London. In London we shall learn. I +am going to have lessons in painting, and Jasmine shall study English +composition, and she shall be taught how to write properly; and Daisy, +too, must be taught, and we will do that with our money which is now +in the bank, and when it is spent we shall be able to support +ourselves. After all, it is a very simple plan, and the best thing +about it is that it will keep us together." + +When Primrose began to talk Mrs. Ellsworthy threw down her hands in +her lap with a gesture of great impatience. Now she asked in a short +dry voice, "May I ask what money you have in the bank?" + +"Yes, certainly--we have two hundred pounds--a little of that must be +spent in paying one or two small accounts, but then we shall have the +money as well from the sale of our furniture. Yes, I think we shall +have quite two hundred pounds to take to London." + +"And we are going to be very economical," interposed Jasmine. "We are +going at first for a couple of nights to a boarding-house for ladies +only. It is called Penelope Mansion, and is in a street off the +Edgware Road--we have a friend, she is only a village girl, but we +call her our friend--her name is Poppy Jenkins, who has just gone to +Penelope Mansion to help her aunt, who is the owner of the +boarding-house. While we are there we will see the sights, for of +course that must be part of our education. We will go to Westminster +Abbey to be solemnized, and we will go to the Tower to perfect our +knowledge of the tragical part of English history, and we must take +Daisy to the Zoo, for she has always longed to see a lot of monkeys +all together. I don't think we'll have any time for looking in at the +shop windows, for we shall be very busy, and very, very earnest, but +these places we must see. I daresay Poppy and her aunt, and some of +the nice ladies in the boarding-house, will go with us. When Poppy has +dusted up and put things straight in the morning, of course she'll +have lots and lots of time. Oh, it does seem such an easy, sensible +plan." + +"My poor, poor children!" exclaimed Mrs. Ellsworthy, "my poor, +deluded, silly, obstinate children!" and then the good little woman +burst into tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +IN SPITE OF OPPOSITION. + + +But although Mrs. Ellsworthy wept and lamented, although she tried +both persuasions and scoldings, and finally left the cottage in a +state of deep offence, vowing within herself that she would never +trouble her head again over the affairs of such silly and obstinate +girls, she could not in the least shake Primrose's quiet resolve. + +Primrose said over and over again: "Two things are absolutely +indispensable--we must be independent, and we must keep together. I +can think of no better plan than this--it may fail, but we can but try +it--we are certainly going to try it." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy kept up her offence for twenty-four hours, then she +began to soften, and to agree with her husband, whose solitary remark +was, "My dear, you cannot coerce the children, and upon my word it's a +plucky notion, and if those girls are brave enough to carry it out +they must have real stuff in them." + +"They may have plenty of stuff, and the plan may be as plucky as you +like, Joseph," replied his excitable little wife. "I am quite willing +to admire it in the abstract, but I am quite determined, if I have any +influence whatever, to prevent them carrying it through." + +Then she went off to Miss Martineau, invading the schoolmistress in +the sacred hour when she was engaged with her pupils. Mrs. Ellsworthy +carried Miss Martineau away from her school, and shutting the door of +that lady's little parlor, clasped the governess's thin hands, and +poured her troubles into her ears. + +"Joseph calls it plucky," said Mrs. Ellsworthy at the end of her +narrative. + +But Miss Martineau's face was perfectly aghast. + +"Plucky!" she ejaculated. "Dear Mrs. Ellsworthy, pardon me, but your +husband is a man--what can a man know about the intricate workings +which go on within the breast of a perverse girl? Plucky!--I call it +wicked--I call it wanting in all decorum, in all right sense. Primrose +Mainwaring has disappointed me deeply; she showed undue temper when I +spoke to her here the other day--oh yes, this thing must be prevented +by main force, if necessary." + +Miss Martineau's pupils could not imagine what was the matter with her +that morning. She was known to be a most strict disciplinarian, she +was reported to have the sharpest eyes, and the quickest ears; her +pupils believed that nothing ever could pass Miss Martineau's +observation; nevertheless, after Mrs. Ellsworthy's visit she was +_distrait_, she was indifferent to mistakes, and she allowed her +naughtiest and most troublesome scholar to gabble through her French +translation without once correcting her. School over, Miss Martineau +discovered that she had no appetite for her dinner; she left quite a +nice little repast, cooked in French style, untasted on the table, and +hurrying up to her bedroom, put on her mantle and poke bonnet and went +out. She had made up her mind to visit the Mainwarings, and to +expostulate with these headstrong and naughty girls on their daring +scheme. "Wicked, I call it," she ejaculated many times under her +breath!--"a wicked scheme, wicked, and a tempting of Providence. Oh, +my poor orphan children, I must do my utmost to prevent your having +your own perverse way in this matter!" + +She arrived at Woodbine Cottage to find the neat little house already +in sad confusion. Hannah favored her with an expressive look, and a +grave shaking of her head. + +"I don't know if they'll see you," she said--"they won't see you if it +is on a lecturing errand you've come, ma'am. Their minds is made up, +ma'am, and obstinate is no word for them. Dear Miss Martineau, you +means well, and you has known them most of their lives, poor darlings, +so sit you down in the hall, and I'll see if I can get them to have a +word with you." + +Jasmine, however, had heard her old governess's voice, and now running +out, looking extremely untidy but very pretty, she exclaimed in her +eager tones-- + +"Now, you dear Miss Martineau, say you're not--do say you're not!" + +"Not what, my dear?" asked the governess, who really felt quite angry +with Jasmine at this moment. "If you mean that I am not displeased--I +am displeased; and if you mean that I am not to oppose you, my dear, I +should not be doing my solemn duty, the duty which I owe to your poor +dead mother, if I did not oppose you to the very uttermost. My dear, +Mrs. Ellsworthy has told me all about your mad scheme; my poor child, +it cannot be allowed for a moment." + +"Come into the drawing-room and hear what Primrose has to say," +answered Jasmine, in quite a meek and unruffled voice. "Primrose is +very busy, for she is dusting and packing all our books and little +knick-knacks. Do you know, Miss Martineau, that just when I heard your +ring at the hall-door I came across a pincushion which you gave me +ages and ages ago. You gave it to me when I could say, _Le thé est +chaud_ with a Parisian accent. It was such a pretty pincushion made +of pink silk, and dotted over with steel beads to look like pins. Just +when you were ringing the bell I had it in my hand, and I felt so soft +and loving towards you, and of course I had to run out to see you, +and--; Primrose, dearest, here is Miss Martineau. She is dreadfully +opposed, and she says she won't let us go." + +Primrose was bending over a battered old trunk which had been hauled +down from the lumber-room. She was filling it with books, and her fair +face was slightly flushed, and her eyes were brighter than usual. + +"How do you do, Miss Martineau?" she said, rising to her feet. "It is +very kind of you to call. I feel sure you are annoyed, and think us +girls rather silly, but I'm afraid we must do what we think right +ourselves in this matter. We have taken our first steps, and now that +we have quite and absolutely made up our minds, mean to leave Rosebury +as quickly as possible. It is very kind of you to be interested in us, +and I am sorry that I spoke bitterly the other day, but the plan which +was to divide us girls was of course impossible, and we could not +listen to it for a moment. We have made our own little scheme, and +perhaps we shall not fail. Daisy, darling, hand me dear old 'Sandford +and Merton,' I have just got a nice corner for it here." + +Primrose went down again on her knees, and serenely continued her +packing, while Miss Martineau, standing over her, then and there gave +way to a burst of passion. + +She was well aware that she lost ground with her pupils by not +controlling her temper, but as she said afterwards, she really could +not help herself. Such coolness, such perversity, such a headstrong +flying in the face of their elders, she had never encountered in three +young girls before. + +Poor Daisy quite sobbed, and even Jasmine felt a little frightened at +Miss Martineau's bitter and angry words; but no language she could +use, no threats of the direst failure she could utter, had power to +shake Primrose's resolve. + +"We have no guardian, and we can go if we please, and we have really +made up our minds to go," replied that perverse young lady. + +As a last resource Mr. Danesfield was appealed to, but he, being an +old bachelor and not quite at home with girls, although in his heart +he was very fond of them, declined to interfere. + +"I gave Primrose Mainwaring some uncalled-for advice when she came to +see me the other morning," he said. "She is perfectly at liberty to +choose her own life, and I, for one, am not going to add to her +troubles by needlessly opposing her. Very likely the girls will get on +in London--they are spirited girls, and they may do better for +themselves by struggling for independence than by living with the +Ellsworthys. I always did maintain that work hurts no one." + +So Primrose carried out her little plans, and made all arrangements, +and her friends, when they found she would not yield, came round her, +and began to counsel her as to the best place to go to. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy was, after all, the first to forgive the girls. She +felt very indignant, and stayed away for more than a week; but one +evening, when the day's packing was over, and the three, rather tired +but quite cheerful and full of hope, were sitting down to their tea, +her carriage was seen to draw up to the door, and the little lady, +bustling and good-natured as ever, entered the drawing-room. + +"My dears," she said, holding out a hand each to Primrose and Daisy, +but imprinting a kiss on her favorite Jasmine's brow, "my dears--Oh, +of course, I am still very angry! I see, too, that you are at that +horrid packing; but if you must go, there is a Mrs. Moore--such a good +soul, a widow, and quite a lady--indeed, I may say highly connected. +She lives in Kensington, and I have written to her. My dears, she +would be charmed to take you all into her family. She would give you +comforts--oh! I don't mean luxuries, but the necessary comforts that +young girls who are using their brains require. She would feed you +well, and chaperone you when you went out, and, in short, see to you +all round. I know her house so well. It is very pretty--indeed, +charming--and she would take you in for a pound a week between you. +She would give you board and lodging, and all you require, for a pound +a week. I hope, my dear Primrose, you don't consider that too dear. It +is, I believe"--here Mrs. Ellsworthy coughed slightly--"considered +cheap for Kensington." + +This torrent of words, poured forth with rapidity and yet with +distinctness, rather astonished the girls. They were afraid they had +lost Mrs. Ellsworthy for their friend, and they, every one of them, +hailed this overture of kindness with delight. Innocent Primrose never +even suspected that a pound a week for the lodging and maintenance of +three girls was at all unusually cheap. She little guessed that Mrs. +Ellsworthy had written to her special friend, Mrs. Moore, telling her +the girls' story, begging of her to give them a home, to provide them +with every comfort, and even luxury, and asking her to look to her, +Mrs. Ellsworthy, for the necessary payment. + +Jasmine began to dance about, and to say, softly-- + +"Oh! this is too delightful! You darling Mrs. Ellsworthy, you are +beginning to approve of our scheme. Oh, yes; I know you are, although +you were too proud to say so. Now, is it not a little bit wrong of you +to be proud after the way you lectured Primrose? Well, Primrose, shall +we go to Mrs. Moore? I don't know anything about Kensington, but I +suppose it is as good as any other place. I don't suppose, either, a +pound a week is too much for the three of us. Shall we go to Mrs. +Moore, Primrose?" + +Daisy also joined her voice in favor of going to Mrs. Ellsworthy's +friend, and after all, but for that obstinate young person Primrose, +the good little lady might have had her way, but Primrose, although +she was quite ignorant of fashionable localities or of any London +expenses, was very firm, very firm indeed, when she made up her mind. + +"It is most kind of you to call and say all this to us," she answered. +"Oh, yes, we would come if we had not quite decided on an altogether +different plan. That being the case we cannot go to Mrs. Moore--thank +you so much." + +When Jasmine heard her sister speak her face first fell and then +brightened up considerably. "How stupid of me to forget!" she said. +"Oh, yes, we have made a lovely plan, and of course we could not go to +anybody whom anybody knew. Oh, no, of course not. I cannot think how I +came to forget." + +Again Mrs. Ellsworthy tried persuasion and even entreaty, but again +she had to own herself vanquished by that most obstinate girl +Primrose. "I really cannot make out why I care for them all," she said +to herself as she drove away. "I do care for them, poor children! I +would do anything to help them, but I am simply not allowed. Well, +Primrose, no doubt you would be a great trial to me if you were my +daughter; I could never bear obstinate characters, and yet to a +certain extent I admire you." + +Miss Martineau also made up her mind to forgive these naughty girls, +and to give them the benefit of her most sapient counsel. She too +wrote a private letter to a London friend, and arrived at Woodbine +Cottage primed with what she considered valuable information. "Now, my +dears, you must go to Shepherd's Bush--that is the place, and the only +place where you can live within your means. My friend Constantia +Warren has rooms there, and she says--I have written to her, my +loves--she says if you will let her accompany you in your search she +may be able to secure you a clean, respectable bedroom in a fairly +good locality. Constantia is an excellent woman; she is fifty, and +plain in her tastes, and has no nonsense about her. She has promised +me, for my sake, to accompany you to church in the evenings, and to +see that you wear your veils down when you go out, and that you are +back in your bedroom--you can't afford a sitting-room, so don't think +of it--that you are back in your bedroom by five o'clock in the +evening, as all girls who have any idea of what is correct and proper +are of course in by that hour in London. Now, my dears, Constantia +will be a sort of protectress to you three, and I had better write to +her at once. My dears, it is a relief to me to know you will be near +Constantia, for London is a pit--a pit, and a snare." + +Miss Martineau had talked herself quite out of breath, and looked +quite pleading, but the same obstacle which had prevented the girls' +acceding to Mrs. Ellsworthy's request now debarred their taking up +their quarters near Constantia Warren. + +They spoke of their plans, but would not tell what they were, and Miss +Martineau again went away offended. + +"There is no secret in the matter," she said, when talking over the +affair with Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose tries to make a mystery, and +Jasmine likes to look mysterious, but there is not the smallest doubt +that all the girls really want is to have their own way, and to be +beholden to none of us." + +"Nevertheless, I love them, and shall always love them," answered Mrs. +Ellsworthy. + +"Oh, for the matter of that, so will I always love them, Mrs. +Ellsworthy. It seems to me they want a lot of pity, poor misguided +young things!" + +Primrose, Jasmine and Daisy all this time felt wonderfully serene. +They were very sorry to hurt their friends, but it is quite true that +they did want to have their own way. They had made distinct plans, but +they must go to London to carry them out. They thought their wisest +course was to go up to Penelope Mansion for a few days, and make their +final arrangements from there. + +"I'd be very lonely in London if I wasn't near Poppy," said Jasmine; +and Primrose too said that she thought their wisest course was to go +up to Penelope Mansion, and make their plans from there. + +Accordingly, one afternoon, when Poppy Jenkins had been three weeks in +her new place, she received a letter from Primrose Mainwaring, to +which she sent the following reply. Poppy's spelling need not be +copied, but her language ran as follows:-- + + Penelope Mansion, + Wright street, off the Edgware Road, + _July 22._ + +HONORED Miss,-- + +"Your letter was that gratifying. I am so glad you have put by your +savings, and are coming to visit this vast Babylon. Miss Primrose, it +will do me a sight of good to see your face, and the face of Miss +Jasmine, and the face of Miss Daisy. The ladies here, miss--for I must +own to the truth--are not as beautiful as was to be expected. Neither +in their visages nor in their manners are they beautiful. Sharp's the +word from morn till night here, and many a time I cry. I hasn't had no +moment yet to visit the sights, for aunt's hands are very full, and +she looks most natural to me to assist her, which I do, as in duty +bound. I'm told that there isn't much of the real London to be seen +from Penelope Mansion, so I live in hopes that it is as beautiful as +we pictured it beyond these dull walls. Miss, I has spoken to my aunt, +and she will be very pleased to receive you three, and will put you in +a bedroom to the front of the house. You'll be fretted by the roar +from the continuous multitude which passes these windows all day and +all night, but otherwise the room is cheerful, although somewhat hot. +Miss Primrose, I'll give you all such a welcome. + + "Your humble and most devoted friend, + "POPPY JENKINS." + +This letter was received by the girls while they were eating their +breakfast. Primrose read it aloud to her sisters, and the effect of +Poppy's words was certainly not enlivening. Jasmine was the first to +recover her spirits. + +"Never mind," she said; "Poppy feels a little dull and it is more than +ever our duty to go up to London, and try and cheer her. Poor Poppy! +it is very wrong of her aunt not to let her go out to see the sights, +and you see, Primrose, she really knows no part of London yet, except +Penelope Mansion. Poor Poppy! how she did long to go to see the +wonderful city; but she was a little frivolous, and seemed only to +want to look at the shop windows and to examine the newest fashions. +_We_ go to this grand, great London in a different spirit--we go +determined to conquer, don't we, Queen Rose?" + +"We go to do what seems to be our duty," answered Primrose, solemnly. +"Oh, Jasmine! I hope we are doing right--I hope, I pray that God may +help us." + +Then a letter was written to Poppy, in which the noisy room was +secured for the following Thursday, and as this was Monday, the girls +were too busy packing to give many mere thoughts to poor Poppy's +somewhat melancholy epistle. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +PENELOPE MANSION. + + +The last time in the funny little old-fashioned garden, the last +loving look at Jasmine's carnations, the last eager chase of the Pink +across the little grass-plot, the last farewell said to the room where +mother had died, to the cottage where Daisy was born, the final hug +from all three to dear old Hannah who vowed and declared that follow +them to London she would, and stay in Devonshire any longer she would +not, and the girls had left Woodbine Cottage. + +Notwithstanding all their obstinacy, and their determination to have +their own way, quite a bevy of friends accompanied them to the railway +station--Miss Martineau was there, looking prim and starched, but with +red rims round her eyes, and her lips only stern because they were so +firmly shut, and because she was so determined not to show any +emotion--Mrs. Jenkins, Poppy's mother, was also present; she was +sending up a great bouquet of wild flowers and some eggs and butter to +Poppy; and a lame boy, whom Jasmine had always been kind to, came +hobbling on to the platform to bid the young ladies good-bye; and Mr. +Danesfield drove up on his trap at the last moment in a violent hurry, +and pushed an envelope, which he said contained a business +communication, into Primrose's hand. Last of all, just at the very +end, Mrs. Ellsworthy arrived panting on the scene; a footman followed +her, also hurrying and panting, and he put into the railway carriage a +great basket containing hot-house flowers, and grapes, and peaches, +and then Mrs. Ellsworthy kissed the girls, giving Primrose and Daisy a +hurried salute, but letting her lips linger for a moment on Jasmine's +round cheek. During that brief moment two tears dropped from the kind +little lady's eyes. + +It was in this manner that the girls went away. + +They arrived in London in the evening, and after a surprisingly +successful search for their luggage at Waterloo, managing not to lose +anything, got into a cab, and drove to Penelope Mansion. + +Poppy's aunt boasted of the pleasing name of Flint, and when the girls +drove up with their cab piled with luggage to the door of the mansion, +Mrs. Flint herself came out to welcome them. + +Jasmine, whose excitable temperament had been going through many +changes during the journey to town, had now worked herself up into an +ardent desire to see Poppy--she jumped out of the cab first of all, +and, running up the steps of Penelope Mansion, said eagerly-- + +"Oh, if you please, Mrs. Flint--I know, of course, you are Mrs. +Flint--may I run down to the kitchen, and find Poppy?" + +"My niece will come to you presently, Miss Mainwaring," answered Mrs. +Flint. + +Somehow Mrs. Flint's calm and carefully modulated voice had an instant +effect in subduing Jasmine. The mistress of Penelope Mansion resembled +perhaps more a cushion than a flint--she was fat, round, and short, +had a good-humored and unruffled face, and a voice which was always +pitched in one key. + +"We call my niece Sarah in these premises," she said; "Poppy signifies +nothing whatever but a weed, untidy, straggling, the worry of the +farmers. Sarah will see to your comforts presently, young ladies. At +the present moment tea is on the table. We tea at six o'clock +precisely--we sup at nine. Will you like to go upstairs and wash your +hands, or will you come at once with me, and partake with the other +inmates of the meal which is now going forward?" + +"I don't like her, but she seems to speak very correct English," +whispered Jasmine to her sister: "I wonder, does everybody in the +great city speak like that? I suppose she'll do as a study in style. +I must study style, mustn't I, if I'm to make money by writing?" + +This speech was tumbled into Primrose's ear with wonderful rapidity, +while Mrs. Flint stood gently by, looking most contented and +uninterested. + +"Hush, Jasmine!" whispered Primrose. "Daisy darling, hold my hand. +Thank you very much, Mrs. Flint; we will have some tea now, if you +please, and then go at once to our room." + +"Does Poppy--I mean Sarah--wait at the tea-table?" inquired Jasmine, +as their hostess led the way up a flight of stairs, and down a +passage. "I hope she does--I want to see her so badly." + +"Sarah's duties at the present moment are in the kitchen," responded +Mrs. Flint, with some graciousness. "Now, young ladies, let me precede +you, and introduce you to my guests. Miss Mainwaring, Miss Jasmine and +Miss Daisy Mainwaring--Mrs. Mortlock, Mrs. Dredge, Miss Slowcum. Young +ladies, will you seat yourselves at the table?" + +Mrs. Flint moved to her place at the head of the board; the three +girls dropped into seats, and were stared broadly at by Miss Slowcum +and Mrs. Mortlock. Mrs. Dredge, however, did not stare, but stretching +out one rather plump white hand, took Daisy's within her own and gave +it a little squeeze. + +"Tired, pretty little dear!" she said; "tired and cold. Ah, I know all +about it." + +"No, she's not cold, she's hot," responded Jasmine; "this is the +hottest, closest room I've ever been in. You are Mrs. Dredge, are you +not? Please, Mrs. Dredge, can you tell me how near we are to the real +glories of the city from here?" + +"I don't know, my dear--I fancy a very long way," answered Mrs. +Dredge, with a sigh--this sigh was instantly taken up by Mrs. Mortlock +and Miss Slowcum, and Miss Slowcum remarked that the situation might +certainly be considered the worst in London. + +"Ha, ha!" said Mrs. Mortlock, "you will have to come down in your +prices after that, Mrs. Flint. Ha, ha! your question was a very +leading one, Miss Jasmine Mainwaring." + +Poor Jasmine began to feel quite alarmed, and instantly resolved not +to open her lips again during tea. + +The meal proceeded, and very dull it was; nor was the fare appetizing, +for the tea was weak and the bread was stale. The three young faces, +so fresh from the country and from home, began to reflect the general +dulness. Mrs. Flint always made it a rule never to speak except when +obliged--Daisy was nearly asleep, Primrose felt a dreadful lump in her +throat, and Jasmine's dark curly head was bent low, and her bright +eyes were not seen under their long lashes, for she was very well +aware that they were full of tears. + +She was a most impulsive creature, however, quick and variable in her +moods, unselfish in her character. Suddenly it dawned upon her that it +was not fair to the rest of the party that she should be so dull. She +had always been considered the sunbeam at home; why should she not try +to become the sunbeam of Penelope Mansion? + +"I know what will do it," she exclaimed, jumping from her seat, and +nearly upsetting her own tea and Daisy's. "Of course, how silly of +me!--I know what will alter things directly." Then she flew out of the +room, returning the next moment with Mrs. Ellsworthy's great basket of +fruit and flowers. + +"Primrose," she said, "mightn't we share these with the ladies? They +are all quite fresh from the country. Oh yes, of course we may share +them. Mrs. Flint, which will you have, some flowers, a bunch of +grapes, or a peach?" + +Mrs. Flint selected a good-sized bunch of grapes with a placid smile, +and a "Thank you, Miss Jasmine"--Mrs. Mortlock also took grapes, Miss +Slowcum selected flowers, and Mrs. Dredge partook of a peach with +great relish, calling it, as she did so, a "sweet reminiscence of the +blooming country." + +After this little incident the ladies of Penelope Mansion and the +Mainwaring girls became quite friendly; nevertheless the three cried +themselves to sleep that night. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +ESCORTED BY MISS SLOWCUM. + + +"Within the house at least," remarked Poppy Jenkins, "it ain't what we +dreamt of." + +She was standing the next morning in the room where the three sisters +had slept--it was early, only five o'clock in the morning, but this +was Poppy's London hour for rising. Jasmine was sitting up in bed and +regarding her earnestly, Primrose was also awake, but Daisy slept like +a cherub. + +"It ain't what we dreamt of," continued Poppy--"it's work, and it's +dirt, and it's dust, and it's smuts. Oh, my word! the smuts is enough +to turn one crazy. Nothing is white here, as you calls white in the +country--speckled is more the word. No, no. Penelope Mansion is, +taking it all in all, a biting disappointment." + +"Well Poppy, Penelope Mansion is not the whole of London," said +Jasmine, in a rather quavering, but would-be wise voice. + +"Yes, but it's the London I has got to do with," answered Poppy +Jenkins--"and oh! the worst of all is, that aunt won't have me called +by my home name--she speaks of it most bitter as a 'weed.' She says +poppies are what are meant in the Scripter by the tares. Don't it +sound real awful?--I trembled all over when she told me that. So Sarah +I am here, and Sarah Ann, and Sarah Jane, and Sarah Mary the ladies +calls me. When they're in a very good humor I'm Sarah Mary, and when +they're a bit put out it's Sarah Jane they calls for, and now and then +I'm Sarah Ann--then I know I'm in for a scolding. Oh yes, Miss +Primrose, London is not what we thought it." + +"Never mind," said Primrose sweetly; "you'll always be Poppy to us, +dear, and I know the tares were not poppies, so don't you fret--the +poppy is a sweet flower, and Poppy is a sweet name for a girl. Why we +four are all called after flowers, and we must just be very friendly, +and very brave and loving and sweet in this London, and then, perhaps, +it won't disappoint us." + +"You're real kind, Miss Primrose," said Poppy. "Yes, it's a great ease +to me to know as you three are in the house. I won't be so +lonesome-like now, and I won't be dreaming that I'm a tare. It's awful +to think of yourself as a tare, but I know now that aunt made a +mistake. Oh, ain't Miss Daisy beautiful in her sleep? Now look here, +you're all tired, and I'll bring you up your breakfasts in bed. You +shall have some of mother's fresh eggs and real country butter. I'll +run downstairs, and bring you up some breakfast the very first thing." + +The girls spent that morning in their room. They unpacked a few of +their things, and put their mother's picture on the mantel-piece, and +Primrose opened Mr. Danesfield's letter. It contained an enclosure +within and on this enclosure was written, in a funny little printing +hand, "When you want me, use me; don't return me, and never abuse me." + +Primrose's face grew rather red. She read the funny little motto two +or three times, then put the enclosure unopened into her trunk. + +"I think," she said, looking at Jasmine, "that we will not send this +back. I had a queer dream last night. It seemed to me that mother came +to me and said, 'Are you not foolish to cast away all your kind +friends? Try to remember that true independence is not too proud to +lean on others. Primrose, for my sake do not be over proud.' Mr. +Danesfield was always a friend of mother's," continued Primrose, "so I +will keep his letter until we want it, and will write him a little +note to thank him for it." + +Then the girls sat down by the open window and looked out into the +street. It was a very dull street, and the day was warm and murky, +with no sun shining. + +"This afternoon we will go out," said Primrose. "I shall speak about +it at lunch, and ask Mrs. Flint to allow us to take Poppy with us. I +am so sorry Poppy feels dull. Now, girls, we must just make up our +minds not to do that--we must keep up brave hearts, and not sigh and +look dismal; that would never do. We have elected our own course, and +if we are not courageous we shall be beaten. I for one am determined +not to be beaten." + +"I've always heard," said Jasmine, "that to sigh was very weakening. +What I propose is this--that we give each other a fine whenever we are +heard sighing, and another much more severe fine if we grumble, and +the worst fine of all if we cry. Now, what shall the fines be?" + +After a little consideration the girls decided that the fines might as +well lead in the direction of their education. Accordingly they marked +out for themselves some of the most ponderous passages in "Paradise +Lost" to learn by heart, and as a severe punishment they selected +little bits of a very incomprehensible book, called Butler's +"Analogy." When they had carefully made these selections a rather +feeble bell was heard to tinkle in the mansion, and they went +downstairs to lunch. + +"I hope you are comfortably unpacked now, young ladies?" inquired Mrs. +Flint. + +"And I trust you have recovered from the fatigues of your long +journey?" questioned Mrs. Dredge. "It is a weary way from +Devonshire--a long and weary way." + +"You speak of it as though it were a kind of disappointment to come +from Devonshire to London," remarked Miss Slowcum, "whereas London is +_the_ place for aspiring souls." + +"Oh, I'm so delighted to hear you say that!" said Jasmine--"Poppy--I +mean Sarah--spoke quite dismally this morning, but I knew she must be +wrong." + +"The young country servant," responded Miss Slowcum, "Sarah Jane, I +think her name is--oh, well, her judgment need scarcely be depended +on. Yes, London is the place of places. I have lived here for years, +and I ought to know." + +"We quite believe you," said Jasmine--"don't we, Primrose?--we have +come up here because we quite feel with you; we are going out after +lunch to see the beauties of the city." + +"May I ask, young ladies, if this is your first visit to the +metropolis?" suddenly inquired Mrs. Mortlock. + +Primrose answered her "Yes; we have never been here before." + +"Then, Mrs. Flint, I put it to you, is it safe to allow these young +unfledged birds out into this vast and bewildering place? ought not +some one to chaperon them?" + +"We thought of asking for Poppy," answered Jasmine. + +Here Mrs. Flint frowned at her. + +"Allow me to make one request, Miss Jasmine Mainwaring; the young +person you speak of is not known here by a name which signifies a tare +or a weed. Yes, I shall be pleased to allow Sarah to go out with you +this afternoon for a short time, but she knows as little of London as +you do. I cannot go myself, as Friday is a busy afternoon. I can, +however, give you a map, and if you all keep close together and don't +wander too far, and are careful only to inquire of policemen your +destination you may get back safely. Don't forget, tea at six." + +Here Miss Slowcum, turning her eyes slowly, looked carefully all over +the three girls. + +"I am most particular," she said; "I never wander abroad without +carefully choosing my company, but on the whole I feel satisfied a +kindred spirit to my own lurks in your eyes, Miss Jasmine. Permit me, +young ladies, to escort you forth this afternoon." + +This offer was accepted very gladly, although Jasmine had quickly to +remember her fine, or she would have given a very deep sigh when Miss +Slowcum pointed a comparison between them. In the delight, however, of +going into real London all these minor considerations and discomforts +were forgotten. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. + + +Miss Slowcum was right in saying that she was very particular with +regard to her company. She prided herself on having select taste. She +thought it well to assume distant airs to the other inmates of +Penelope Mansion--Mrs. Dredge she thought quite beneath her notice, +Mrs. Mortlock was slightly more tolerated, but Miss Slowcum never +really unbent to either of these ladies. As she said to herself, she +could never forget that she came of the Slowcums of ----shire that her +father had been Captain Slowcum of the Royal Navy, and that, all +things considered, her true position in society was with the county +folk. What, therefore, could a lady of such patrician birth have in +common with a Mrs. Mortlock or a Mrs. Dredge? Alas! however, Miss +Slowcum was poor--she was very poor, and she was a great deal too +genteel to work. The terms at Penelope Mansion were by no means high, +and in order to live she was obliged to put up with uncongenial +company. She was a very tall and angular person--her face was long and +thin, her eyes small, her mouth undecided, but in her heart of hearts +she was by no means wanting in good nature; and when, the night +before, Jasmine, with her charming little face, offered her some of +the country flowers, she began to take an interest in the fresh girls +who had come to the rather antiquated house in Wright Street. + +It was really good-natured of Miss Slowcum to offer to accompany the +girls on their first walk in London. She had the greatest horror of +ever appearing remarkable and she felt really alarmed at the thought +of taking four unsophisticated country lasses abroad. It was bad +enough to offer to escort the Mainwarings, who, however _gauche_ they +might appear, were undoubtedly ladies, but to take Poppy, _alias_ +Sarah, as well, was really trying. Without Poppy, however, the girls +refused to stir. There was no help for it, and Miss Slowcum only +trusted that their first walk might be short and uneventful. + +"It is an unpleasant arrangement, but I do not see any help for it," +she said, addressing her little party as they assembled in the hall; +"we must sally forth as though we were a school. You, Miss Jasmine, +will have the goodness to walk in front with me. Miss Mainwaring and +her youngest sister can immediately follow us, and Sarah, you will +please to keep behind." + +"Oh, lor!" ejaculated Poppy, "I thought me and Miss Jasmine was to +stay together--it's what I has been looking forward to through all the +toils of the work, and the smuts and the Sarah Janes, and the Sarah +Marys this morning. It is another biting. Well, London seems to be +made up of them. All right, Miss Slowcum, I'll keep behind. I suppose +there's nobody to forbid me gazing well into the shop windows. I hope +you'll take us into a gay street, miss, where there are lots of new +bonnets and hats to be seen." + +"I'm going to walk with you, Poppy," said Jasmine; "Miss Slowcum is +very kind, but I should not think of walking with any one else. +Please, Miss Slowcum will you go in front, with Primrose and Daisy, +and Poppy and I will promise to behave very well behind." + +In this order the little party did set out, and in an incredibly short +space of time they left the dull region of Penelope Mansion far +behind, and found themselves in Oxford Street, and then in Bond +Street, and finally walking along Piccadilly towards the Park. + +Primrose could always restrain her emotions, but Jasmine and Poppy, +notwithstanding their promise to behave well, were certainly guilty of +many extravagant exclamations. Jasmine became nearly as excited over +the new bonnets as her companion. The picture-shops were marvels of +wonder and delight to her, and poor Miss Slowcum was obliged to draw +up short on many occasions, or she would have lost the little +loiterers, as they stood still to gaze. At last she made a proposition +which nearly took her own breath away with the magnitude of its +generosity. She would treat the entire party to a drive in the omnibus +to St. Paul's Cathedral. Poppy earnestly begged to be allowed to go +with Jasmine on the roof, but this the good lady negatived with +horror. She finally ushered her young charges into the seclusion of an +omnibus going citywards, and then was conscious of breathing a sigh of +relief. Inwardly she made a vow that never again should her +good-nature lead her into such a troublesome adventure. + +"We must be solemn here, Poppy," said Jasmine, as they were entering +the cathedral; "we must forget the beautiful bonnets, and those dear +little tight-fitting jackets, and those muslin dresses. We must forget +the little story we made up of imagining ourselves rich enough to buy +all these things. Perhaps we may think a very little of one or two of +the pictures, but we must forget the vanities now. It has always been +one of my dreams to come in here--oh! oh!--Poppy." Jasmine clasped her +companion's hand, and her excitable little face grew white--the +magnitude of the great cathedral, the solemn hush, and quiet, and +sense of rest after the rushing noise outside, was too much for +her--her eyes filled with tears, and she was very nearly guilty of +committing the offence which would have obliged her to learn some of +Butler's "Analogy" by heart. The rest of the party wandered about the +cathedral, and looked at the monuments, and presently went up into the +Whispering Gallery, but Jasmine felt suddenly tired and disinclined to +move about. + +"Go on with Daisy, Poppy," she said to her companion; "I will rest +here for a little;" then she seated herself on one of the chairs, and +in a moment or two went down on her knees and covered her childish +face with her hands. + +Not at all long was Jasmine's prayer, but somehow it was very fervent, +and it certainly reached a Presence which gives strength and peace. +She was no longer oppressed by St. Paul's--she was comforted and +strengthened. + +"I do hope God will help us," she said to herself. "Oh! was it very, +very rash of us to come up here?--and yet, what else could we do? It +was Primrose's thought, too, and she is always so wise, and so +grown-up." + +Jasmine looked round the cathedral, hoping to see her party--they +were, of course, nowhere within sight, and the little girl began to +walk about by herself, hoping soon to rejoin them. She dropped her +umbrella, and a gentleman who had been watching her for some time with +interest stooped to pick it up. He was a young man of about +six-and-twenty, with a bright and pleasant face. + +"This is your first visit here?" he said, looking kindly at the child. + +"Oh, yes," said Jasmine. Then feeling that she had a sympathetic +listener, she continued--"It is so beautiful here!" + +"Yes," answered her companion; then he added, with a second glance at +the forlorn little figure, "Are you alone, or have you lost your +party?" + +Jasmine half laughed. + +"I cannot find my party at the present moment," she said; "but I am by +no means alone--my two sisters have come here also to-day for the +first time, and a friend is with us, and a lady has very kindly +brought us here." + +"I see," said the stranger. "Well, it is a curious coincidence, but +neither am I alone--I have brought a little lad here to show him the +cathedral--he has gone into the Whispering Gallery, and I am waiting +for him. Perhaps your friends have also gone into the gallery. While +we are both waiting, shall we look round this delightful place? and +may I tell you a little of what I know about it?" + +It was in this manner, and apparently quite by accident, that Jasmine +made the acquaintance of Arthur Noel, who turned out to be one of the +best friends the girls were to make in London. Mr. Noel had taken a +fancy to Jasmine's sweet little face, and Jasmine, when she met with a +sympathetic listener, could be only too communicative. Before Miss +Slowcum and her sisters and Poppy joined them Mr. Noel knew something +of Jasmine's ambitions and of Primrose's modest hopes. Jasmine had +even confided to him the brave resolve the three sisters had made not +to sigh, or grumble, or wear themselves out with useless tears. He was +very kind, although he could not be persuaded to say that he thought +Primrose's scheme a wise one, but this chance encounter might never +have led to anything further but for a little coincidence which shows +what a small place the world is, after all. When Primrose and Daisy, +Poppy and the sedate Miss Slowcum, joined Jasmine, as she stood with +her companion examining Nelson's monument, they were accompanied by a +handsome, bright-faced boy, who ran up to Mr. Noel, and linked his +hand within his arm. This boy turned out to be young Frank Ellsworthy, +and, as the girls all exclaimed on hearing the name, Mr. Noel assured +them that the Ellsworthys were his greatest friends--that he loved +Mrs. Ellsworthy almost as if she were his own mother. + +"I felt that I must speak to you," he said to Jasmine. "I cannot tell +you why nor wherefore, but your face seemed familiar--I did not think +you would turn out to be an absolute stranger." + +Thus the girls made a very valuable acquaintance; nevertheless, owing +to circumstances, it was many a long day before they met Arthur Noel +again. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +A BRIGHT DAY. + + +Last times are always sad to write about and think about, but first +times are generally pleasant. Notwithstanding a certain sense of +disappointment which certainly did assail the three girls on their +entrance into London, notwithstanding the fact which Jasmine only too +quickly discovered, that the streets were not paved with gold, nor the +air replete with promises, yet there was still something left in that +same London air, a sort of mystery and wonder about it. There was +still something of untold fascination in the busy and crowded streets, +which brought a great sense of delight and exhilaration to the three +young adventurers. + +Jasmine spoke about the stories which met her at every turn; she felt +almost melted to tears at the sight of the sadness in the eyes of some +women, and some little children. But again, beautiful ladies driving +past in carriages made of almost fairy lightness caused her to laugh +with pleasure. + +Primrose was more gravely impressed by London than Jasmine. Her +emotions were not so keen as her younger sister's, her purpose was far +more steadfast; and even in the first few days when the girls gave +themselves up to seeing the wonderful sights of the great metropolis +she could never forget the real object for which they had come. + +Daisy, when she had become reconciled to the smuts and disagreeables, +and the slights to which the Pink was exposed all day long in Penelope +Mansion, began to enjoy life in a serene but unqualified manner. Each +of the girls had her own particular tastes; and these they were by no +means slow to express to one another. + +Primrose, who intended to study china painting--to make it, in short, +a profession--liked to stand opposite some large shop in Oxford +Street, and to study and try to carry away in her mind's eye the shape +and beauty of the many lovely things displayed in the windows. + +Jasmine, who during the first few days had quite made up her mind not +to worry at all about the future, did not much care for these gazing +fits of Primrose's. She wanted to get into the parks. She exclaimed in +ecstasy over the horses, and those picture-galleries which were free +to the public quite enchanted her. Daisy frankly admitted that she +liked toy-shops, and of all toy-shops those which displayed rows of +dolls in their windows the best. Primrose had decided that the three +should have one week's holiday, and it was during this week that they +began to make a certain first acquaintance with London. "It is the +heart of the world," Jasmine was heard to say. "Primrose, it is what +we pictured it; in many ways it is even greater than what we pictured +it. Oh, don't your cheeks glow, and don't you feel that your eyes are +shining when you look down Oxford Street? Yes, it is lovely and grand, +and I think we ought to show poor dear Poppy some more of its +delights." + +Primrose was only too glad to give Poppy all the happiness in her +power, and she and Jasmine arranged that they would take the little +girl out with them on another expedition before they settled down +finally to the great work of their lives. + +"We'll spend five shillings," said Primrose, "we must not on any +account spend more, but we will be extravagant, and give poor Poppy a +real treat with one crown piece." + +"We had better ask her to come to-morrow," said Daisy; "five shillings +seems a lot of money. Do you think there will be enough over, +Primrose, to buy me a tiny, tiny little doll?" + +Primrose kissed Daisy, and said she would try somehow to manage the +doll, and Jasmine was elected to go downstairs and sound Poppy on the +subject of the morrow's treat. + +The little maiden had made herself pretty well at home in the Mansion +by this time, and she soon discovered Poppy in what was called the +back scullery. The ladies had all finished their mid-day meal, and +were out. Even Mrs. Flint had sallied forth to a distant market to +secure some cheap provisions, and Poppy had the back scullery to +herself. She was handling the dinner-plates in a rather clumsy manner, +and, after the fashion of a discontented little girl, was sighing over +her work, and not doing it properly. + +"Oh, let me help you!" said Jasmine, dancing up to her: "I hate +washing china, or delf, or whatever you call it, after people have +eaten, but I like wiping it if the cloths are clean. Poppy, I have +come to you about a most delicious and important scheme." + +"Lor, Miss Jasmine," said Poppy, her fingers trembling violently, and +the large dish which she was washing nearly slipping out of them. +"Lor, miss, you do startle me. I was in the dumps, and you are for all +the world like the sun coming out. Why, deary me, the back scullery +ain't by no means such a bad sort of place when you're in it, Miss +Jasmine." + +"It is very damp and gloomy, all the same," answered Jasmine. "I do +hope you will be quick, Poppy, in washing up those uninteresting +dinner-plates. Now, look here, Primrose and Daisy and I have been +making up such a lovely plan. We want to take you out with us +to-morrow; we are going to spend five shillings, quite lots of money, +you know, and we are going to have dinner out, and perhaps tea out; +and we are going a good long way. Can you come with us to-morrow, +Poppy?" + +"Hold me," said Poppy, suddenly stretching out her hand, "the scullery +is damp and close, and my head a-going round. Let's get out into the +back yard, Miss Jasmine. Now I can breathe. Oh, didn't I say that +London was dazzling, and isn't it you three that has got the hearts of +gold. Say it all over again to me, please, Miss Jasmine. What is it +we're all a-going to do to-morrow?" + +"Oh, what a silly, Poppy, you are," said Jasmine; "why even I do not +get as excited as you do. We are going out, and you are coming with +us, and we are going to spend five shillings." + +Poppy's cheeks flushed a vivid crimson, her eyes sparkled, and her +small feet began involuntarily to dance. + +"I has set my heart on something beauteous," she said, "and, oh, dear, +Miss Jasmine, you will do it, won't you? You won't let none of them +biting disappointments with which the air is choke full, as full as it +is of smuts, come in the way. If you three darling ladies spend a +crown piece, and take me abroad, we'll be on pleasure bent, and on +pleasure alone. Say so, do, Miss Jasmine." + +"Why, Poppy, of course we are going for pleasure; what do you mean?" + +"Only that we won't be going Cathedraling and Towering. I don't say +nothing ag'in them places, but when I wants real pleasure, and a crown +piece spent on me, I don't go in for no Cathedraling." + +Jasmine laughed. "I tell you what," she said, "you shall choose the +pleasure yourself, Poppy. It's your treat, and you shall choose. Now, +do say what hour you will be ready to start to-morrow, for we want to +go early, and have a real long day." + +"Let's think," said Poppy. "To-morrow is, yes, to-morrow is Thursday. +Cold joint to-morrow, and a salad made with stale lettuce which we +gets cheap; potatoes boiled plain and not mashed, and a apple dumpling +to follow. The ladies is very particular that their pastry should be +light. Miss Slowcum says she can't sleep a bit at night if her pastry +is heavy. She called me Sarah Martha Ann the last time I made it, and +she looked most vinegary. Yes, Miss Jasmine, the dinner's plain +to-morrow, and I'll get up with the daybreak, and do my cleaning. I +don't see why Aunt Flint shouldn't let me go with you, miss." + +Mrs. Flint, when properly attacked, proved herself quite vulnerable. +She was anxious to please the Mainwarings who she hoped would take up +their abode with her, for naughty Primrose had by no means divulged +her real plans. Accordingly, Poppy was allowed to get her dinner +beforehand, and a very happy little quartet left the Mansion soon +after eleven o'clock. + +They had gone some little distance from Penelope Mansion, and found +themselves in a far more cheerful and bright-looking street, before +Poppy divulged her plans. + +"I has got to choose," she said, "and as I stated distinct to Miss +Jasmine yesterday, I don't go in for the glooms of the Tower, nor the +solemns of the Cathedral. I'd like to walk from end to end of Oxford +Street first, and then I'd like to take a penny boat on the river." + +"A penny boat!" exclaimed the three sisters in a breath, "that does +sound delightful, and so cheap. Where did you hear of penny boats, +Poppy?" + +Poppy's face became radiant. + +"It was the last charwoman at the Mansion," she answered. "She said +that if you wanted a pleasure, and a pleasure cheap, there was nothing +in all the world like a penny boat. You sit in it, and there you are, +as snug as snug; plenty of room and plenty of company, and plenty of +sights. Mrs. Jones said that if there was a pleasure to rest a +tired charwoman it was to be found in a penny boat." + +"Well, we are not charwomen, but we may as well have a little rest and +fun while we can," answered Jasmine. "I think yours is a lovely treat, +dear Poppy, and we will try and get into the penny boat as fast as +possible." + +"I don't know how we are to reach the boats," said Primrose. "I begin +to know my way a little about Oxford Street, but how are we to find +the river?" + +Poppy, however, had made good use of her acquaintance with Mrs. Jones +the charwoman. She knew the name as well as the color of the omnibus +which would safely convey them near to the pier at Westminster. She +also knew, being instructed by Mrs. Jones, that a policeman was the +right person to give her information as to where this special omnibus +was to be found. She was by no means shy in making her desires known +to one of these useful and worthy members of society, and in a short +time the four found themselves bowling away in the direction of +Westminster, and then, without any insurmountable difficulty, secured +comfortable seats on one of the river steamers. + +The day was perfect, neither too hot nor too cold, and the summer +breezes fanned the young cheeks pleasantly, and raised the youthful +spirits to an exhilarating height. Poppy forgot her troubles in +Penelope Mansion, her difficulties with regard to the name of Sarah. +She forgot the gloom of the back scullery, and the discontented frown +quite vanished from her brow. London was again dazzling in her eyes, +and her own future was replete with hope. + +Primrose also ceased to worry over the anxieties and cares of the +future; she ceased to reflect on the plan which was so soon to be +carried into execution. Her serene face looked sweet and careless as +in the happy days of her mother's lifetime. She leaned back in her +seat, gazed at the beauties of the river, and gave herself up to the +happiness of the hour. + +The two younger girls, being never over anxious and being always more +or less full of hope, were to-day only more hopeful and bright than +usual. Many people turned to look at the pretty sisters, and to laugh +at Poppy's innocent expressions of rapture. + +They landed at Battersea, and wandered about the pretty park, and had +refreshments in a quaint restaurant, where they really managed to +satisfy their hunger at a very moderate charge. + +That evening they returned to the Mansion, having kept within the +limits of the prescribed five shillings, and each of them declaring +that she had never known a happier day. + +"But now," said Primrose, addressing her two sisters solemnly, "we +must remember that after to-night we have done with pleasure. +To-morrow we must seriously set about forming our plans." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +GETTING LOST. + + +Primrose's scheme had, of course, been considered most wild and most +foolish by all her friends at Rosebury but even they were not prepared +for her crowning act of folly. She, Jasmine and Daisy had a +consultation together. This consultation was really nothing but a +matter of form, for Primrose, quiet as she appeared could lead her two +sisters as she willed--her slightest word was law to them, and the +most outrageous plan proposed by her would have been delightful in +their eyes. Her suggestion to them was as follows: + +"We will go to London," she said--"we will try to be independent, and +to earn our own living, and in order to do so really, and to prevent +ourselves being tempted by Mrs. Ellsworthy's riches, or by Miss +Martineau's advice, we will not give our address. We will stay for a +short time at Penelope Mansion, and then we will go away. We will find +those nice, clean, cheap lodgings, where we can hang up our muslin +curtains, and keep things lovely and fresh, even though we are in +London, and we will stay there without troubling our friends about us +until we have succeeded. The moment we have succeeded in earning +enough to live on we will write home." + +Jasmine, and of course little Daisy, approved of this idea--Jasmine +said it was both romantic and strong--Daisy said she only wanted to be +with her own Primrose and her own Jasmine, and if the Pink might +always stay with her too she would be quite happy. + +Accordingly, when the girls' week of pleasure had quite come to an +end, Primrose reminded her sisters that it was time for them to begin +to get lost. + +"We are not really lost here," she said. "Mrs. Ellsworthy thinks +nothing of coming to town, and she could come to us at the Mansion any +moment; and now that we have met that friend of hers, that Mr. Noel, +she may be sending him to see about us--so you see it is more +important than ever that we should find a place where we can really +commence our work." + +"I don't dislike Mr. Noel at all," said Jasmine. "It is a great pity +he is related to our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy, for we might have had +the comfort of his advice without being considered dependent. Oh, +Primrose! is it possible that we are too independent--I can't help it, +Primrose; I do feel lonely. I must cry just for a minute. I'd rather +do a page of the 'Analogy' to-night than not cry for a minute." + +"My darling," said Primrose, putting her arms round Jasmine, "I am +sure that girls like us cannot be too independent, but I won't go on +with it if it really breaks your heart, Jasmine." + +"Oh, but it doesn't really," said Jasmine; "I think it's a noble plan; +I wouldn't give in for the world. I have had my cry now, and I'm +better--but, Rose, how are we to look out for these nice, clean, cheap +lodgings if we aren't to consult any one?" + +"We can consult people, and find out the locality we want, but we need +never tell the people we consult what number in the street we really +choose. Oh, there are lots of ways of finding out what we really want +to know." + +"I'll talk to Mrs. Dredge to-night," said Jasmine. "I think Mrs. +Dredge is very practical and kind, and I don't know why Miss Slowcum +should dislike her so much. I'll get her all by myself this evening, +and talk to her." + +Accordingly that evening, after the inmates of Penelope Mansion had, +as Mrs. Flint styled it, "tea'd," Jasmine sat down on a footstool at +Mrs. Dredge's feet, and laid herself out to be bewitching. No one +could be more charming than this little maiden when she chose, and she +had tact enough to adapt herself on most occasions to her company. + +"I'm sure you have lots of experience, Mrs. Dredge," she began; "you +look as if you had--your face tells me that you have gone through many +episodes"--(Jasmine was rather proud of this expression; she began to +consider that her style was forming). + +"Episodes, my dear, and experiences?" answered Mrs. Dredge. "Well, +well, I'm not to say over young, and years bring knowledge; but if you +mean, Miss Jasmine, that I'm up to the acquirements of the present +day, that I'm not, and I never will be,--no, thank Heaven! that I +never will be." + +"Do you mean with regard to education?" remarked Jasmine. "Is the +education of the present day wrong?--is that why you're so thankful +you are not up to it?" + +"My dear Miss Jasmine," answered Mrs. Dredge, with great solemnity, +"the education of the present day is to the heart hardening, and to +the mind demoralizing. No, no; none of it for me. Miss Slowcum, now! +Miss Jasmine, between you and me I don't admire Miss Slowcum." + +"Oh, she's very kind," answered Jasmine; "but look here, Mrs. Dredge, +what I want to consult you about has nothing at all to say to +education, and it has a great deal to say to experience. It's a great +secret, Mrs. Dredge, but we want to find cheap lodgings." + +"Oh, my dear! and don't you want to abide at the Mansion--all things +considered, it's a respectable and safe quarter--you are all three +young and attractive, my dears, and you have the advantage of being +guarded here by women who have years on their shoulders. Yes, my dear +Miss Jasmine, with the exception of your three selves and the maid +Sarah, there is no one in Penelope Mansion who will ever see fifty +again. Don't talk to me of Miss Slowcum being younger than that--I +know better." + +"Dear Mrs. Dredge, it is a secret, but we are really not going to stay +here long, and we want, if possible, to find very cheap lodgings." + +"Very cheap, love; and you think I can guide you? Well, well, I have +had, as you wisely say, my experiences. About what figure would you be +inclined to go to, my dear?" + +"I don't know," answered Jasmine. "Our house in the country was twelve +pounds a year--I don't think we ought to pay as much as that, for of +course we should not want a whole house, only two rooms. A nice, +large, airy bedroom, and a cheerful sitting-room. We should not mind +how plain the furniture was, if only it was very, very clean. You know +the kind of place, with snow-white boards--the sort of boards you +could eat off--and little plain beds with dimity frills round them, +and very white muslin blinds to the windows--we have got our own white +muslin curtains; Hannah washed them for us, and they are as white as +snow. Oh! the place we want might be very humble, and very +inexpensive. Do tell us if you know of any rooms that would suit us." + +While Jasmine was speaking Mrs. Dredge kept on gazing at her, her +round face growing long, and her full blue eyes becoming extended to +their largest size. + +"My dear child," she said, "wherever were you brought up? Don't you +know that the kind of lodgings you want are just the hardest of all to +get? Yes, my dear, I have experience in London apartments, and about +them, and with regard to them, there is one invariable and unbroken +rule--cheapness and dirt--expense and cleanliness. Bless you! you +innocent child, you had better give up the notion of the cheap +lodgings, and stay on contented and happy at the Mansion." + +Jasmine smiled faintly--said "Thank you, Mrs. Dredge," in a pretty +gentle voice, and a moment or two later, with a deeper carnation than +usual in her cheeks, she quietly left the room. + +"Primrose," she said upstairs to her sister, "we mustn't ask advice +about our lodgings; we must take the map with us, and go and look for +them all by ourselves. Mrs. Dredge says that clean lodgings are very, +very dear, and it is only dirty lodgings that are cheap." + +When Jasmine ran into the room Primrose was standing by the +dressing-table, and in her usual methodical fashion was putting tidily +away her own things and her sisters'; now she faced Jasmine with a +little smile on her face. + +"There is just one thing," she said, "that we can do--we can with our +own hands make the dirty lodgings clean. Never mind, Jasmine darling, +we won't ask anybody's advice; we'll go out and look round us +to-morrow." + +Early the next morning the three sisters set out--Daisy having first +locked the Pink in their room. It may be remarked in parenthesis that +the Pink did not like her new quarters, and had already made herself +notorious by breaking two saucers and a cup, by upsetting a basin of +milk, and by disappearing with the leg of a chicken. In consequence, +she was in great disgrace, and Mrs. Flint had been heard to speak of +her as "that odious cat!" The Pink, however, was safe for the present, +and the girls set out on their little pilgrimage of discovery. + +"London," said Primrose, in a somewhat sententious voice, has "points +of the compass, like any other place. It has its north and its south, +its east and its west. The west, I have been told, is the aristocratic +and expensive quarter, so of course we won't go there. In the east, +the miserably poor and dirty people live--we won't trouble +them--therefore our choice must lie between the south and the north. +On the whole, I am inclined to try the north side of London." + + "For dark and true and tender is the North," + +quoted Jasmine with enthusiasm. "By all means, Rose, we will go +northwards, but how shall we go?" + +"We'll inquire at the post-office just round this corner," answered +Primrose, with decision. + +Accordingly, having received some rather lucid instructions the girls +found themselves in a few moments in an omnibus going towards +Holloway. About noon they were landed there, and then their search +began. Oh, the weariness of that long day! Oh, the painful experience +of the three! They knew nothing about London prices--they had not an +idea whether they were being imposed upon or not. + +"On one point we have quite made up our minds," said Jasmine, +sturdily; "we won't go back to the Mansion until we have found rooms." + +The truth of Mrs. Dredge's prophecy became only too apparent. All the +apartments that were bright and clean and cheery were quite too +expensive for Primrose's slender purse. At last she came to a +resolution. + +"Girls," she said, "we must take rooms that look dirty, and make them +clean. We have at least been taught how to polish, and how to scrub, +and how to clean. You know, Jasmine, how shocked Miss Martineau was +when she saw you one day with a pair of gloves on down on your knees +polishing the drawing-room grate at Rosebury. You said you liked to do +it. How distressed she was! and how that grate did shine!" + +"Don't let us talk about Rosebury just now," said Jasmine, with a +quiver in her voice. "Yes, Primrose darling, of course we can make our +own rooms clean--we can even re-paper the walls, and we can whitewash +the ceilings. Now we know exactly what to do. At the very next house +where we see 'Apartments to Let,' we'll ask for dirty rooms, then of +course we'll get them cheap." + +"Those attics that we saw at that last house?" questioned Primrose, +thoughtfully. "They were rather large, and not very dark. If we took +down that paper, and put up a fresh one, and if we whitened the +ceilings and scrubbed the floors, why, those rooms might do. They were +not very expensive for London--only twelve shillings a week." + +"A frightful rent!" said Jasmine. "No wonder the people here look +careworn, and pinched, and old. We'll go back to that house, Primrose. +On the whole, the rooms may suit us. What is the landlady's name?--Oh, +Mrs. Dove. We'll go back to Mrs. Dove and take her rooms." + +Accordingly, in a funny little street off the Junction Road, the three +Mainwaring girls found a nest. It was a queer nest, up at the top of a +tall and rambling house; but Mrs. Dove appeared good-natured, and had +no objection to the young ladies doing their own papering and +white-washing, and as Primrose took the rooms on the spot, and paid +a week's rent in advance, she became quite gracious. Every morning, +as soon as ever breakfast was over at Penelope Mansion, the girls +started off to the new home they were preparing for themselves. +There they worked hard, papering, white-washing, and, finally, even +painting. By the end of a week Mrs. Dove scarcely knew her attic +apartments--elegant she now called them--a charming suite. The +enthusiasm of the three young workers even infected Mrs. Dove, who +condescended to clean the windows, and to rub up the shabby furniture, +so that when, at the end of the week, the attics were ready for +occupation, they were by no means so unlike Jasmine's ideal London +rooms as might have been expected. The girls kept their own counsel, +and during the week they were preparing for their flight to Eden +Street--for No. 10 Eden Street would be their future address--they +told no one at Penelope Mansion of their little plans. The good ladies +of the Mansion, Mrs. Flint excepted, were very curious about them; +they wondered why the girls disappeared every day immediately after +breakfast, and came back looking hot and tired, and yet with bright +and contented faces, at night; but Jasmine had ceased to confide in +Mrs. Dredge; and Primrose, when she chose to be dignified, had quite +power enough to keep even Miss Slowcum at a distance. Mrs. Mortlock, +who was stout, and rich, and good-tempered, tried the effect of a +little bribery on Daisy, but the sweet, staunch little maid would not +be corrupted. + +"Oh, thank you so much for those delicious chocolate creams," she +said. "Yes, I _do_ love chocolate creams, and you are so kind to give +them to me. Where do we spend our day?--but that is Primrose's +secret--you would not have me so naughty as to tell!" + +So the week drew to an end, and the nest, as the girls called their +rooms, was finally ready for its inmates. The snowy-white muslin +curtains were really put up to the now clean windows--the walls, +covered with a delicate paper, had a soft, rosy glow about them--some +of the pretty home ornaments were judiciously scattered about, and the +rather small bedroom had three very small, but very white, little +beds in it. + +"We'll go in for lots of flowers, you know," said Jasmine. "I don't +suppose even in London flowers are very dear." + +At last there came a morning when the girls went away from Penelope +Mansion as usual, and only Mrs. Flint and Poppy knew that they were +not returning in the evening. Mrs. Flint felt rather indignant with +the young ladies for deserting her--not that she said anything for she +always made it a rule not to wear herself out with unnecessary words, +or with fretting, or with undue excitement; nevertheless, on this +occasion she was a little indignant, for surely, what place could +compare with the Mansion? Poor Poppy bade the young ladies, whom she +loved, good-bye with an almost breaking heart. + +"It's all one, Miss Jasmine," she exclaimed; "if it was my dying +breath, I'd have to own that London is not what we pictered +it--vanities there is, and troubles there is, and disappointments most +numerous and most biting. But for the one happy day I spent out with +you dear young ladies, I hasn't known no happiness in London. Oh, Miss +Jasmine," drawing up short and looking her young lady full in the +face--"what dreadful lies them novels tells! I read them afore I came, +and I made up such wonderful picters; but I will own that what with +the ladies in this mansion, as worrit me almost past bearing, and what +with you going away all secret like, and what with me being no longer +Poppy the tare, but Sarah Jane the drudge, even if I was to get one of +the bonnets that they show in the shop windows in Bond Street, why, it +wouldn't draw a smile from me Miss Jasmine!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +HOW TO PAINT CHINA AND HOW TO FORM STYLE. + + +Mrs. Dove had a great many lodgers--she let rooms on each of her +floors, and she called her lodgers by the name of the floor they +occupied--first floor, second floor, third floor came and went to 10, +Eden Street. The girls were known as "the attics," and Jasmine felt +very indignant at the name. + +"It's almost as bad as being a tare," she said to Primrose. "Dear, +dear! I never thought I should turn into an attic! What an unpleasant +place London is! I begin to think Poppy is quite right in what she +says of it." + +"I begin to suspect," said Primrose, "that London, like all places, +has its shady side and its bright side. We are in the shady side at +present, dear Jasmine--that is all." + +Mrs. Dove had not only lodgers who seemed to worry her from morning to +night--for, unlike her name, she was always fretting or scolding +somebody--but she also had a husband, and this husband made his +presence felt by every lodger in the house. He was often away for a +whole week at a time, and then comparative peace reigned in No. 10; +but he would come back at unexpected moments--he would enter the +house, singing out, in a loud rasping voice-- + + "Mrs. Dove, + My only love!" + +And then poor Mrs. Dove would get flushed and uncomfortable and lose +what little self-possession she ever had, and would own in confidence +to the first floor, or the second floor, or the attics, just as they +happened to be present, that Mr. Dove's honeyed phrases were only +words after all, and meant quite the contrary. + +The girls were not a week at No. 10, Eden Street, before it became +very apparent to them that there was little of the real Eden to be +found in the place. They kept themselves, however, quite apart from +the other lodgers; they began to get out their books and their +employments, and what with housekeeping, and what with cleaning their +rooms, and going out for long rambling walks in all directions, they +were busy from morning to night. Primrose said they would spend a +fortnight in the attics, and then the education which was by-and-by to +lead to bread-winning must commence. Never did three more ignorant +girls gird themselves for the fray. Primrose had a natural love for +painting. She had none of the knowledge, none of the grounding, which +is essential for real success in all departments of art in the present +day; but she had a quick and correct eye for color, and all that Miss +Martineau knew she had imparted to her. Primrose looked in at the shop +windows, and saw the lovely painted china, and resolved to take +lessons in this art. After some little difficulty, and after +questioning first Mrs. Dove, and finally the much-dreaded Mr. Dove, +she was directed to a teacher, who promised to instruct her at the +rate of three pounds three shillings for twelve lessons. Primrose did +not know whether her teacher was good or bad, or whether she was +paying too much or too little--she resolved to take the lessons and to +spend some of her little capital in buying the necessary materials. + +"After I've had my twelve lessons Mr. Jones thinks I may begin to +offer some of my plates and things for sale; he says he will be very +glad to put them up in his own shop window. He thinks," continued +Primrose with her sweet, grave smile, "that I may be able to recoup +myself for the expense of learning at the end of a few months." + +"And now," said Jasmine, "what am I to do? It's all settled for you, +Primrose--you will be an artist--and you shall paint a breakfast set +for our nest in your odd moments, and I'll buy it from you when my +ship comes home. Oh! and we are both going to be very successful, are +we not, darling? and we won't have any trouble at all in supporting +our pet Daisy and her kitty-cat. You know, Primrose, my gifts lie in +the poetic and novelistic line. I have really thought of a glowing +plot for a story since I came to London, and Mr. Dove is to be the +ruffian of the piece. I'll introduce Mrs. Dredge and poor Miss Slowcum +too, and, of course, you'll be the heroine, my beautiful sister. I +mean to buy some paper, and work away at my novel in the evenings next +week; but as we have come up to London expressly to have our education +perfected, and our gifts developed, don't you think I ought to be +having some lessons in English style? After all, Primrose, I do not +think Mrs. Flint's way of speaking was correct. Arthur Noel did not +talk in the least like her, nor did dear Mrs. Ellsworthy; and after +all, they are a real lady and gentleman. I wonder, Primrose, who would +teach me proper style. I wish I could meet Arthur Noel again, that he +might tell me!" + +"Oh, Jasmine, it is dreadful of you to speak of a perfect stranger by +his Christian name! Don't do it, dear--I know it is not right." + +"He did not seem the least like a stranger," said Jasmine, pushing +back her curling locks. "Well, Rose, who is to teach me style?--you +see, if I am to earn money by my pen I must be polished up. I have got +a poem now in the back of my head which would exactly suit the ---- +_Review_. It's almost exactly on the lines of one they published not +long ago by Tennyson; but I'd rather not send it until I've had a +lesson or two from some gifted person here--who shall I go to, +Primrose?" + +"You must go to a school, of course," answered Primrose. "There is a +seminary for young ladies just round the corner--we will call there +this afternoon, and find out if the lady can give you lessons." + +Miss Egerton, the principal of the seminary in question, opened her +eyes a good deal at Jasmine's modest request. + +"I don't want French, nor German, nor music," quoth the young lady, +"but I do want to be helped to make very smooth and flowing verses, +and I want to have the plots of my novels cut up and criticised--for I +don't mind telling you," continued Jasmine, looking full into Miss +Egerton's deeply-lined and anxious face, "that I mean to live by my +pen. My sister is to be an artist, and I am to be a novelist and +poet." + +Miss Egerton owned to herself afterwards that she had never met such +extraordinary girls; but then they were so pretty, and so fresh, and +the times were hard, and the High Schools were carrying off all her +pupils, so though she knew little or nothing of making up verses or +developing plots, she promised to receive Jasmine as a pupil, to +direct her reading, and to help her to the best of her ability. She +was a good and kind-hearted woman, and she made a further suggestion. + +"What is to become of your little sister while you are both so busy, +young ladies?" she said. + +"Oh, Daisy promises to be very good," said Primrose with a tender +smile at the little one. "Daisy will stay at home, and take care of +the Pink, and she is learning to sew very nicely. When Daisy is good +and stays quietly at home she helps our plan, and does as much for our +cause as any of us." + +Miss Egerton looked straight into Daisy's eyes. Long ago this dry and +hard-looking old maid had a little sister like Daisy--a pretty little +lass, who went away to play in the heavenly gardens many and many a +year ago. For the sake of little Constance Miss Egerton felt a great +kindness welling up in her heart towards Daisy Mainwaring. + +"Your little sister must not stay at home by herself," she said. "She +shall come to me. While I am teaching Miss Jasmine, Daisy can play or +work as she pleases, only not by herself in your lodgings, young +ladies, but in the room with her sister." + +So it was arranged, and the three girls might fairly have been said to +commence their work. + +When Primrose had gone to Mr. Danesfield and asked him to allow her to +draw their little capital out of his bank, he had made wonderfully +few objections. Of all their friends, he was the one who had opposed +Primrose's scheme the least, and perhaps for that reason she was more +willing to take his advice, and to be guided by him, than by either +Mrs. Ellsworthy or Miss Martineau. Mr. Danesfield had said to her: "My +dear, you and your sisters are in some particulars in a very unique +and unfortunate position. You are all three very young, yet you are +absolutely your own mistresses. No one in all the world has any real +control over you. If you ask me for your money, I cannot refuse you--I +have absolutely no choice in the matter; the money is yours, and when +you want it you must have it. Now I tell you plainly that Mrs. +Ellsworthy and Miss Martineau are dreadfully shocked with your scheme. +I may be wrong, but I confess I am not shocked. I fancy that you are +the kind of girls who will come out victorious, and that though you +will have rather a hard struggle, you will not be beaten; but there is +one thing I am most anxious to do for you, and that is to keep part of +your money. You have exactly two hundred pounds. How much of this +little capital do you propose to spend a year?" + +"As little as ever we can," answered Primrose. + +"Yes, my dear young lady, but you must have some sort of idea with +regard to your expenses. I would counsel you on no account to spend +more of your capital than seventy pounds a year; by restricting +yourselves to this sum you will have a very tiny but certain, income +for two years, and will have something to fall back on even in the +third year, if you are not then earning enough. Suppose I divide your +seventy pounds into four quarterly instalments, and send it to you as +you require it. You know nothing of keeping a banking account +yourself, and it will absolutely not be safe for you to live in London +lodgings, and have a large sum of money with you. Take my advice in +this particular, Miss Primrose, and allow me still to be your banker." + +"There is one little difficulty," said Primrose; "we really want to be +independent, and as we know that there will be difficulties and +discouragements in the career we are marking out for ourselves, and +that we may often grow faint-hearted and lonely, Jasmine and I feel +that we had better put ourselves quite out of the way of temptation. +We have, therefore, made up our minds not to give our address to any +one in Rosebury for at least two years. How can you send us the money, +Mr. Danesfield, if you don't know where to send it?" + +"My dear young lady, I fear you are a little bit too headstrong, and +though I admire your spirit, I cannot quite approve of your cutting +yourselves off from all communications with your friends. However, it +is not for me to interfere. Will this satisfy you, Miss +Primrose?--shall I give you my solemn promise only to use the address +with which you favor me to forward your money each quarter, and never +to divulge your secret to anybody else?" + +Finally this plan was adopted, and Primrose received her small +quarterly allowance with great regularity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +CROSS PURPOSES. + + +After his interview with Jasmine in St. Paul's Cathedral, Arthur Noel +went home to his very luxurious chambers in Westminster, and wrote the +following letter to Mrs. Ellsworthy:-- + +"MY DEAR MOTHER-FRIEND, + +"The most curious thing has happened. I came accidentally to-day +across the three girls about whom you were so interested. I met them +at St. Paul's, and could not help speaking to the second one. The +brightness, and yet the melancholy, of her little face attracted my +attention. She was not with the rest of her party, but sat for some of +the time on one of the chairs, and then knelt down and covered her +face. Poor little soul! I think she was crying. My sympathies were +roused by her, and I spoke. She flashed up a very bright glance at me, +and we became friends on the spot. I took her about the cathedral, and +showed her one or two objects of interest. She was full of +intelligence. Then her sisters joined her, and your boy came up, and, +of course, his name came out; and there was confusion and wondering +glances, and the girl whom I had spoken to turned first crimson, and +then white, and her dark grey eyes became full of tears. 'I know the +Ellsworthys; they are my dear, dear friends!' she exclaimed. + +"I found out where the three lived before I left them. They were +accompanied by a prim-looking maiden lady, who was introduced to me as +a Miss Slowcum, and who appeared to be taking excellent care of the +pretty creatures. All three are delightful, and I have lost my heart +to them all. + +"Can I do anything for them? Of course you have already told me what +perverse creatures they are, and Miss Jasmine confirmed your story, +only, of course, she put her own coloring on it. I pity them, and yet, +to a certain extent--forgive me, mother-friend--I admire their spirit. +That eldest girl had a look about her face which will certainly keep +every one from being rude to her. Such an expression of innocence and +dignity combined I have seldom come across. Now, can I help them? It +is an extraordinary thing, but I have a wonderful fellow-feeling for +them. I can never forget the old days when I too was alone in London, +and you took me up. Do you remember how you met me, and took my thin +and dirty hands in yours, and looked into my face and said: 'Surely +this is a gentleman's son, although he is clothed in rags?' I could +just remember that I was a gentleman's son, and that I used to put my +arms round a beautiful lady's neck and kiss her, and call her mother. +Between her face and me there was a great horror of darkness, and +suffering, and ill-usage; and my memories were feeble and dream-like. +I don't even now recall them more vividly. You took me up, and--you +know the rest of my history. + +"Well, it is a strange thing, but those girls, especially that little +Jasmine, brought back the memory of the lady whose sweet face I used +to kiss. Can I do anything for your girls? There are a thousand ways +in which I could help them without hurting their proud spirits. + + "Yours affectionately, + "ARTHUR NOEL." + +In a very short time Mr. Noel received a brief communication from Mrs. +Ellsworthy:-- + +MY DEAR ARTHUR, + +"Your letter has been an untold relief. It was a special and good +Providence that directed your steps to St. Paul's on that afternoon. +My dear little Jasmine!--she is my pet of all the three. My dear +Arthur, pray call on the girls at that dreadful Penelope Mansion; they +are so naughty and so obstinate that they simply must be caught by +guile. You must use your influence to get them out of that dreadful +place. Look for respectable and nice lodgings, and go beforehand to +the landlady. If she is very nice, confide in her, and tell her she is +to look to me for payment, but she is on no account to let out this +fact to the girls. Kensington is a nice, quiet, respectable +neighborhood; you might take the drawing-room floor of a very quiet, +nice house, and ask the landlady to offer it to the girls for five +shillings a week, or something nominal of that sort. Primrose is so +innocent at present that she will think five shillings quite a large +sum; but tell the lady of the house to let it include all extras--I +mean such as gas and firing. I suppose you could not get a house with +the electric light?--no, of course not; it is not used yet in private +dwellings--gas is so unwholesome, but the girls might use candles. +Tell the landlady to provide them with the best candles, and tell her +I'll pay her something handsome if she'll go out with them. And, my +dear Arthur, _don't_ let them go in omnibuses. Do your best, and, +above all things, take them away from that awful mansion as soon as +possible. + + "Your affectionate Mother-Friend, + "KATE ELLSWORTHY." + +But alas! when Arthur Noel, in accordance with Mrs. Ellsworthy's +instructions, went to see the girls, he was confronted first by Mrs. +Flint, who assured him in her soft and cushion-like style that the +young ladies had left, and as they had been undutiful enough not to +confide in her she could furnish him with no address. As he was +leaving the mansion Poppy Jenkins rushed up to him. + +"I heard you asking for my young ladies, sir, but it ain't no use, for +they're gone. Flowers of beauty they was--beautiful in manner and in +face--but they ain't to be found here no more. The Mansion didn't suit +them, and the people in the Mansion didn't suit them, and that isn't +to be wondered at. I suppose they has gone to a more congenial place, +but the address is hid from me; no, sir, I know nothing at all about +them. Yes, sir, it's quite true--I misses them most bitter!" + +Here poor Poppy, covering her face with her hands, burst into tears +and disappeared down the back staircase. + +Noel wrote to Mrs. Ellsworthy, and Mrs. Ellsworthy wrote back to him, +and between them they made many inquiries, and took many steps, which +they felt quite sure must lead to discovery, but notwithstanding all +their efforts they obtained no clue to the whereabouts of the +Mainwaring girls. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +DARK DAYS. + + +"How bitterly cold it is, Primrose!" + +The speaker was Jasmine; she sat huddled up to a small, but bright +fire, which burned in the sitting-room grate. + +The girls had now been several months in Eden Street, and all the +summer weather and the summer flowers had departed, and the evening in +question was a very dull and foggy one in late November. + +The little sitting-room still wore its rose-tinted paper, but the +white curtains at the windows had assumed a decided and permanent tint +of yellow, and the fog found its way in through the badly-fitting +attic windows, and made the whole room look cloudy. The girls' faces, +too, had altered with the months. Jasmine had lost a good deal of her +vivacity, her expression was slightly fretful, and she no longer +looked the spruce and sparkling little lass who had gone away from +Rosebury in the summer. Primrose had lost the faint color which used +to tinge her cheeks; they were now almost too white for beauty, but +her eyes were still clear, calm, and sweet; her dress was still the +essence of simplicity and neatness, and her bearing was gentle and +dignified as of old. The alteration in Daisy was less apparent at this +moment, for she was stretched on two cushions in one corner of the +sitting-room, and with a warm rug thrown over her, and with the Pink +curled up in her arms, was fast asleep. + +"How cold it is, Primrose," repeated Jasmine; then, as her sister made +no reply, but went on calmly darning some stockings, she continued, "I +think you have really grown stingy. Why can't we have some more coal? +this is much too small a fire for weather with snow on the ground, and +a horrid, odious fog filling every corner." + +"Hush!" said Primrose, laying down her work, and stooping towards her +younger sister, who sat on the hearthrug, "I am keeping the coal to +put on until Daisy wakes. You know, Jasmine, we resolved not to run up +any bills, and I cannot get in any coal until Mr. Danesfield sends us +our next quarter's allowance--wrap my fur cloak round you, darling, +and then you will be quite warm." + +Jasmine shivered, but rising slowly, she went into the bedroom, and +returned in a moment, not with the fur cloak, but with a white woolly +shawl. "The day for Mr. Danesfield's money will arrive in less than a +week," she said. "Oh, Primrose! I thought you were going to be a good +manager; I did not think you were going to bring us to this." + +Primrose smiled. + +"Jasmine, dear," she said, "you are not quite brave to-night, or you +would not speak to me in that tone. You forget that we should not have +been short of money had not that five-pound note been stolen from us. +When Mr. Danesfield's allowance comes in we shall be able to go on as +usual, and then you need not suffer from a short allowance of fire. +Jasmine, I know what is the matter with you; you did not eat half +enough dinner to-day. When I was out this afternoon I called to see +Miss Egerton, and she gave me three delicious new-laid eggs--really +new-laid--we'll have them for supper." + +"No, we won't," said Jasmine, her eyes suddenly filling with tears, +and her pettish mood changing to a tender and very sad one--"those +eggs were given for Daisy, and no one else shall eat them. Do you +know, Primrose, that Miss Egerton does not think Daisy at all strong?" + +"Oh, she is mistaken," said Primrose. "No one who does not know her +thinks Daisy strong; she has a fragile look, but it is only her look. +All my courage would go if I thought Daisy were ill--she is not ill; +look at her now, what a sweet color she has on her cheeks." + +"Miss Egerton says she is like a little sister of her own," continued +Jasmine. Then she stopped suddenly. "Oh! Primrose, you are not going +to cry? oh, don't; it would be dreadful if you gave way! No, Primrose, +she is not like little Constance Egerton; she is just our own Daisy, +who never looks strong, but who is very strong--she shall never be +cold, and she shall have all the nourishment--you and I don't mind how +plainly we live, do we, Queen Rose?" + +Primrose had quickly wiped away her sudden tears. She rose to her +feet, and, going up to Jasmine, gave her a hasty kiss. + +"We'll remember our good old resolution," she said brightly, "not to +grumble, not to fret, not to cry. Ah! here is our dear little birdie +waking from her sleep. Now, Jasmine on with the coals, and let us have +a merry blaze while I see to the supper--porridge for you and me, and +a nice fresh egg and a cup of warm milk for the Daisy-flower." + +"The Pink must have some milk too," said Daisy, as she tumbled lazily +out of her soft nest of cushions; "the Pink isn't half as fat as she +used to be--I can feel all the bones down her spine--I know she wants +cream. Oh, Primrose! I had such a darling dream--I thought the Prince +came and found us!" + +"The Prince, Daisy?" + +"Yes; and he had the look of the gentleman we met long, long, long ago +at St. Paul's Cathedral! Oh, Primrose, I'm so tired of London!" + +"Never mind, darling," answered Primrose; "I'm always telling you you +are only seeing the shady side at present. Only wait till Christmas +comes, and Mr. Danesfield sends us our money." + +"I wrote another poem last night," said Jasmine; "I called it 'The +Uses of Adversity.' It was very mournful indeed; it was a sort of +story in blank verse of people who were cold and hungry, and I mixed +up London fogs, and attic rooms, and curtains that were once white, +and had now turned yellow, and sloppy streets covered with snow, with +the story. It was really very sad, and I cried a great deal over it. I +am looking out now for a journal which likes melancholy things to send +it to. I have not ventured to submit it to Miss Egerton, for she is so +dreadfully severe, and I don't think much of her taste. She will never +praise anything I do unless it is so simple as to be almost babyish. +Now 'The Uses of Adversity' is as far as possible formed on the model +of Milton's 'Paradise Lost'--it is strong, but gloomy. Shall I read it +to you after supper, Primrose?" + +"If you like, dear," answered Primrose; "but why do you try to write +such very sad things, Jasmine?" + +"Oh, I don't know; they suit me. Primrose, do you know of a very, very +melancholy periodical?" + +"Several of the periodicals seem to me rather melancholy," answered +Primrose; "there is one I sometimes see on Mrs. Dove's table--it is +called _The Watch_. I glanced at it one day, and I thought it seemed +very morbid." + +"Oh, I know," answered Jasmine; "but there is a worse one than +that--Mrs. Dove showed it to me. Mrs. Dove is very fond of reading, +and she told me that she would not give a farthing for any literature +that could not draw forth the salt and bitter tear; she says the +magazine she likes best at present is a new one called _The Downfall_. +She says it is very little known, but its melancholy is profound. +Shall I send my verses to _The Downfall_, Primrose?" + +"If you like, dear; but I don't at all admire the name, and I really +do not think Mrs. Dove ought to be your guide in such matters, +Jasmine." + +"Oh, she has very good taste," answered Jasmine; "she says that only +real talent is admitted on the staff of _The Downfall_. Of course I'd +rather write for one of the shilling magazines. Well, if you like, +I'll send my poem to one of them first." + +Before Primrose could answer Jasmine on this weighty point there came +a knock on the sitting-room door, and Mrs. Dove, with her face wrapped +up in a thick woollen shawl, entered the room. + +"Very sorry to disturb you, young ladies," she said, "but could you +oblige me with the loan of three and tenpence-halfpenny. Dove has put +in no appearance, and unless I can pay three and tenpence-halfpenny on +account to the baker he refuses positive to allow me sufficient bread +to see Sunday through." + +When Mrs. Dove made this request Primrose's face became intensely +pale. She was silent for half a minute, then she said-- + +"I will lend you the money this time, Mrs. Dove, but please don't ask +me again; you know that at this present moment you owe me very nearly +two pounds." + +"Thank you, my dear Miss Mainwaring," answered Mrs. Dove, in a very +suave voice, as she hastily pocketed poor Primrose's few shillings. +"You are always obliging, and this, with the other trifle due, shall +be returned the moment Dove comes in--Dove is on a very good piece of +work just at present, and the money is as safe as safe. Oh, Miss +Jasmine, I have brought you this week's copy of _The Downfall_--the +serial in it is really of the most powerful order. I have shed a +deluge of tears over it. The lowest person of rank in the pages is a +marquess; but the story mostly deals in ducal families. It was a +terrible blow to come down to the baker from the duke's ancestral +halls--you read it, Miss Jasmine; you'll be very much overcome." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +DOVE'S JOKE. + + +Primrose had always been considered a very good manager. Her talents +for contriving, for buying, and, in short, for making a shilling do +the utmost that a shilling was capable of, had been observable from +her earliest days. In the last years of her mother's life Primrose had +been entrusted with the family purse, and the shopkeepers at Rosebury +had known better than not to offer this bright-looking young lady the +best that they had at the lowest price. Primrose, therefore, when she +came to London, had felt pretty confident that the talents which she +knew she possessed would stand her in good stead. She still hoped to +find the cheapest shops and to get the best for her money. She laid +her plans with accuracy and common sense, she divided the little sum +which the three had to live on into weekly instalments--she resolved +not to go beyond these. But, alas! Primrose had never reckoned on a +certain grave difficulty which here confronted her. Hitherto her +dealings had been with honest tradespeople; now it was her +misfortune, and her sisters', to get into a house where honesty was +far from practised. In a thousand little ways Mrs. Dove could pilfer +from the girls--she would not for the world have acknowledged to +herself that she would really steal; oh, no--but she did not consider +it stealing to use their coal instead of her own--of course, by +mistake; she by no means considered it stealing when she baked a +little joint for them in her oven on Sunday to boil it first, and in +this way secure a very good soup for various hungry young Doves; she +did not consider it stealing to so confuse the baker's account that +some of the loaves consumed by her children were paid for by Primrose; +nor did she consider it stealing to add water to the milk with which +she supplied the Mainwarings; above all things, and on this point she +was most emphatic, she thought it the reverse of stealing to borrow. +Primrose had not been a fortnight in her house before she began to ask +first for the loan of an odd sixpence, then for half-a-crown, for a +shilling here, and two shillings there. When she returned the +half-crown it was generally done in this fashion-- + +"Oh, if you please, miss, I want to settle my little account. Oh, +dear, dear! I was certain I had half-a-crown in my purse. Well, to be +sure, I forgot that Dove took it with him when he went out to his +work this morning. Please, Miss Mainwaring, will you accept one and +sixpence on account, and we'll settle the rest in an hour or two. +There, miss, that's quite comfortable." + +Yes, the arrangement was certainly quite comfortable for Mrs. Dove, +who could score out the half-crown debt from her slate, and quite +stare when Primrose ventured to ask her for the odd shilling still +owing. + +Still, incredible as it may sound, Mrs. Dove considered herself a +strictly honest woman. Perhaps, had the girls only to deal with her +they might have struggled on, badly, it is true, but still after a +fashion. But, alas and alas! if Mrs. Dove considered herself honest, +Mr. Dove did not pretend to lay claim to this very excellent quality. +Poor Primrose little guessed that that lost five-pound note, which had +given her such trouble, and which had almost brought gray hairs to her +bright yellow head, had been really taken by Dove, who had come up to +the attics when the girls were away, had quietly taken the hinges off +Primrose's trunk at the back, had lifted the lid, and had helped +himself neatly and deftly to that solitary note! + +When the girls discovered their loss no one had been more indignant +than Dove. He had come up himself to speak to them about it, had +examined the trunk in their presence, had told them that he had a +cousin of his own in the detective business whom he would put on the +scent of the thief, and in the meantime he'd be very pleased, although +he was a remarkably poor man, to lend the young ladies ten shillings. + +Although they would not think of accepting his loan, the girls thought +that Dove had behaved rather kindly on this occasion, and they +certainly never in the least suspected it was into his pocket their +money had gone. + +Without being at all, therefore, to blame, poor Primrose found +herself, as Christmas approached, and the days grew short and cold, +with very little money in her possession; of course, her quarter's +allowance would soon be due, but some days before it came she had +broken into her last sovereign. Still, she had a resource which her +sisters had forgotten, and which, luckily for her, Dove knew nothing +at all about--she still had that letter of Mr. Danesfield's. She had +never opened it, but she always kept it safely locked up in her trunk. +Not for worlds would she yet break the seal--no, no, this letter was +meant for an hour of great need. Primrose fondly and proudly hoped +that that dark and dreadful hour would never approach and that, having +won success, she and her sisters might yet return the letter unopened +to its kind donor. In these dark days before Christmas she kept up her +heart, and worked hard at her china-painting, achieving sufficient +success and power over her art to enable her to produce some pretty, +but, alas! as yet unsaleable articles. Mr. Jones, her master, assured +her, however, that her goods must ere long find a market, and she +struggled on bravely. + +Perhaps, on the whole, Jasmine was more tried by her present life than +her sister. Jasmine's was a more highly-strung temperament; she could +be more easily depressed and more easily elated--hers was the kind of +nature which pours forth its sweetest and best in sunshine; did the +cold blasts of adversity blow too keenly on this rather tropical +little flower, then no expansion would come to the beautiful blossoms, +and the young life would fail to fulfil its promise. Jasmine was never +meant by nature to be poor; she had been born in Italy, and something +of the languor and the love of ease and beauty of her birthplace +seemed always to linger round her. She had talents--under certain +conditions she might even have developed genius, but in no sense of +the word was she hardy; where Primrose could endure, and even conquer, +Jasmine might die. + +The little sister, who was too young to acutely feel any change which +did not part her from Primrose and Jasmine, was, perhaps, the only one +of the three whose spirits were on a par with what they were in the +old Rosebury days; but although Daisy's little mind remained tranquil, +and she did not trouble herself about ways and means, nor greatly fret +over the fact that the skies were leaden, and the attic room foggy, +still Daisy also suffered in her rather delicate little body. She +caught cold in the London fogs, and the cold brought on a cough, and +the cough produced loss of appetite. The two elder sisters, however, +were scarcely as yet uneasy about her, and it was only Miss Egerton +who saw the likeness to little Constance growing and growing in +Daisy's sweet face. Thus Christmas drew near, and the girls had not +yet found their mission in life; they were by no means crushed, +however, nor was Primrose tired of repeating what she firmly believed, +that with the New Year some of the sunshine of London life would be +theirs. + +The quarterly allowance from Mr. Danesfield always arrived on the +first of the month. On the first of December this year the welcome +letter, with its still more welcome enclosure, was duly received. The +girls celebrated the event with a little breakfast feast--they ate +water-cresses, and Primrose and Jasmine had a sardine each to add +flavor to their bread and butter. Whatever happened, Daisy always had +her fresh egg, which she shared with the Pink, for the Pink had been +brought up daintily, and appreciated the tops of fresh eggs. On this +occasion Mrs. Dove herself brought up Primrose's letter. Letters came +so seldom to the girls that Mrs. Dove felt it quite excusable to gaze +very hard at the inscription, to study the name of the post town which +had left its mark on the envelope, and lingering a little in the room, +under cover of talking to Jasmine, to watch Primrose's face as she +opened the cover. + +"It is from Mr. Danesfield, is it not, Primrose?" exclaimed +Jasmine--"Oh, I beg your pardon, Mrs. Dove; no I didn't much care for +that new story which is begun in _The Downfall_." + +Mrs. Dove had a habit of dropping little curtseys when she meant to be +particularly deferential--she now dropped three in succession, and +said in a high-pitched, and rather biting voice-- + +"It isn't to be expected that the opinions of young ladies and of +women who have gone through their world of experience, and therefore +know what's what, should coincide. I leave you ladies three to read +your refreshing news from absent friends." + +Mrs. Dove then turned her back, and meekly shutting the door behind +her, left the girls to themselves. + +"Them attics have become rather too uppish for my taste," she said to +Dove when she got downstairs. "I took them a letter just now, and, my +word! they had not eyes nor ears for me, though I toiled up all the +weary stairs, which my shortness of breath don't agree to. It wasn't +even 'Thank you very much, Mrs. Dove,' but all three of them, their +eyes was fixed on the letter as if they'd eat it. It's my belief, +Dove, that they're short of funds, for when I went yesterday to ask +for the trifling loan of tenpence three-farthings to pay the cobbler +for Tommy's boots, Miss Mainwaring said, as pretty as you please, but +very prim and firm--'I haven't really got the money, Mrs. Dove.' Well, +well, I've done a deal for those girls--elbow grease I've given them, +and thought I've given them, and books for the improving of their +intellecs I've lent them, and that's all the return I get, that when I +bring up a letter it isn't even 'Thank you, Mrs. Dove.' What I say is +this, Dove, shall I give the attics notice to quit?" + +"By no manner of means," answered Dove--"you mark my words, Mrs. Dove, +my only love, that why they were so flurried over the letter just +received was because there was money in it. Don't you turn away nice, +genteel, quiet-spoken young ladies from this house. There's most +likely a postal order in that letter, and my name ain't Dove if I +don't get my gleanings from it." + +"Oh, fie, Dove! you will have your joke," answered his wife; but she +said nothing further about giving the Mainwarings notice to quit. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +DAISY'S PROMISE. + + +Mr. Danesfield always forwarded the girls' allowance in such a way +that Primrose could easily obtain it--he did not trouble her with +cheques or bank notes, but sent a money-order, which she could cash at +the nearest post-office. + +The three went out gleefully that day, and obtained their much needed +money--then Primrose bought a new pair of boots for Daisy, and allowed +Jasmine to spend sixpence on scribbling paper. Having obtained this +delightful possession, Jasmine determined to begin her great work of +fiction without a moment's delay; she felt that she had listened quite +long enough to Miss Egerton's gentle warnings--that she had been +discouraged sufficiently, and that what she had really to do was to +prove the stuff which was in her, and to take the world by storm. She +hesitated a little as to whether her great work was to appear before +the world in the form of a novel or a poem. She thought that to +produce a second "Evangeline" would be a matter of but slight +difficulty, but on the whole she was inclined to give the world her +experience in the fiery and untrammelled words of prose. + +"My theme burns within me," she said to herself. "I won't be kept back +by metres or rhymes, or numbers of feet, or any of those tiresome +rules which Miss Egerton tries to instil into me. Oh, I shall be happy +over my work! I will forget that we are poor, and forget that we live +in attics. I will work with Miss Egerton in the daytime, and I will +help Primrose in her house-keeping, and take Daisy for a walk, but +morning and evening I will get into my Palace Beautiful, and write +away, and forget the sordid cares of life." + +The little maid had really a certain amount of genius to guide her, +and although all her ideas were crude and unpractised, she managed to +be happy in the castle which she built, and her dark eyes grew bright +once more, and her pretty face resumed its animated and contented +expression. + +Primrose, who worked very steadily at her china-painting, was much +cheered at this time with one or two small, but _bona-fide_ orders for +work. They came not through Mr. Jones, who pocketed her money and +exhibited her wares in a dusty and uncertain fashion, but through Miss +Egerton, who was proving herself a real friend to the girls. Primrose +was immensely cheered by these little orders, and, in consequence, +Christmas Day--the girls' first Christmas Day without a home and a +mother--passed not uncheerfully. Things might have gone well with the +three but for an incident which occurred just at the beginning of the +New Year. + +One morning Daisy awoke shivering, and complaining of fresh cold. She +refused, however, to stay at home by herself, and begged of Jasmine to +wrap her up, and take her across to Miss Egerton's, but when the two +girls reached the kind mistress's door they were informed that she had +been suddenly sent for to the country, and would not be back until the +following day. + +"You must go back now, my pet," said Jasmine. "I'll take you back +myself, and I'll build up such a nice fire for you, and you shall look +at the dear old scrap-book which we made when we were all happy at +Rosebury." + +"I wish we were back at Rosebury," said little Daisy, in a very sad +and plaintive voice. "I don't think London is at all a cheerful place. +We made a great mistake about it, didn't we, Jasmine? Oh, Jasmine, +darling, you are not going to leave me by myself, for I really don't +feel well this morning." + +"I'll come back ever so quickly, Eyebright, but I really think I must +do Primrose's shopping for her, now that I am not going to Miss +Egerton. Primrose is working very hard at her china-painting order, +and it is not fair she should be interrupted. You won't be selfish, +will you, Eyebright? You know we arranged long ago that the way you +were to help matters forward was not to hinder us older girls in our +work." + +"I know," answered Daisy, with a patient sigh. "I won't be selfish, +Jasmine. Just kiss me before you go." + +Jasmine went away, and Daisy, taking the Pink into her arms, sat down +close to the fire. She was not exactly nervous, but she scarcely liked +to be left in the attics by herself. She wished Mrs. Dove would come +up, or even that Tommy Dove, who was a rude boy, and whom, as a rule, +she particularly disliked, would pay her a visit. Any company, however +she reflected, would be better than none, for she was feeling heavy +and depressed with her cold. The warm feel of the Pink's furry little +body, elapsed tightly in her arms, comforted her not a little. She +remembered with some satisfaction that Jasmine had locked the door, +and she began already to count the moments for her sister's return. + +An hour passed, and still Daisy listened for Jasmine's light and +springing step on the attic stairs. + +She was very tired now, and her head ached. She thought she would go +into the bedroom and, lying down on her little white bed, sleep away +the weary moments. Taking the Pink with her, she did so, wrapping the +counterpane well up over them both. + +In a very few moments the child was in a heavy slumber. + +She awoke, after what seemed to herself a very short nap, to hear +sounds in the bedroom. She stirred sleepily, and, opening her eyes, +said-- + +"Oh, Jasmine, what a time you've been away!" + +No answer from Jasmine, but a smothered exclamation from some one +else; a heavy tread on the uncarpeted boards, and Dove, his face red, +his shoes off, and something which looked like a screw-driver in his +hands, came up and bent over the child. + +"Oh! what are you doing here, Mr. Dove?" exclaimed little Daisy. The +man bent down over her, and stared hard into her wide open blue eyes. + +[Illustration: THE MAN BENT DOWN OVER HER. Palace B] + +"I didn't know you was here, missie; it was very cunning of you to +feign sleep like that--it was very cunning and over sharp, but it +don't come round me. No, no; you has got to speak up now, and say what +you has seen, and what you hasn't seen. I allow of no nonsense with +little girls, and I can always see through them when they mean to tell +a lie. You know where the children who tell lies go to, so you'd +better speak up, and the whole truth, missie." Dove spoke in a very +rough voice, and poor Daisy felt terribly frightened. + +"I didn't see anything," she began, in her innocent way. "I was fast, +fast asleep. I thought you were Jasmine--Jasmine should have been back +long ago. I have a bad cold, and I was trying to pass the time by +going to sleep. I haven't seen anything, Mr. Dove." + +"Let me look into your eyes, miss," said Dove; "open them wide, and +let me look well into them." + +"Oh! you frighten me, Mr. Dove," said Daisy, beginning to cry. "I was +very lonely, and I'd have liked you to come up half an hour ago; but +you look so queer now, and you speak in such a rough voiced--what is +the matter? Perhaps you were bringing up some of those books for +Jasmine. Oh! I don't know why you should speak to me like that." + +Dove's brow cleared; he began to believe that the child had really +been asleep, and had not seen the peculiar manner in which he had been +employing himself for the last ten minutes. + +"Look here, miss," he said, "I don't mean to be rough to you, you +pretty little lady. Look here, what I was after was all kindness. I +only spoke rough as a bit of a joke. I has got some lollipops in my +pocket for a nice little maid; I wonder now who these yere lollipops +are for?" + +"For me, perhaps?" said Daisy, who, although she could not have +swallowed a sweety to save her life at that moment, had sense enough +to know that her wisest plan was to propitiate Dove. + +"You're fond of lollipops then, missie? you didn't think as 'twas +because poor Dove guessed that, that he travelled up all these weary +stairs? Kind of him, wasn't it? but you're real fond of lollipops, +ain't you, missy?" + +"Some kinds," answered Daisy, who was really a most fastidious child, +and who shrank from the sticky-looking sweetmeats proffered to her by +Dove. "I like the very best chocolate creams; Primrose brings them to +me sometimes, but they are rather expensive. Oh! and I like sticky +sweets too," she continued seeing an ominous frown gathering on Dove's +brow. "I'm very much obliged to you, Mr. Dove." Then making a great +effort, she put out her little white hand to take one of the sweeties. + +But Dove drew back quickly. + +"No, no," he said, "not till they're arned--by no means until they're +arned. You don't suppose as a poor man--a poor man with a large +family, and an only love of a wife--can afford to bring sweeties all +for nothing to rich little ladies like yourself. No, no, miss; you arn +them, and you shall have them." + +"But I'd rather not, please," said Daisy, "I'm not _very_ hungry for +sweeties to-day on account of my cold, and I think, on the whole, you +had better keep them, Mr. Dove. Indeed, I don't know how to earn +them--Primrose and Jasmine say I'm too young to earn." + +Here Dove drew himself up to his full height, and stared hard at the +child. + +"There's one way of arning," he said, "and one only. Look you here, +Miss Daisy Mainwaring, you are young, but you ain't no fool. Ef you +please, miss, you has got to make me a promise--you has got to say +that you will never tell, not to Miss Primrose nor to Miss Jasmine, +nor to no one, that you've seen me in this room. I don't wish it to be +known. I has my reasons, and _whatever_ happens, you are never to +tell. Ef you make me the promise true and faithful, why you shall have +the sweeties, and I'll stick up for you, and be your friend through +thick and thin. You'll have Dove for your friend, Miss Daisy, and I +can tell you he ain't a friend to be lightly put aside. But if you +ever tell--and however secret you do it, I have got little birds who +will whisper it back to me--why, then Dove will be your enemy. You +don't know what that means, and you won't like to know. I was my own +boy Tommy's enemy once, and I locked him up in the dark for +twenty-four hours, where no one could hear him screaming. Now, miss, +you had better make me your friend; I'm real desperate in earnest, so +you promise me." + +Daisy's face had grown deadly white, her breath came in gasps, her +eyes were fixed on the cruel man. + +"You promise me, miss?" + +"Oh yes, Mr. Dove." + +"That's right, missy. Now you say these words after me:--'Mr. Dove, I +promise never to tell as you came up to my room to give me the nice +sweeties. I'll never tell nobody in all the wide world, so help me, +God.'" + +"Oh, I don't like that last part," said little Daisy. "I'll say +it--I'll say all the words, only not the last ones, and I'll keep my +promise as true as true; only please, please, please, Mr. Dove, don't +ask me to say the last words, for I don't think it's quite reverent to +say them just to keep a secret about sweeties." + +"Well, missy, as you please. Now put your hands in mine, and say all +the other words." + +Daisy did so. + +"That's right, miss; now my mind's easy. I have got your promise, +miss, and I'll keep the little birds a-watching to find out if ever +you go near to breathing it. There's a dark cellar, too, most handy +for them children who turn out to be Dove's enemies, and _you_ know +where the people who tell lies go to. Now, good-bye, miss--eat up your +sweeties." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A DELIGHTFUL PLAN. + + +Neither Primrose nor Jasmine could quite understand their little +sister that night--her cold was worse, but that fact Primrose +accounted for by Jasmine's imprudence in taking her out; but what +neither she nor Jasmine could understand was Daisy's great +nervousness--her shrinking fear of being left for a moment by herself, +and the worried and anxious look which had settled down on her usually +quiet little face. Primrose determined to do what she had never done +yet since they had come to London--she would commit the unheard-of +extravagance of calling in a doctor. + +"I think Daisy is very feverish," she said to Jasmine; "only that it +seems impossible, I would say she has got some kind of shock, and was +trying to conceal something. You are quite sure that you locked the +door when you left her alone here this afternoon, Jasmine?" + +"Oh, yes," answered Jasmine, "and I found it locked all right when I +came back. I was rather longer away than I meant to be, for I did such +a venturesome thing, Primrose--I took my 'Ode to Adversity' to the +Editor of _The Downfall_. I saw him, too--he was a red-faced man, with +such a loud voice, and he didn't seem at all melancholy--he said he +would look at the poem, but he wasn't _very_ encouraging. I told him +what Mrs. Dove said about his readers liking tearful things, and he +gave quite a rude laugh; however, I shouldn't be surprised if the poem +was taken; if it fails in that quarter, I must only try one of the +very best magazines. Oh, what was I saying about Daisy? I think she +was asleep when I came back--she was lying very quiet, only her cheeks +were rather flushed. Of course, Primrose, nothing happened to our +little Daisy; if there did, she would tell us." + +"I will send for the doctor, at any rate," said Primrose; "I don't +like her look. I will send for the doctor, and--and--" + +But Primrose's brave voice broke, and she turned her face away. + +Jasmine ran up to her, and put her arms round her neck. + +"What is it, Rose darling?--are you really troubled about Daisy? or +are you thinking of the expense? I wonder what a London doctor will +charge? Have you got any money to pay him, Primrose?" + +"I've got Mr. Danesfield's money," said Primrose; "I have always kept +it for an emergency. I had hoped never to need it, but if the real +emergency comes it is right to spend it. Yes, Jasmine, I can pay the +doctor and you had better go down and ask the Doves the name of one, +for I don't know a single doctor in London." + +"Yes," said Jasmine, "I'll run down at once." + +Mr. and Mrs. Dove were greatly concerned when they heard of Daisy's +illness--in especial, Mr. Dove was concerned, and expressed himself +willing to do all in his power for the sweet, pretty little lady. He +said he knew a doctor of the name of Jones, who was a dab hand with +children, and if the young ladies liked he would run round to Dr. +Jones's house, and fetch him in at once. + +Jasmine thought Mr. Dove very good-natured, and she expressed her +great gratitude to him for the trouble he was about to take, and +requested him to seek Dr. Jones and to bring him to see Daisy without +a moment's delay. Accordingly, in a very short time the doctor of +Dove's selection stood by Daisy's bedside and pronounced her to be +suffering from nothing whatever but a common cold, ordered some +medicine for her cough, and went away with the assurance that she +would be as cheerful as ever on the morrow. But Daisy was not cheerful +the next day; and day after day passed without bringing back either +her sweet calm, or any of the brightness which used to characterize +her little face. Daisy possessed in a certain degree Primrose's +characteristics, but she was naturally more highly strung and more +nervous than her eldest sister. After a little time her cold got +better, but her nightly terrors, the look of watchfulness and anxiety, +grew and deepened as the time wore on. Daisy's sweet little face was +altering, and Primrose at last resolved to dismiss Dr. Jones, who was +doing the child no good whatever, and to consult Miss Egerton about +the little one. It may be added that Primrose was able to pay Dr. +Jones's account without breaking into Mr. Danesfield's money. + +Miss Egerton from the very first had taken a great interest in the +girls, and when Primrose went to her, and told her pitiful little +story, the kind governess's eyes filled with tears. + +"My dear," she said, in conclusion, "whatever is or is not the matter +with that nice little sister of yours, I am sure she wants one thing, +and that is change. Now, I am not so greatly taken with those rooms of +yours, Primrose. You remember I paid you a visit at Christmas, and you +tried to show me all the beauties of your apartments. They were +neatly kept, dear, and were clean, and were furnished with some +little attempt at taste, but the ceilings were very low, the window +sashes fitted badly, and there was such a draught from under the +door--and, my dear child, now that you have come to me in confidence I +may as well tell you that I did _not_ admire your landlady Mrs. Dove." + +"She is rather fond of borrowing money, certainly," said Primrose, +in a thoughtful voice, "but on the whole I believe she is +good-natured--she lends Jasmine books, and yesterday she baked a cake +herself for Daisy, and her husband brought it up to her." + +"All the same," repeated Miss Egerton, "I don't admire the woman. I +have never seen the man; but I would rather you were in a nice house. +Now I have a proposal to make. I too have got some attics--they are +quite as large as Mrs. Dove's, and can soon be made as cheerful. I can +also promise you that the windows will not shake, nor will a draught +as keen as a knife come in from under the door. My attics, however, I +grieve to say, are unfurnished. Now, my dear, what do you pay at Mrs. +Dove's?" + +"Twelve shillings a week," said Primrose. + +"That is a great deal for such rooms; I knew you were being imposed +upon. Now, I would let you have mine for five, only somehow or other +you must contrive to help me to furnish them. I can give you a carpet +for your sitting-room, and a warm rug for your bedroom floor, and I +believe I can supply you with bedsteads and beds, and there is a +famous deep cupboard in the sitting-room, and two in the bedroom where +you could easily keep all your clothes; but do you think you could +provide the rest of the furniture? I would help you to get it as cheap +as possible and would show you how to make old things look like new; +for, my dear, I've gone through the contriving experience a long time +ago. Now what do you say to my plan? You will not be cheated, you will +be cared for, and you will be in the house of a friend--for I want to +be your friend, my dear girl." + +"Oh, how kind you are!" said Primrose, her eyes glistening. "Yes, you +know how to give real help--the kind of help we girls want. I should +love your plan, but I must try and find out if we really have the +money. How much money will it take to put in very simple +furniture--just enough for us to go on with, Miss Egerton?" + +"You might manage it for ten pounds, dear, perhaps even for less, if +you have that sum by you; you will soon save it in your lowered rent. +Go home, and think it over, Primrose. I know Daisy will be much, much +better in my house than at the Doves'. Go and think about it, and let +me know what you decide to-morrow." + +Primrose thanked Miss Egerton, and went back to her lodgings with a +full heart. This offer from so good a friend had come, she felt, at +the right moment. Accept it she must; find the ten pounds she must; +and once again she thought with a feeling of satisfaction of Mr. +Danesfield's letter, and felt glad that she had been able to pay Dr. +Jones's bill without breaking into its contents. + +She went upstairs, and instantly told Jasmine of the proposed change. + +"But we can't do it," said Jasmine; "you know that we have not ten +pounds to spare." + +"I think," said Primrose, "that perhaps the time has come when we +should open that letter Mr. Danesfield put into my hand the morning we +left Rosebury. You know, Jasmine, how we determined to keep it, and +return it to him unopened some day if we possibly could; but we also +resolved to use it if a time of necessity really came--we resolved not +to be proud about this. You know, Jasmine, it has come over me more +than once lately that I have been headstrong in coming to London, only +I could not endure being dependent on any one." + +"Of course you could not, darling," said Jasmine. "I am certain you +have done right; of course we are rather depressed now with +difficulties, but I think yours was a grand plan. I have a kind of +feeling, Primrose, that our worst days are over; I think it more than +probable you will have a great run on your china-painting bye-and-bye, +and if _The Downfall_ and the other magazines begin to wish for my +poetry, why, of course, I shall earn two or three guineas a week. I am +told that a guinea is not at all a large sum for a good poem, and I +have no doubt I could write two or three a week; and then my novel--it +is really going to be very good. Mr. Dove says that he would recommend +me to put it in a newspaper first, and then offer it to a publisher to +bring out as a book. I said I would only let my first work appear in a +very high-class newspaper. I never much cared for newspaper stories, +but I might put up with one of the illustrated weekly papers if it +paid me well. Yes, Primrose, I feel hopeful; and I have not the +smallest doubt that we can earn the ten pounds for our furniture very +quickly, so let us borrow the money out of Mr. Danesfield's letter. +But Rose, darling, how do you know there is any money in the letter? +You have never opened it and you can't see inside." + +"I've never opened it, certainly," said Primrose, "but from a hint Mr. +Danesfield gave me on the last day I saw him, I believe there are +three five-pound notes in the letter. Of course I am not sure, but I +am nearly sure." + +"Well, let us get the letter and open it," said Jasmine, "and then our +minds will be at rest. Oh! there is Daisy waking out of her nice nap. +Daisy, darling, would you not like to go and live at Miss Egerton's? +You know you are fond of Miss Egerton, and she is turning out a very +kind friend. Won't you like to live always in her nice house, Daisy +love?" + +Daisy's little face had flushed painfully when Jasmine began to talk, +now it turned white, and her lips trembled. + +"Are there--are there any little birds there?" she asked. + +"Oh, Eyebright, what a silly question! Primrose had she not better +have her beef-tea. I think Miss Egerton keeps a canary, but I am not +sure." + +"I'd rather not have any little birds about," said Daisy, with great +emphasis, "and I'd greatly, greatly love to go. I like Miss Egerton. +When shall we go, Primrose?" + +"In a day or two," said Primrose. "We have just got to buy a little +furniture, and I'm going to open my trunk now, and get a letter out +which I know has money in it. Yes, we'll very soon go away from here, +darling, and Miss Egerton has thought of this delightful plan +entirely to please you. She says you will be much, much better when +you are out of this house. Oh, Daisy! how bright your eyes look, and +how pleased you seem." + +"Yes," said Daisy, "I am delighted; we need never walk down this +street again, need we, Primrose? and we need never to have anything to +say to the Doves, most particularly to Mr. Dove; not but that he's +very kind, and he's--oh, yes! he's my friend; yes, of course he told +me he was my friend, but we needn't ever see him again, ever, _ever_ +again, Primrose, darling?" + +"Oh, Daisy! what a funny child you are! If Mr. Dove is your friend, +why should you not wish to see him? He is not my friend, however; +indeed, I may say frankly that I don't like him at all. Now drink up +your beef-tea, darling." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE POOR DOVES. + + +The next morning early Primrose opened her trunk, and unlocking a +certain little morocco case, which contained her mother's letter about +her lost brother, one or two trinkets which had belonged to that same +mother, and Mr. Danesfield's envelope, she took the latter out of the +case, and slipped it into her pocket. After breakfast she went round +to see Miss Egerton. + +"An old friend," she said, "in the village where we lived--I would +rather not say his name--gave me this. I believe it contains money. I +have a kind of idea that it contains three bank notes for £5 each. I +have never opened it, and I never wish to. I meant to return it some +day to this kind friend--yes, I know he meant to be very kind. This is +what he has written on the outside of the envelope." + +Miss Egerton read aloud--"When you want me, use me; don't return me, +and never abuse me." + +"There must be money here, my dear," she said. + +"Yes, I know there is money," said Primrose, "for he wanted to press +fifteen pounds on me when I went to say good-bye; but I was too proud +to accept it, so now I think he has thought of this way of helping us. +We could buy our furniture out of some of that money, Miss Egerton." + +"Quite so, dear," said Miss Egerton, in a very cheerful voice. "Give +me the letter, Primrose, and I will put it carefully away for you; you +need not open it just at this moment. I will order just as little +furniture as possible, and have it sent in to-day, and then when the +bill comes you shall pay out of this envelope. I should not be +surprised if we did our furnishing for seven pounds; I thought of so +many nice, cheap little expedients last night. Now go home, dear, and +come to me again in the evening, and I will tell you what I have done. +I have no doubt I can have your rooms ready by to-morrow; is Daisy +pleased at the idea of coming?" + +"Yes, she is delighted," said Primrose; "her dear little face quite +changed when I spoke about it. I am sure you are right, Miss Egerton, +and the change will do her lots of good." + +"I mean to make your attics quite charming," said Miss Egerton. "They +shall be converted into a kind of beautiful palace for my brave young +workers. Yes, Primrose, I admire your spirit, and if I can do anything +to aid you three girls to conquer fate, I will." + +The moment her school duties were over Miss Egerton went out. She +visited certain shops that she knew of--queer little, quaint, +out-of-the-way shops--quite pokey little places; but from their depths +she managed to extract one or two round tables, one or two +easy-chairs, a few brackets, which could be easily converted into +book-shelves, a certain sofa, with not too hard a back, a couple of +fenders, some fire-irons, some cups and saucers, some dinner plates. +These and a few more necessary articles she bought for what would have +seemed a ridiculously low figure to any one who was not in her secret. +The furniture was all conveyed to her neat little house that +afternoon, and there it was absolutely pounced upon by her willing and +hard-working servant who washed it, and scrubbed it, and rubbed it, +and polished it; and, finally, Miss Egerton purchased bright chintz, +and slipped it over the ugly little chairs, and covered up the +antiquated old sofa, and that very night a certain amount of her work +was got through, and the attics began already to look habitable. + +"I mean to do a great deal more," thought Miss Egerton; "fortunately +the paper is fresh and the paint clean; but I must put up two or three +pictures, and I shall fill these book-shelves with the books I used to +love when I was young. My own white sheep-skin rug shall go in front +of the fire. Daisy will like to see the Pink curling down into the +depths of that sheep-skin. Ah, yes! the girls shall have a good +time--a cosy, home-like time--in these rooms, if I can give it to +them." + +Then Miss Egerton went downstairs to meet Primrose with a smile about +her thin lips, and a serene, beautiful light in her kind eyes. + +"They are getting ready--the rooms are beginning to look charming, +dear," she said. "Oh no, you must not see them yet. It is my fancy not +to show them to you until they are quite ready, and I fear that won't +be until the day after to-morrow; but to-morrow, Primrose, you and +Jasmine and little Daisy may occupy yourselves packing your trunks." + +"It all sounds delightful," said Primrose. "You cannot think, Miss +Egerton, how cheered we all are at the thought of coming to you. As to +Daisy, I simply should not know her--she is a changed child. I told +the Doves that we were leaving as I went out this afternoon. They +looked rather cross, and Mrs. Dove asked for a week's rent, instead of +the usual notice. But I can manage to pay that nicely. I won't stay +now, dear Miss Egerton. I'm going round to see Mr. Jones about the +plates he was to try and sell for me, and then I shall hurry back to +Daisy." + +"Take her this fresh egg and this little sponge-loaf for her supper," +said Miss Egerton. "Now good-bye, dear. God bless you, dear!" + +"It is wonderful what kind friends we girls seem to meet at every +turn," thought Primrose to herself, as she hurried down the dirty, +sloppy street. "It would be very strange if we did not succeed with so +many people wishing us well. Oh! I feel in good spirits to-night. Even +if Mr. Jones has not sold the plates I shall not complain." + +Mr. Jones assured his industrious pupil when she entered his dark +little shop that he had "all but" got a customer for her. The customer +was a wealthy old gentleman, who had a passion for collecting china, +and, in special, liked the work of beginners. The old gentleman had +looked at Primrose's plates, and had said that they were very fine, +and had a certain crudity or freshness about them, which, for his +part, he took to; and if she had three or four more lessons he felt +morally certain that he would purchase her wares. + +"He's a splendid customer, but he was most explicit on the point of +more lessons, Miss Mainwaring," said Mr. Jones. + +"But you have found me so many 'all but' customers who just wished me +to have a few more lessons, Mr. Jones," said Primrose, smiling sadly. + +"None like the present man--none like the present man, my dear young +lady," answered Mr. Jones, rubbing his fat hands softly together. "A +man who likes crudity, and calls it freshness, ain't to be found every +day of the week, Miss Mainwaring." + +Primrose admitted this fact, and, bidding her teacher good evening, +without committing herself to any definite promise of taking further +lessons, she turned her steps homewards. Even Mr. Jones had scarcely +power to depress her to-night. She felt brave and bright, and all her +youth made itself manifest in her springing, elastic step. Now that +she was about to leave them, she felt horrified at the thought of +having lived so long with the Doves. Her sense of relief at the +thought of making her home with Miss Egerton was greater than she +could express. + +She entered the house, and came upstairs singing a gay air under her +breath. + +At the door of their attics she was met by Jasmine. + +"Oh, Primrose! I have been watching for you. I am so glad you have +come. I cannot think what is the matter with Daisy." + +"With Daisy?" echoed Primrose; "but I left her so bright two hours +ago." + +"She was bright an hour ago, Primrose; she was sitting on the floor +with the Pink in her arms, and laughing and chatting. I put on my +bonnet, and left her alone for about ten minutes while I ran round +the corner to get what we wanted for our supper, and when I came back +she was sitting with her hands straight before her in her lap, and the +Pink standing by her side, and looking into her face and mewing and +Daisy not taking a scrap of notice, but with her eyes fixed straight +in front of her in quite a dreadful way. When I went up to her and +touched her, she began to shiver, and then to cry, and then she said, +'oh Jasmine! we can't go away from here--we can't; oh, we can't! We +mustn't do it, Jasmine; we must stay here always, always!'" + +"Poor little darling!" said Primrose. "She must have had a bad dream; +certainly Miss Egerton is right, and her nerves are very much shaken +and she wants change as soon as possible. Is she in the bedroom, +Jasmine?" + +"Yes." + +"Will you cook the supper, and I will go to her?" + +Jasmine nodded, and Primrose went straight into the other room. Her +little sister had once more flown to the Pink for consolation; she was +holding the little animal tightly in her arms, and was rocking herself +backwards and forwards, and sobbing under her breath. + +Primrose knelt down by her. + +"What is it, my own little darling?" she asked. + +"Oh, nothing, Primrose," said poor little Daisy, raising her +tear-stained face; "nothing really, dear Primrose, only I don't like +to leave the poor Doves." + +"Oh, is that all?" said Primrose, in a very cheerful tone. "Why, +Daisy, you did not at all mind leaving them a couple of days ago; but +if you are really fond of them you can still see them occasionally, +for we are not going far away." + +"I don't wish to leave the poor Doves," repeated Daisy, bending down +over the Pink, and her tears falling afresh. + +"But, Daisy dear, how very funny of you to speak like this! You know, +darling, you must allow Jasmine and me to decide for you; we feel that +you will be much happier and much more comfortable with Mrs. Egerton. +Come, Daisy, these tears are very bad for you in your weak state. Let +me wash your face and hands, and take you into the other room to a +nice surprise supper sent by Miss Egerton." + +But Daisy only shook her head, and bent lower over her cat, and +repeated over, and over, and over: + +"I can't go away from Mr. and Mrs. Dove." + +Poor Primrose became really alarmed at last. + +"Daisy," she said, "there must be some reason for this sudden change +in your wishes. You were quite delighted at the thought of going to +Miss Egerton's an hour ago, when Jasmine was here; Jasmine went out, +and when she came back she found you in this state. Did you see +anybody while Jasmine was out?" + +"N--n--no--I mean--I mean I can't say. Don't ask me, Primrose. Oh, +Primrose, I'm such a miserable little girl! but please, please, please +don't take me away from the poor Doves." + +Daisy cried herself nearly into hysterics, and Primrose had at last to +pacify her by assuring her that they were not going away from the +Doves just yet. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +A STARTLING DISCOVERY. + + +All through her dreams that night Daisy sobbed and moaned. Primrose, +lying awake by her side, felt more and more alarmed and concerned. +What was the matter with her little sister? She felt completely +puzzled. The bright little castle in the air she and Jasmine had been +building; the cheerful thought of the cosy rooms which the girls were +to share together in their friend's house; the dear delight of having +furniture of their very own again; all these very healthful and +natural dreams were fading and fading, for whenever Primrose even +alluded to their leaving their present quarters Daisy clutched her +hand, and looked at her with such pleading eyes, and used hurried +words of such anguished entreaty, that at last the eldest sister felt +obliged to say-- + +"We will stay where we are, Daisy, until you wish to leave." + +Then the poor little thin face relaxed into a wan smile, the lids +drooped over the tired blue eyes, and the child slept more +peacefully. + +When Primrose felt her head, however, it was feverish, and her little +hands burned to the touch. She went into the next room and called +Jasmine. + +"Jasmine," she said, "I am going round to Mrs. Egerton's; I am going +to tell her all about Daisy's alarm and terror. I am going to consult +her, for I know she means to be a good friend to us. Jasmine, promise +me one thing--don't leave Daisy alone while I am out. I cannot in the +least understand how it happened, but I feel sure she must have got +some fright when you were out last night." + +"Oh, she couldn't have," answered Jasmine--"I locked the door after +me. I never leave Daisy alone without locking the door. I won't leave +her now, of course, Primrose--I will take my little writing table +close to her bedside, and if she wakes I can read her a part of my +novel." + +Primrose gave one or two more directions, and then hurried out, and +Jasmine, after she had washed up the breakfast things, and put the +little sitting-room perfectly tidy, moved her small writing-table into +the bedroom, and sat down by Daisy's side. She was in the scribbling +stage of her great work, and with her head bent low, her cheeks +flushed, and her fingers much stained with ink, was writing away with +great rapidity, when she was startled by some very earnest words from +the little sleeper. + +"Oh, no, indeed, Mr. Dove--oh no, you may be quite certain. I know +where I'd go if I told a lie, of course, Mr. Dove. Yes, yes, you are +my friend, and I'm your friend--yes, yes." + +"Daisy, do wake up," said Jasmine; "you are talking such rubbish about +Mr. Dove, and about telling lies, and Mr. Dove being your friend--open +your eyes, Daisy, and let me give you such a nice little breakfast." + +"Is that you, Jasmine?" said Daisy--"I thought you were Mr. Dove--I +was asleep, and I was dreaming." + +"Yes, Eyebright, and talking in your dreams," said Jasmine, stooping +down and kissing her. + +Daisy held one of Jasmine's hands very tightly. + +"Did I say anything, Jasmine--anything that you shouldn't +hear--anything about--about sticky sweetmeats, Jasmine?" + +"No, you silly pet, not a word. Now sit up in bed, and let me give you +your breakfast. Daisy, I really do think my novel is going to be a +great success. I am going to put Mr. Dove into it, and Mrs. Dove, and +Tommy Dove, and our dear old Poppy, and of course ourselves. One +reason why I feel so confident that the novel will be a success is +that _all_ the characters will be sketched from the life." + +"But please don't put in about the Doves," said Daisy. "I think they +are such dread--I mean, of course, they are my friends, particularly +Mr. Dove, he's my real, real friend, but I mean that I don't think +they'd come well into a book, Jasmine--I don't think they're book +people a bit--book people should be princes and knights and lovely +ladies, and there should be no houses, and no attics, only there might +be fairy palaces, and all the little girls should be happy, and kept +safe from ogres--the little girls in the books shouldn't even have an +ogre for a friend. Oh, Jasmine, Jasmine! I'm so very miserable!" + +Daisy again broke into weak sobs, and poor Jasmine could scarcely +soothe her. + +A little before noon Primrose and Miss Egerton, and a tall, grave, +kind-looking man, who went by the name of Dr. Griffiths, and was a +great friend of Miss Egerton's, came up the stairs. + +Both Dove and his wife saw them go, and Dove shook his hand at Dr. +Griffiths, as that gentleman walked up the stairs. They all three went +into the attics, and the doctor had a long talk with the little +patient--he felt her pulse and her head, and looked into her eyes, and +tried to induce her to laugh, and did succeed in getting one little +startled and half-frightened sound from the child; then he went back +into the sitting-room, and had a long talk with Primrose and Miss +Egerton. The upshot of this was that Miss Egerton went sorrowfully +away, for the doctor absolutely forbade the girls to move from their +present quarters for another week or fortnight. At the end of that +time he said Daisy would be better, and might have got over the +foolish fancy which now troubled her, but for the time being she must +be yielded to, and at any risk kept easy in her mind. + +Miss Egerton went very sorrowfully away, and upstairs to the rooms she +meant to make so pretty. + +"There is no special hurry about the furnishing, Bridget," she said to +her servant. "Little Miss Daisy is too ill to be moved for the +present." + +"The men have come round to be paid for the bits of furniture, +leastways, ma'am," answered Bridget, "and the foreman from the other +shop is standing in the hall, and wants to know if you'll settle with +him now, or if he shall call again." + +"I'll settle with him now, Bridget. Dear Miss Primrose left some money +in my charge yesterday morning, and I can pay the man at once." + +One of the rules of Miss Egerton's life was never to leave a bill +unpaid for twenty-four hours, if possible--she hated accounts, and +always paid ready money for everything. She now ran downstairs, and +unlocking her desk, took out Mr. Danesfield's envelope. Primrose had +begged of her to open it when the bills came in, and pay for the +furniture--Primrose seemed to have an absolute prejudice against +unfastening that envelope herself. + +Miss Egerton opened it slowly now, smiling as she did so at the quaint +inscription on the cover. A folded sheet of paper lay within--she +spread the paper before her, expecting to see the three five-pound +notes folded within its leaves--blankness and emptiness alone met her +view--no money was inside the envelope--the whole thing was a cruel +fraud. The poor governess fairly gasped for breath--there lay the bill +for six pounds nineteen shillings which she had incurred, making sure +that she could meet it out of Primrose's money. Primrose had spoken so +confidently about her little nest-egg, and behold, she had not +any!--the envelope was a fraud--the girl had been subjected to a cruel +practical joke. + +Miss Egerton was extremely poor--it was with the utmost difficulty she +could make two ends meet. She thought hard for a minute--then her brow +cleared, and she rose to her feet. + +"Better I than those orphan girls!" she said, under her breath, and +then she went to her desk again, and filled in a cheque for the +amount. + +"I can do without my winter cloak, and my black merino dress will last +me for some weeks longer if I sponge it with cold tea, and re-line the +tail," she said to herself. "Any little privation is better than to +hurt the hearts of the orphan girls." + +She paid the man, who signed the receipt, and then she let him out +herself. As she did so a young man came hastily up the steps--he had a +bright face, and running up to the governess, he seized both her hands +in his. + +"Oh, Arthur, how glad I am to see you!" said Miss Egerton. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +A BLESSING. + + +Miss Egerton took Arthur Noel--for it was he--straight back into her +little sitting-room, and sitting down on her worn little horse-hair +sofa, and raising her eyes anxiously to the young man's face, she told +him the story of the attic upstairs, of the furniture she had +purchased, of the girls she had meant to serve. She showed him, with +hands that trembled, the envelope with its queer inscription, and she +unfolded for his benefit the empty sheet of blank paper. She told her +story at once without any reservation, even relating with a little +hasty blush how she felt obliged to pay for the furniture herself. + +Perhaps Arthur Noel was the only person in the world to whom she would +have made this confession; for she was one of those who made it a +practice never to let her right hand know what her left did, but she +had known Arthur from his boyhood, and he was one of those men who +inspire trust and sympathy at a glance. + +He listened to the story with interest, and even excitement--he was +naturally enthusiastic, but even Miss Egerton had never seen him so +perturbed and so moved as he was at present. + +"I know about those girls," he said at last; "what are their names?--I +am sure I know about them. Nay, let me ask you a question--Is not one +called Jasmine? Has she not a piquant face, and very soft and yet +bright eyes, and a great lot of curly brown hair? Yes, Miss Egerton, I +am sure the girls you speak of are in a certain sense _my_ girls; for +if they are the ones I mean I took them under my protection long ago." + +"Their name is Mainwaring. My dear Arthur, where and how have you met +them? My dear boy, I fully believe, I have always believed, in your +good intentions, in your wish to do your utmost for every one; but if +you have really known Primrose, and Jasmine and Daisy, and have taken +them, as you say, under your protection, I must say that of late you +have lost sight of them--you have not been as kind as you generally +are to people in difficulties, for I never met three more absolutely +friendless girls than these." + +"It was a good Providence sent me here this morning," said Noel. "You +are quite right, Miss Egerton; I did lose sight of the children. I +tried to follow them, but they managed to hide themselves most +effectually. Think of my coming up to see you this morning, with a +message from Mrs. Ellsworthy, and finding that our lost lambs are all +but safe in your kind fold. How relieved my dear mother-friend will +be!" + +"Mrs. Ellsworthy is the kindest and best of women," said Miss Egerton; +"I will receive your message presently, Arthur, but you puzzle me more +and more when you tell me that she too knows my girls. I came across +them quite accidentally. They called to ask me to give Jasmine lessons +in English composition, and I took a fancy to them, and, in +particular, felt drawn to the little one--for she reminded me of--, +but no matter! The girls have been in and out of my house ever since. +I saw that they were fearfully independent, but in many trivial ways I +tried to help them. Well, Arthur, it is most surprising--it is +altogether incomprehensible, but never during the months we have been +seeing each other daily have they alluded to you or the Ellsworthys. +They seemed perfectly unconstrained, and chatted many times of their +cottage home in the country, but they never spoke of the Ellsworthys." + +"They would not be likely to do," answered Noel. "I think, Miss +Egerton, I must now tell you Mrs. Ellsworthy's and my side of the +story." + +Certainly Miss Egerton appeared to neglect her duties that morning; +fortunately, her school had not yet re-opened, but Bridget waited for +orders, and the tradesman left the house unattended to. Bridget knew +that Miss Egerton was always greatly taken up with Mr. Noel, and she +had to admit that he was a bonny-looking young man with a pleasant +face; but Bridget hitherto had given her mistress credit for always +putting duty before pleasure. What, therefore, did her present neglect +of household management mean? + +Arthur Noel had a long story to tell, and Miss Egerton listened, +weighing each point, and not giving too undue sympathy to either +party. Noel was of course enthusiastic in Mrs. Ellsworthy's cause, and +announced his intention of going to see her that very day. + +"She is in town," he said; "and if you give me the girls' address I +can bring her to them this afternoon." + +But here Miss Egerton laid her thin hand on the young man's arm. + +"No, Arthur, I won't betray their secret, poor little dears! they may +have been headstrong, and silly, and rash, and, poor children, they +may fail utterly, but they have not failed yet by any means, and if +they wish not to be tempted into a luxurious and dependent life, even +by the kindest friend, I, for one, will stand by them. You have come +on me by accident, Arthur, and have learned about the girls by +accident; you have no right to tell what you have thus discovered. I +have studied those girls' characters and I know that Primrose at least +would die of a broken heart if her independence were taken from her. +No, Arthur; if you wish really to help them you must put them in the +way of earning their own living, and in this manner the Ellsworthys +can doubtless assist, for they are rich, and have influence." + +Then Miss Egerton and her guest had another long and earnest +discussion, at the end of which time a compromise was arrived at. Noel +might tell the Ellsworthys that he and Miss Egerton knew where the +girls lived, and the Ellsworthys might give in-direct help by aiding +him in his efforts to find suitable work for Primrose and Jasmine--he +too, could be their open and acknowledged friend, and he arranged with +Miss Egerton to call and see them that very afternoon. + +Finally, Miss Egerton again drew his attention to the envelope, which +was only given to mock, as it contained nothing but blank paper. + +Noel examined it carefully. + +"This must have been given to the girls by Mr. Danesfield, the banker +at Rosebury," he said. "I know him well; he is the last person who +would play them such a trick. Don't you think, Miss Egerton it is +quite possible that this envelope may have been opened, and the money +removed?" + +"But the envelope does not look tampered with," answered Miss Egerton, +turning it round, and examining it carefully. + +"Thieves are very clever," answered Noel. "It is easy to open an +envelope by holding it over steaming water." + +"But Primrose always kept this letter locked up in her trunk." + +"Well, I will settle the point by writing direct, and in strict +confidence, to Mr. Danesfield. In the meantime let us say nothing to +Miss Mainwaring; and you will let me pay for the furniture, kind +friend." + +But Miss Egerton's face flushed brightly, and she drew back a step or +two. + +"No, my dear boy, I cannot. Since I drew that cheque I have felt +strangely happy. I think this very small act of self-denial will bring +me a blessing, and I don't wish to be deprived of it. Good-bye, +Arthur; come to see me again at three, and I will take you to my +girls." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +VOICE OF THE PRINCE. + + +Daisy felt quite certain that the Prince had come. Jasmine greeted her +old friend of St. Paul's Cathedral with sparkling eyes and effusive +words of welcome. Primrose, too, was very pleased to see any one who +brought such a contented look into Daisy's little face, for the child +asked herself to sit in his arms, and laying her head on his shoulder, +she listened with pleasure to some wonderful fairy stories which he +related. While Noel was by, Daisy seemed quite to forget her nervous +fancies--she even spoke confidentially of ogres who tried to make +themselves friendly, and she asked Arthur, with a very puzzled, +anxious face, if a little girl, who was so unfortunate as to have an +ogre for a friend, could ever get rid of him. + +"Oh, yes; he might turn into an enemy," answered Arthur. + +But here poor Daisy shuddered violently, and turned very white. + +"No, no," she said; "not into an enemy, never into an enemy, dear Mr. +Arthur." + +"What matter is it to you, little maid?" answered Arthur cheerily, +though he regarded her with very keen observation. "There is no ogre +going to trouble you as either friend or enemy; If he does he will +have to meet me. I am the Prince, you know, and my mission in life is +to slay the wicked ogres." + +"Oh! but his poor wife and his children!" half sobbed Daisy; "couldn't +you lock him up in a tower, dear Prince?" + +Arthur smiled, and gradually managed to lead the child's thoughts into +another direction. He was already gaining the greatest possible +influence over her, and he managed, on the occasion of his second +visit, to coax her to let him carry her across to Miss Egerton's for a +couple of hours. Dove met them as Arthur was carrying the child away, +and he first scowled, and then smiled obsequiously. Daisy turned +deadly white, and Noel felt that she trembled. + +[Illustration: DOVE MET THEM. Palace B] + +"I'm coming back to-night, Mr. Dove," she called out, in a shaky +little voice; and Dove answered-- + +"Pleased to hear it, missy; the attics would be lonesome without you, +missy." + +"Daisy," whispered Noel, "tell me something--is Dove the ogre?" + +"Oh, don't, don't, Mr. Prince!" answered back the child. "No, no, of +course not; why, he's only poor Mr. Dove--a friend of mine." + +When Daisy reached Miss Egerton's and found herself seated in that +lady's cosy little drawing-room, with sponge-cakes _ad libitum_ to +eat, and Noel sitting by and willing to give up all his time to her +benefit, she cheered up wonderfully; a faint color came to her white +little cheeks, and Miss Egerton, as she passed the open drawing-room +door, heard one or two silvery peals of laughter coming from her lips. + +"Bless the child!" thought the kind woman; "how much better she is +when she is out of that house. What nice influence that good fellow, +Arthur, has over her. I do trust the silly little one will soon give +up her fancies--for they surely can be nothing but fancies--and come +to live with me." + +But when the twilight fell Daisy ceased to laugh, the anxious and +troubled look returned to her face, and after a time she said to +Arthur, in her pretty coaxing way-- + +"Take me home now, please, Mr. Prince." + +Two days afterwards Noel called at the girls' lodgings Daisy alone was +in, but to all his entreaties she now turned a deaf ear. No, she did +not want to go out; she would rather stay in her own dear, nice old +attics; she was never so happy anywhere as in her own attics. She was +very fond of Miss Egerton, but she did not think she would like to +live with her. Miss Egerton kept a bird, and Daisy had a great +dislike to birds. + +"Please, Mr. Prince," she said, in conclusion, "stay with me here for +an hour or two, and tell me a beautiful story." + +Noel was rather clever at making up impromptu stories, and he now +proceeded to relate a tale with a moral. + +"There was a kind lady who had prepared lovely +guest-chambers--beautiful they were, and worthy of a palace." + +Here Noel stopped, and looked hard at his little listener. + +"Do you know why they were so lovely, little maid?" + +"No; please tell me, Mr. Prince. Oh, I am sure this is going to be a +real true fairy tale--how delicious!" and Daisy leaned back on her +sofa with a sigh of content. + +"The rooms were beautiful, Daisy," continued Arthur "because the walls +were papered with Goodness and the chairs, and the tables, and the +carpets, and the sofas, and the thousand-and-one little knick-knacks, +were placed in the rooms by Self-Denial, and the windows were polished +very brightly by Love herself, and she kept the key which opened the +chamber doors." + +"How sweet!" said Daisy. + +"Yes; there were two rooms, and they were very sweet. To live there +meant to get into an abode of peace. As to ogres, they would fall down +dead on the threshold of such rooms. There were only two, and they +were up high in a small house, and without the gilding and the glory +which I spoke of they would have seemed humble enough, but to those +who knew their secret, and what their owner had done for her expected +guests, they appeared a very Palace Beautiful. Now, Daisy, I must tell +you something so sad. The rooms were ready, but the guests did not +arrive. Three guests were expected, but the kind lady who had prepared +the rooms, who had papered them with Goodness, and furnished them with +Self-Denial, and brightened them with Love, waited and longed for her +visitors in vain. + +"Two of the visitors were most anxious to come, but one--a little +one--although she looked very gentle and had a sweet expression and +blue eyes, and seemed quite the sort of little girl who would not +willingly hurt a fly, held back. It never entered into her head that +she was selfish, and was making two or three people who loved her both +anxious and unhappy. She preferred to live in rooms which, by +comparison, were like dungeons; for the owners had never put Love into +them, and had never thought of Self-Denial in connection with them. +There, Daisy-flower, I have done. It seems a pity that the little girl +should have been so selfish, does it not?" + +"But how does the story end, Mr. Arthur? You have really only just +begun." + +"I only know the beginning, Daisy," said Noel, as he rose to leave. "I +have not an idea whether that Palace Beautiful will ever receive its +visitors, whether that kind lady will ever be made happy, or whether +that little girl will ever cease to be selfish." + +A few moments afterwards Noel went away, and poor Daisy turned her +face to the wall and wept. + +Of course, the very obvious moral had hit her hard, poor little maid! +Oh! if she could really only confide in Arthur--he was so nice and +strong, and he looked so contemptuously at Mr. Dove that day when he +was carrying Daisy across the road to Miss Egerton's. + +"I don't believe he would be afraid of Mr. Dove," she whispered +softly, under her breath. "Oh dear! why am I so terribly frightened? +Why does he make my heart beat? and why do I shake so when I see him? +Well, I'll never tell about his bringing me up the sticky +sweetmeats--of course I'll not tell. I promised I wouldn't; it would +be dreadful to break one's promise. Of course I know where people go +who break their promises. No, I promised Mr. Dove, and I must always, +and always, and always keep my word; but I did not promise him that +I'd stay here. He wanted me to, and I just had it on the tip of my +tongue, for I was dreadfully frightened, but he heard a noise, and he +went away. I'm so glad I didn't promise, because the Prince says I +should go and live in the Palace Beautiful. He thinks I'm a selfish +little girl. Oh dear! how terrified I shall be, but I won't be a +selfish little girl, and keep Primrose and Jasmine away from the +Palace, and break the kind lady's heart. I must try and write a very +private little note to Mr. Dove, and tell him that though I am going +away I'll always and always keep my word about the sweeties, and I'll +always be his truest of friends, although I do fear him more than +anything in the world." + +Here Primrose came in, and poor little Daisy roused herself, and tried +to talk cheerfully. + +"Primrose," she said, "do you mind my writing a letter which nobody is +to see?" + +Primrose laughed. + +"You funny pet!" she said; "if no one is to see the letter why do you +trouble to write it?" + +"I only mean, Primrose," continued Daisy, "that you are not to see it, +nor Jasmine, nor Miss Egerton, nor Mr. Noel. It is to--to somebody; +but you are not to be curious, Primrose, nor to ask any questions. +It's a most terribly important letter, and when it's written I'm going +to put it in the post myself. I'll go out with you, and you must turn +your back when I drop it into the pillar-box. You'll be very happy +when it's written, Primrose, and I'm doing it for you and Jasmine, and +because I won't be a selfish little girl." + +Primrose stooped down and kissed Daisy. + +"You may write your letter and post it," she said, "and I'll try not +to be the least bit curious, Eyebright. Now sit down and write away, +you have a nice quiet hour before Jasmine comes in to tea." + +"So I have," answered Daisy; "thank you, Primrose. Please don't say +anything to me when I'm writing." + +Then Daisy in her corner blotted her fingers, and brought a deep flush +to her little pale face, and ruined several sheets of note-paper, all +of which she carefully tore up to the smallest fragments. At last an +epistle, over which she sighed and trembled, and even dropped tears, +was finished. It ran as follows:-- + +"MY DEAR FRIEND, MR. DOVE,--I always and always will be most true to +you. I would not be such a wicked little girl as to break my word for +anything I'm going always to keep it, and tortures, even the +Inquisition, and even the rack, wouldn't get it out of me. Did you +ever hear of the rack, Mr. Dove? but perhaps you had better not know. +Yes, I'll always keep my word, the word that I promised, and no one +shall ever know about you and me and the sticky sweetmeats; but I +won't keep the word that I didn't promise. You remember how you wanted +me to give you another word that I'd always stay here, and keep +Primrose and Jasmine here, instead of letting them go and going with +them to the Palace Beautiful. I almost promised you, for you looked so +fierce, and your eyes were so bloodshot, and cruel, and terrible, and +I'd great work to keep remembering that you were really my friend; but +I'm so glad I did not give you that word too, for now I know that I'd +have done very wrong. A Prince has come to me, Mr. Dove, and told me I +am very selfish to try to keep my sisters out of the Palace Beautiful. +He says the walls are covered with Goodness and the furniture is put +there by Self-Denial, and the windows are shining because Love has +polished them up. He says there's no Love and no Goodness here, and he +calls your rooms dungeons. He's a very, very strong Prince, and he +kills ogres--he even kills ogres who are friends to little girls. +Please, Mr. Dove, this is to say that I'm going away to the Palace +Beautiful, and that I'll always keep my word about the sweeties. + + "Your true little friend, + DAISY." + +Then Daisy fastened her letter, and directed it to Mr. Dove, No. 10, +Eden Street, and she asked Primrose for a stamp, and then she and her +eldest sister went out, and Primrose turned her back while Daisy +dropped the letter into the nearest pillar-box. + +The moment this was done the child gave a little skip, and caught +Primrose's hand, and squeezed it hard, and said, in an excited voice-- + +"Now I've done it! I'm not going to be the selfish little girl who +breaks people's hearts. Primrose, darling let us hurry back to the +dungeons, and put all our things together, so that we may reach the +Palace Beautiful to-night." + +Poor Primrose, who was not in Daisy's secret, and knew nothing of +Arthur Noel's allegory, was conscious of a momentary wild fear that +her little sister had taken leave of her senses; but she soon began to +see meaning in Daisy's words, and was only too glad to yield to the +child's caprice at once. + +That very night, therefore, Miss Egerton's nice rooms were occupied, +and that good lady laid her head on her own pillow with a light and +thankful heart. + +Fortunately for Daisy, Dove was out while the packing was going on, +and only Mrs. Dove, with a very black scowl on her face, saw the girls +drive away in a four-wheeler. She refused to say good-bye to them, +and was heard to mutter that the "ongratitude of some folks was past +enduring." + +"Here, Dove," she said, when late that night her lord and master came +in, "those pretty young ladies as you thought so much of--'the attics' +I called them, and always will call them--well, they're gone. They had +a four-wheeler, and off they've gone, bag and baggage. For my part I +ain't sorry, for now that them attics are painted up and cleaned, +which they did out of their own money, I may be able to rise my rent. +Those young ladies and I couldn't have kept together much longer. +Disobliging, I call them--disobliging, and shabby, and mistrustful; +it was only this morning I asked Miss Mainwaring for the loan of seven +and sixpence, and she up and said, 'I'm sorry I can't oblige you, Mrs. +Dove.' Those kind of young ladies don't suit me, and I'm thankful +they're gone. Why, Dove, how you do stare!--there's a letter waiting +for you on the table." + +Dove took up his letter and read it carefully once or twice; after his +second reading he put it into his pocket, and turned to his wife-- + +"They've gone round to Miss Egerton's; isn't that so, my love?" + +"Who do you mean by 'they,' Dove?" + +"The three young ladies, of course." + +"Oh, I suppose so; but I neither know nor care--I wash my hands of +them from this day forward!" + +"Well, then, look here, Mrs. Dove, my love," said the husband, "I +_don't_ wash my hands of them--no, not by no means. It's all right if +they're gone to Miss Egerton's--there are trap-doors in the roof at +Miss Egerton's; I know the build of the house. There are trap-doors in +the roof, and quarter-day is coming on, Mrs. Dove, my only love!" + +"Law, Dove! you have a most startling way of saying them poetic +lines," answered his wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +A "CONTINUAL READER." + + +A few days after the girls were comfortably settled in their new +quarters Primrose went out. She went out all alone, for by this time +London streets and London ways were familiar to her. Neatly and very +quietly dressed, with the usual serene light on her sweet face, and +that dignity about her whole bearing which prevented any one from ever +being rude to her, she went, not to her china-painting as usual, but +simply to take exercise in the London streets. + +The fact was, Primrose wanted to be alone--she wanted to think out a +problem. She was beginning to be perplexed, and even slightly alarmed. +Her alarm was not caused at present by anything in connection with +Daisy, for Daisy seemed almost bright and well again; but money +matters were not too prosperous with the young housekeeper, the life +of independence she had hoped to attain for herself and her sisters +seemed to recede from her view day by day--the china-painting brought +in no apparent results; Mr. Jones never did anything except "all but" +get customers--the quarter's allowance from Mr. Danesfield looked +smaller and more inadequate to Primrose the more her experience in +expenses grew, and now something about Miss Egerton added to her +cares. It seemed to Primrose that Miss Egerton was holding back +something--she had always been frank and open with the girls, but when +Primrose asked her how much their furniture had cost, and whether she +had opened Mr. Danesfield's letter to pay for it the good lady's brow +had grown troubled, and she had replied-- + +"I am busy to-day--I will go fully into the matter presently, +Primrose;" but when morning after morning Miss Egerton was still too +busy to go into the question, Primrose began to have nameless little +fears, and had to scold herself for being fanciful and nervous. + +On this afternoon she walked quickly, and without being herself aware +of it she presently found herself in the neighborhood of Regent's +Park, and at last not very far from Penelope Mansion. She was thinking +hard, and paying little attention to any of the objects that met her +eyes, when she was suddenly pulled up short by a round and hearty +voice, a fat hand was laid on her shoulder, and she found herself face +to face with Mrs. Dredge. + +"Well, my dear, how are you, Miss Mainwaring? Oh, yes, I'm delighted +to see you. You did give us the slip, you and your pretty sisters. I +don't think Mrs. Flint quite liked it; we all questioned her, me, and +Miss Slowcum, and Mrs. Mortlock, and we said, 'At any rate give us +their address, Mrs. Flint--we take an interest in them--they are +pretty-spoken young ladies, and they were a credit to the +establishment.' But Mrs. Flint only frowned and bit her lips, and +colored. Then Mrs. Mortlock put her foot in it as far as Miss Slowcum +was concerned, for she said 'I'm sorry the girls from the country have +departed, and that they found us so disagreeable that they had to do +it unbeknown and quiet, for it was a real pleasure for ancient females +like ourselves to have young and bonny creatures about us.' + +"Miss Slowcum got very stiff at this, for she apes youth, my dear, in +a way that's past belief, and Mrs. Mortlock had her little fling on +purpose. Well, dear, and how are you? You look thin to what you were, +and a bit pale. How is that pretty little sister of yours who wanted +the cheap lodgings, that was to be so clean you might eat on the +floor?" + +"We are all fairly well, Mrs. Dredge," replied Primrose, when she +could edge in a word--for Mrs. Dredge was extremely voluble--"we are +fairly well, only Daisy has been suffering from cold. We have got +clean rooms too, thank you, Mrs. Dredge." + +"Well now, dear, I'm glad to hear it; that pretty child amused me when +she spoke of cheapness and cleanliness going hand in hand. Bless her +little heart! little she knew. + +"We have learned a great many things we knew nothing about six months +ago Mrs. Dredge," answered Primrose, a tinge of sadness in her voice. +"Yes, I am very glad to see you again--please, remember me to all the +ladies at Penelope Mansion." + +"Oh, my dear, they'll be glad to hear I met you--even Miss Slowcum +will, though she's a little bitter on the subject of age; and as to +that poor Sarah Maria, or Sarah Martha--I forget which she is, only I +know she's Sarah, with something tacked to the end of it--why, she'll +be fairly skipping with delight. That poor girl, she just worships the +ground you three young ladies walk on." + +"Oh, do give our dear love to Poppy," said Primrose tears springing to +her eyes. + +Those sudden tears did not escape the notice of fat, good-humored Mrs. +Dredge. + +"I hope you're getting on comfortably in every way, dear," she said, +"money matters and all. I had sore worries myself in the money line +until poor Dredge made his fortune in the chandlery business. My dear, +I was almost forgetting to tell you that we've had an affliction at +the Mansion." + +"I'm very sorry," began Primrose. + +"Yes, dear, and it's an affliction which is likely to continue, and to +grow heavier. It's poor Mrs. Mortlock, dear--I'm afraid she's losing +her sight, and very troublesome she'll be, and a worry to us all when +it's gone, for poor woman, she has a passion for politics that's +almost past bearing. Miss Slowcum and me, we take turns to read her +the papers now, but though our throats ache, and we're as hoarse as +ravens, we don't content her. Mrs. Mortlock is looking out for what +she is pleased to call a 'continual reader,' dear, and what I'm +thinking is that perhaps you or your sister would like to try for the +post--I believe you'd suit her fine, and she can pay well, for she's +fairly made of money." + +Primrose colored. To read to Mrs. Mortlock was about the last +occupation she would have chosen, but the thought of the purse at home +which was getting so sadly light, and the feeling that after all her +efforts she might never do much in the china-painting line, caused her +to reflect anxiously. + +"May I think about it and let you know, Mrs. Dredge?" + +"No, no, my dear, not by any means, for she has advertised, and they +are pouring in. Poor Sarah Susan is almost off her head answering the +door to them. Stout readers and thin readers, old readers and young +readers, they're all flying to the post, as if there were nothing in +life so delightful as being 'continual reader' of politics to poor +Mrs. Mortlock. She ought to have been suited long ago, but I've a +strong hope that she isn't, for she's as fidgety and particular as if +she were a countess. Your best chance, dear, is to come straight home +with me--we'll see Mrs. Mortlock on the spur of the moment, and try +and arrange it all." + +In this way Primrose obtained her first situation, for Mrs. Mortlock +was glad to feel her soft young hand, and her gentle and refined tones +had an instant and soothing effect on the poor lady's irritable +nerves. + +"My dear," she said, "what with rasping voices, and piping voices, and +droning voices, to say nothing of voices that were more like growls +than anything else, I felt nearly demented. Yes, Miss Mainwaring, this +is a sore affliction that has befallen me, and I knew there was +nothing before me but the services of a 'continual reader,' for poor +Mrs. Dredge, though she did her best, was decidedly thick in her +utterance; and Miss Slowcum, oh dear! the affectations of Miss Slowcum +were quite beyond me, besides our differing altogether in politics--me +holding for Gladstone, and she fairly hating the poor man. You'll do +very well, Miss Mainwaring, and I hope you'll study your papers well +while you're at home, so that you may know what you are reading about, +and read intelligent accordingly. I always like both sides of the +question, which was my poor husband's habit, for he was a very +intelligent man, Miss Mainwaring. And then I like my bit of gossip and +my Court news. I adore my Queen, Miss Mainwaring, and it is a real +_bonâ fide_ pleasure to learn when and where she drives abroad. You'll +come, please, in the morning, and set to work at your continual +reading. Salary, fifteen shillings a week certain. Now, now, you +needn't hesitate at taking what I call a lofty salary, for it always +was my way to pay down handsome. There now, that's settled. Shake +hands, dear; good-bye till the morning. Sarah Maria, you needn't show +up no more of the 'continual readers,' for I believe I have made a +bargain with this young lady." + +"Oh, Miss Primrose!" said poor Poppy, as she showed her out, "I am +more than thankful that you are coming here, miss--that's for my sake, +miss, though I'm dreadful afraid you'll suffer yourself. I'm awful +afraid you'll get muddled in your head, miss, for as to mine, it has +swam away long ago. I begin not to know in the least who I am, miss. +Poppy, why it ain't nowhere! only I'm Sarah, with all the other words +in the dictionary tacked on to it. I don't mind it now; they say folks +can get accustomed to anything, so I don't mind being Sarah, and +everything else too, only it has a very swimming effect on the head, +Miss Primrose. Oh, my darling young lady! do ask Miss Jasmine and Miss +Daisy to let me come and see them." + +"Yes, Poppy, you shall come and see us all again, if you will only +keep our little secret, for just at present we don't want the people +at home to know where we are; and remember, Poppy dear, that you are +always Poppy to us three girls." + +"I'll hold on to that," said poor Poppy, "when my head's fairly +reeling. I'll clutch on to it, and hold firm. Poppy, which means a +tare, I am, to my own dear young ladies. Oh dear! oh dear! they're +calling me--it's Sarah Matilda this time. Good-bye until to-morrow, +dear Miss Primrose." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +JASMINE BEGINS TO SOAR. + + +When Primrose went home and told her sisters and Miss Egerton what she +had done, Jasmine's eyes had grown first bright, and then misty. + +"To be continual reader to Mrs. Mortlock!" she exclaimed. "Oh, +Primrose, it is an act of self-denial to you--it is, isn't it? Own at +once that you were very brave to do it, darling." + +"I don't think so," said Primrose; "there may be a certain little +amount of drudgery in it, and perhaps I would rather have orders to +paint beautiful roses and lilies on china plates, but you see, +Jasmine, this work has been sent to me--I think God sent it, and I +must not refuse it because perhaps I would like something else +better." + +"That's bravely spoken, Primrose," said Miss Egerton who was sitting +by, for she often spent odd half-hours with the girls. "Look at +everything in the same spirit, my love; try to see God's hand in all +the little events, and you will have a brave life and a happy one." + +"And a successful, I hope," added Jasmine. "Miss Egerton, how awful it +would be if we girls were to fail!" + +"My Prince says," here interrupted Daisy, "that whenever we do a good +thing and a right thing, we bring something fresh and lovely into our +Palace Beautiful. Isn't it nice to think that dear old Primrose has +done this?" + +"The money, too, will be of great help," added Primrose. "Why, +Jasmine, we may even be able to save a little." + +Thus encouraged, Primrose commenced her duties, and though her throat +ached--and she certainly found the continual reading of politics, +interspersed with very sharp discussions on the part of Mrs. Mortlock, +anything but agreeable--she did not give way. + +Miss Egerton was pleased to see Primrose so bright, and was glad to +know she was really earning something; and Jasmine and Daisy prepared +the cheeriest welcomes possible for her evening after evening on her +return. + +Jasmine, however, by no means intended Primrose to be the only one who +was to bring assistance to the household purse. + +Jasmine knew that they had all come up to London on purpose to be +educated, or to educate themselves, sufficiently to earn their +livings. She considered that six months' experience of the ups and +downs of London life might bear fruit in her case as well as in her +sister's. + +Jasmine was supposed to be having her style formed by Miss Egerton's +daily tuitions, but Miss Egerton's words of encouragement over her +pupil's productions were decidedly meagre; and Jasmine, though she +loved her, had long ago confided to Daisy that she considered Miss +Egerton's manner had a damping effect on enthusiasm. + +One bitterly cold March day Jasmine had been sitting for hours +scribbling away at her novel. Daisy petted the cat, looked over some +well-known picture-books, and finally sank back into the recesses of +one of the most comfortable chairs in the room and began to think +about the Prince. + +"Don't go to sleep, Daisy," called out Jasmine presently. "I'm coming +over in a minute to consult you." + +Nothing could possibly be more gratifying to Daisy than to know that +Jasmine wished to ask her advice. She accordingly roused herself, +ceased to think of the Prince, and said, in a very bright little +voice-- + +"I'll help you the best I can, Jasmine." + +"It's just this," said Jasmine, dashing down her pen on the top of +her manuscript, and causing thereby a great blot--"it's just this, +Daisy; I've got to do something, and you have got to help me." + +"Oh, I'm sure if I can," said little Daisy, still in that slightly +patronizing voice, for the little maid's head was almost turned by +being thus appealed to. "Is it to sew on buttons for you, Jasmine? for +though I don't like sewing on buttons, I'll do it, or even--even--I'll +darn your stockings, dear Jasmine." + +Jasmine laughed. + +"It's nothing of that kind, Eyebright; it's something much, much more +important. You know, Daisy, what we came up to London for--why, of +course you know why we left all our dear friends, and are living in +about the very dullest part of London--of course you know?" + +"Was it?" said Daisy, looking dubious; "was it--I never could quite +make out--because Primrose did not like Mrs. Ellsworthy?" + +"Oh, you silly, silly little thing! What a dreadful thing to get into +your head, Daisy-flower! I did think you knew why we came to town, and +gave everything up, and made ourselves so miserable." + +"We did make ourselves miserable," sighed Daisy, "and I had to take +Mr. Dove for my friend. I like to have him for my friend, though. What +was the reason, please, Jasmine?" + +"We came to London for the glorious privilege of being independent," +chanted Jasmine, in a majestic voice. "Daisy, I'm going to be it. I'm +going to fling my shackles to the winds. I'm going to soar." + +"It sounds lovely," said Daisy. "You always were a poet, Jasmine, and +I suppose poets do talk like that; but how are you going to be +independent, Jasmine?" + +"I'm going to earn money, little woman. Miss Egerton has kept me in +shackles. I've worn them patiently, but now I burst the bonds. Daisy, +I have formed a little theory. I believe girls are sent into the world +with a strong bias in a particular direction. You see, it always did +seem to be meant that dear Primrose was to be a companion, or +secretary, of some sort; for Mrs. Ellsworthy wanted her to be Mr. +Ellsworthy's secretary, and to write his letters for him. She would +not be that, even though it was her bent, and now she's got to accept +something far worse; for it really must be dreadful to be 'continual +reader' to poor old Mrs. Mortlock. Now, Daisy, what I say is +this--there's no use in wasting time or money looking after things +which don't suit us. Primrose was meant to be a secretary or continual +reader, and so she has to be one; and I have always been meant to +belong to the rather higher order of novelist or poet, and there's no +use in my being damped any longer by Miss Egerton. I don't mean to be +conceited, but I know that I have got the flutterings of a poet's +wings in my soul, and soar I must." + +Jasmine looked very pretty while she was speaking, and little Daisy +admired her high-flown words, and fully believed in her genius. + +"Do soar, Jasmine, darling," she said; "I have not a notion how you +are to do it, but do begin at once. It will make these rooms more than +ever like a Palace Beautiful if you take to soaring in them." + +"I've nearly finished my novel," said Jasmine; "and I've also written +a poem. It is called the 'Flight of the Beautiful,' and is in seven +parts. Each part would take up two or three pages of a magazine. +To-morrow, Daisy dear, I am going to take my novel and poem into the +market. I shall offer them to the highest bidders. I won't send them +by post, for I always notice in books that, when gifted authors send +their contributions by post, they are declined with thanks, because +they aren't read. I am going to take my own manuscripts to the +publishers, Daisy, and I shall propose to them to read aloud a few +extracts." + +"You can't be at all shy if you do that, Jasmine," said Daisy, looking +in a rather awe-struck way at her sister. + +"Shy?" echoed Jasmine. "If one feels it, one has only to get over it. +Is that the way to conquer difficulties, Daisy?--just to be baffled by +a little nervous feeling. No, I really want to fill the purse, and I +also wish to give the publishers what I am sure they must be always +looking for; for I have looked in vain, month after month, in several +magazines, and nowhere have I seen three or four pages of continual +blank verse. I suppose they can't get it, poor things! but they will +in my 'Flight of the Beautiful!'" + +"_I_ think blank verse a little dull," said Daisy, softly, and half +under her breath; but, when Jasmine frowned, she added hastily, "Of +course you're splendidly brave, dear Jasmine; and who'll go with you +to the publisher's when you do go?" + +"I've been considering that," said Jasmine; "and I think I'll take +Poppy. Poppy is to have a whole holiday on Tuesday next, because her +quarter's wages are due, and I'll ask her to come with me. She'd enjoy +it--Poppy would--and very likely in the evening I'll be able to tell +you and Primrose that I've made my first success. Oh, how happy and +how proud I shall be!" + +A few minutes afterwards Jasmine went out, and Daisy wondered solemnly +if her bent in life was to keep on friendly terms with Mr. Dove. + +"I'm very glad I took the Prince's advice," she said to herself. "I'm +much, much happier since I came to the Palace Beautiful, and I don't +think Mr. Dove minds much, for he has never answered my letter. Oh +dear! perhaps I was too much afraid of Mr. Dove. I am so glad the +Prince explained to me about being a selfish little girl. And, oh dear! +there is the Prince!" + +Arthur Noel often came to see Daisy. He came in the evenings at an +hour when the elder girls were often away, and then Daisy sat on his +knee, and chatted to him volubly. + +This afternoon she told him about both her sisters. + +"Is having a bent the same as destiny, Mr. Noel?" she inquired +anxiously. "Jasmine says she has a bent, and she must follow it, and +no one can prevent her." + +"The bent can be guided, Daisy," said Arthur; but he looked puzzled +and seemed uncomfortable at the little girl's news. The Ellsworthy's +had begged of Noel to promote the interests of these girls. He was +only too anxious to do so, but he found his task by no means an easy +one. What wild imprudence would poor little Jasmine commit if she was +not aided and helped; surely Primrose's work was too uncongenial for +her long to continue it. Why did the girls persistently reject the +kindnesses of those who would help them? Where was it all to end? +Their money could only hold out to a certain date. How fragile Daisy +looked, even now; had anybody been cruel to the little one? What was +the mystery about Mr. Danesfield's letter? and above all things, why +did not Mr. Danesfield reply to a long epistle which Arthur had sent +him some weeks ago? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +VISITING THE PUBLISHERS. + + +Jasmine had begged of Daisy to keep her secret from Primrose's ears. +She said that half her pleasure in bringing home money for her +contributions would be destroyed if Primrose knew about it beforehand. +Jasmine hoped that if she were very successful she might be able to +buy a little present apiece for both her sisters. Primrose badly +needed some new gloves, and Jasmine pictured to herself how her eldest +sister's sweet eyes would fill with tears, and how touched she would +be by her little offering. Yes, certainly Daisy must keep her secret +faithfully. + +On Tuesday morning, as Primrose was preparing to start for Penelope +Mansion, Jasmine announced her intention of accompanying her. Her face +had a slightly guilty look as she made this suggestion; and Daisy +quite blushed, and kept her eyes fixed on her plate, and wondered how +Jasmine would smuggle a large roll of manuscript out of the house. +Primrose immediately guessed that there was a little mystery afloat, +but she was not a curious girl, and was only too pleased to see that +her sisters had something to interest them. + +"You can walk with me if you like, Jasmine," she said; "but it is a +rather dull morning, and I fear it will rain." + +"Torrents wouldn't keep me in to-day," said Jasmine. Then fearing she +had betrayed herself, she added hastily, "I want to see Poppy. Poppy +is to have a holiday to-day, and I want to take her out." + +Primrose made no further objection, and Jasmine having packed her +manuscript into a small leather bag, and having given Daisy a somewhat +solemn farewell, the two girls set out. + +When they arrived at the Mansion Primrose went upstairs at once to +Mrs. Mortlock's sitting-room, but Jasmine began to enter into an +earnest conversation with Poppy. + +"Are you quite ready, Poppy? Oh, you've got your working dress on +still; how tiresome!" + +"I won't be a minute changing, Miss Jasmine; the hours for the working +maid's holiday are from ten to ten, and I won't be denied them. The +clock has just gone ten, miss, and not another stroke of work shall +Aunt Flint get out of me to-day, miss." + +"Quite right, Poppy," said Jasmine; "run upstairs now, and be as +quick as possible, and I will wait for you in the hall." + +Poppy did not need to be told to hasten; she flew up to the small +attic which she occupied at the top of the house, and made a hasty +and, she hoped, a brilliant toilet. She had been thinking for weeks of +this day; for since Primrose had come to Mrs. Mortlock's Jasmine had +promised Poppy that she was to spend her holiday with her, and Poppy +had been getting ready her toilet with a view to the occasion. + +Her dress, after all, was only an ordinary and somewhat shabby brown +one, but she had adorned her tight-fitting black jacket with a +sky-blue bow, which hung down in front with what she considered "truly +hartistic folds." Poppy's hat, however, was her master-piece; it was a +rather small white straw hat, trimmed with dark blue velvet, and +adorned with a scarlet tip and a bunch of yellow daffodils. + +Poppy's black eyes gleamed mischievously under the shade of this +brilliant hat, and her cheeks rivalled the scarlet tip in their color. + +With her little purse clasped tightly in her hand she tripped +downstairs and joined Jasmine. + +Jasmine was too excited and too eager to be off to notice Poppy's +attire particularly, and when her hat and general get-up were received +without a comment the little maid whispered to herself, "It's only +another of the _bitings_; life's full of them--choke-full." + +"Where are we going, Miss Jasmine?" she asked aloud, smothering back a +slight sigh. + +"Business first, Poppy," said Jasmine--"business first and then +pleasure. I thought we'd make a little programme in this way--we'd +visit the publishers at their seats of learning in the morning hours; +in the afternoon we might go to Madame Tussaud's or a picture +gallery--I'd prefer that, but of course naturally you'd go in for +Madame Tussaud's, Poppy; then in the evening we'll go and have tea +with Daisy. We'll bring something nice in for tea, and Daisy will be +so happy. I expect to have very good news to bring to my little sister +to-night, Poppy." + +"Oh, indeed, miss, I'm sure I'm gratified to hear that same. I think, +Miss Jasmine, that the programme sounds sensible--the dull part first, +and then the pleasure, and then the needed refreshment for our hungry +bodies. All things considered, Miss Jasmine, seeing that I eats the +bread of toil from morn to eve, and have a swimming head, owing to +being Sarah with every other name tacked on, I think it might be best +for me to be enlivened with the waxen figures, miss, and not to have +my poor brain worrited with picters." + +"All right, Poppy, we will certainly go to Madame Tussaud's--but you +must not consider the first part of our day dull, dear Poppy--it is +business, certainly, but you don't know what it means to me. To-day, +Poppy, I am about to take my first soaring flight." + +"Oh law! Miss Jasmine--I always knew you were clever, miss, and I +suppose it is because I'm so worried in my business days that I've got +that stupid that I can't see no meaning at all in your words, miss." + +"All right, Poppy, you need not see any meaning in them--all you have +to do is to come with me, and look very grave and solemn, and say +'Yes' when I say 'Yes,' and shake your head and look stern when I do. +You are older than me, Poppy, and you are coming as a sort of +chaperon. Oh dear! Poppy, I wish you would not wear that scarlet wing +and those yellow flowers in your hat." + +"The cruellest of all the bitings," whispered Poppy under her breath. +Aloud she said, in a meek but determined little voice-- + +"That hat's as it's trimmed, Miss Jasmine, and must remain according, +for it can't be denuded in the street." + +"All right, Poppy. Your own dear face looks sweet and home-like under +it; now let us get into the very first omnibus, and find our way to +the city." + +When the girls arrived within the sacred precincts of the far-famed +Paternoster Row, Jasmine held her breath a little, and stood still +while she eagerly considered as to which publishing house she should +offer her wares. Finally, she determined that her first pilgrimage +should be to the editor of _The Downfall_, who had not yet returned or +even written to her about her "Ode to Adversity." + +The office of _The Downfall_ was not in Paternoster Row, but in a very +narrow street adjoining, and Jasmine, followed by Poppy, plunged +boldly down this narrow alley, and then up, and up, and up, and up the +winding stairs to the editor's office at the top of the house. + +Jasmine had not been at all agreeably impressed by Mr. Rogers on the +occasion of her former visit. Unaccompanied by Poppy, she would +scarcely have again ventured to approach him, but Poppy looked quite +determined and resolute enough to give her little companion courage, +and Jasmine's childish voice was presently heard in the outer office +demanding to see the editor. + +It so happened that Mr. Rogers was not particularly engaged, for _The +Downfall_ was rapidly proving the truth of its title, and was having a +very quick descent into an early and untimely grave--consequently its +editor had very little to do. + +Mr. Rogers consented to see Miss Jasmine Mainwaring and her +companion, and accordingly the two girls were ushered into the +editorial presence. + +Mr. Rogers commenced his interview with Miss Jasmine by apparently +forgetting all about her. This had a most disconcerting effect on the +young author. + +"But surely you must remember that I came to see you nearly three +months ago, and brought you a poem called an 'Ode to Adversity,'" +pleaded Jasmine--"we had rather a long talk about it; I don't know how +you can absolutely forget." + +"My dear young lady, so many people call, and leave so many poems, and +each poem is so like the last, that really you must pardon me, but my +head gets confused." + +"Taken with a kind of swimming, sir?" here burst in Poppy. "I suppose +it is a sort of Sarah case over again." + +The editor stared rather fiercely at this unexpected interruption, +deigned no reply whatever to Poppy, and continued his conversation +with Jasmine. + +"I am sorry that I have forgotten both you and your poem--it is, +doubtless, docketed with others to be returned in due course--I am +sorry, but of course I could not use it--did you expect me to? Why, +the name alone--an 'Ode to Adversity,' was quite sufficient to make me +decline it." + +"But, but," said Jasmine, coloring crimson and very nearly crying, "I +was told by a lady who reads your paper that the name was just what +you like. She said that your paper was called by a melancholy name, +and of course you wanted melancholy subjects." + +The editor smiled in a very bland, though disagreeable manner--"_The +Downfall_," he said; "we chose that title for political reasons." Here +he sounded a gong. "Jones," as an attendant came in, "look in +pigeon-hole D, and put into an envelope for this young lady some +verses entitled an 'Ode to Adversity.' Sorry I can do nothing more for +you this morning, Miss Mainwaring. Good morning--_good_ morning." + +When the two girls got out on the landing Jasmine thrust her rejected +poem into Poppy's hand. + +"Put it into your pocket, Poppy," she said, "and don't on any account +let me see it--I must try to forget it, or my courage will go. +Evidently, Poppy, names go by contraries. I wrote some dismal papers +on purpose for _The Downfall_; I will now offer them to a magazine +which has a cheerful title." + +"Look there, Miss Jasmine," said Poppy, when they got into the street. +"Right there, facing us at the other side, is what I call a pleasant +magazine--it has lots of pictures, for see, it's pressed up to the +window wide open, and it's called _The Joy-bell_--I'm a great deal +more taken with that sound than with the sound of _The Downfall_." + +"So am I, too," said Jasmine, the April cloud quickly leaving her +expressive face--"I'm so glad I have you with me, dear Poppy; I was +feeling so low just now that I should never have noticed the office of +_The Joy-bell_--it has a very nice, high-class sound, and I should say +was a more attractive magazine than even a shilling one. We'll go +there at once, Poppy, and be sure you support me, and say 'Yes' when I +look at you; and if I happen to frown in your direction, you'll know +that I want you to help me not to accept too low a price. Now come, +Poppy; I feel that destiny leads my steps to the office of _The +Joy-bell_." + +The editor of _The Joy-bell_ happened also to be disengaged, and after +keeping the young aspirant for literary fame waiting for about a +quarter of an hour, consented to see her and her companion. + +Jasmine's interview with this editor caused her to come away in very +high spirits, for he had not only promised most carefully to consider +her poem, "The Flight of the Beautiful," but he had also said he was +wanting a serial story to run through the pages of _The Joy-bell_, and +if hers happened to suit him he would be happy to use it. Finally, she +went away, leaving both her story and her poems in his hands, and with +a large parcel of _Joy-bells_ under her arm. + +"I will let you know my decision in a few days," said the editor, with +a very suave smile. "Oh, yes, as to terms, we can talk them over when +I discover if your story is likely to suit me." + +Then Jasmine went away trembling with delight. + +"Oh, Poppy!" she said, "how very, very happy I am." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +A PLAN. + + +Mrs. Ellsworthy had by no means forgotten the girls--they had all +three taken her fancy, and, as she said to her husband, she could not +get them out of her head. Arthur Noel, who was a sort of adopted son +of the house, often now brought her information about her favorites, +but the good little lady was impatient to see the girls herself, and +felt much annoyed at not being able to induce Arthur to give her their +address. + +"I don't want them to succeed," she said, talking one day to the young +man. "I have plenty of money, more than I really know what to do with, +and I particularly want to spend some of it on these girls. If they +succeed in what they are about they won't want my money, and of course +that is the last thing I wish. If I cannot adopt all three, why at +least can I not have Jasmine?--Jasmine is my favorite, although I love +that little pet Daisy too. Arthur, you may talk to me from morning to +night, but you will never persuade me but that Jasmine is the sort of +girl who would shine better in prosperity than in adversity." + +"You cannot take her from her sisters," said Noel; "I do not believe +you would get her to leave them--but if you were to try and were to +succeed, you would certainly lower her character, and having done +this, you could not say she would be a better girl in prosperity than +in adversity." + +"You are so particular, Arthur," half grumbled Mrs. Ellsworthy; "you +must have forgotten your own very poor days, or you would not speak so +warmly for adversity." + +"I don't quite forget them," said Arthur, a cloud coming over his +face, which was a particularly bright one. "I have a dim memory about +them, and a very, very dim memory about a mother and an old nurse, who +loved me very much. I can just recall crying night after night for my +mother, and being beaten, and silenced, and half starved. Then I +suppose I was ill, for I know there is a blank which I never can fill +up; but I shall always remember that day when I stood in the snowy +street, and cried so bitterly, and tried to ask for pennies, and how +my hat blew off, and I ran to catch it, and then--" + +"Oh, it was horrible!" said Mrs. Ellsworthy, covering her face with +her hands. "I shudder at it even now--the coachman could not keep the +horses in, and they went over you, and we thought you were killed. You +were lifted into the carriage--such a ragged, thin little figure, +with such a lovely face. You came to--you were not so badly hurt--it +was nothing short of a miracle, for you ought to have been almost +killed. My brother Arthur was with me, and when you opened your eyes +you stretched out your arms to him. He just took you to his heart on +the spot, and you were his son from that day forward. Well, Arthur, I +don't think, prosperity has done you any harm." + +"I had no choice," said Noel. "Prosperity came to me as God's gift. It +so happens that I am now a rich man and I suppose even rich people can +find their mission. The girls at present are poor; our cases are in no +way parallel. Oh! how gladly I would help them, but believe me, I +would help them to keep their independence." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy frowned. + +"If you are going to thwart me, Arthur, I am done," she said. + +"Can you not help them without adopting them?" asked Arthur. + +"Oh! my dear boy, what am I to do? I know lots of influential people, +but I can't go to them and say, 'I know three charming girls; they are +all as ignorant as possible; they don't know any of our manners and +customs; they are not educated up to the required standard; they are +fearfully independent. Will you, my dear friend, take the eldest into +your family, and give her a governess's salary, although she cannot +teach? and will you, my other beloved friend, speak to the editor of +the magazine you most admire, and ask him to accept poems which do not +scan, and stories which are the feeble productions of an ambitious +child? And will you, my last friend, come to the rescue by employing a +certain sweet little girl to look after your kittens?' Arthur, how can +those girls be independent unless they are taught?" + +"Still I believe the girls can be helped; and that it is the right and +only thing to do," said Noel. "I propose to talk to Miss Egerton about +them. I will ask her to go into figures with me, and to state what sum +she thinks ought to be expended on their education. She probably knows +something about what talents they have by this time. After she and I +have talked our plans over together we will ask you whether you are +inclined to advance the necessary money. If you say 'Yes,' Miss +Egerton will speak to the girls, and tell them quite openly what you +are doing, and appeal to their common sense not to reject their only +real chance of obtaining an independence bye-and-bye. They can, if +they think right, arrange to pay you back within a certain term of +years. I believe you will do best for them by making such an +arrangement." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy both frowned and smiled, but finally agreed to allow +Arthur Noel to have his own way. + +That very afternoon the energetic young man went to see Miss Egerton. +They discussed the subject in an its bearings, and Miss Egerton +arranged to speak to Primrose at the first opportunity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +THEIR QUARTER'S ALLOWANCE. + + +"Two letters," said Daisy, holding them up in her hand; "actually two +letters; one for Primrose--oh, yes! of course that must be from Mr. +Danesfield; and one for Jasmine--oh! Jasmine's is such a funny-looking +letter, quite thick and interesting, and with a darling little picture +on the back. What can the picture be?--oh! some little bells, and _The +Joy-bell_ written over them." + +"Give it to me," said Jasmine, her face suddenly turning crimson. "Oh, +Daisy! why do you examine my letters so curiously? This was meant to +be quite private. Oh, oh, oh! how my fingers tremble." + +"We are all alone, you know, Jasmine," said Daisy; "dear Primrose is +not in. She went to her continual reading nearly an hour ago. Dear +Primrose! she sometimes looks quite pale and tired. Perhaps the letter +is about our secret, Jasmine; please do read it to me--please do." + +But by this time Jasmine had torn the envelope open, and was +oblivious to all Daisy's comments. Her eager eyes devoured the +contents of an official-looking sheet of paper, then she danced up and +down the room, then she tossed the paper up to the ceiling, and +finally caught Daisy in her arms, and covered her little face with +kisses. + +"Oh, Daisy, it's too good!--I'm so happy, I could almost cry. Daisy, +darling, he wants to see me about my story--he thinks it's very +fine--he says there are masterly bits in it--I'm to go and see him as +soon as possible." + +"Him?" repeated Daisy; "but who is he, Jasmine?" + +"He's the editor of one of the most powerful of all our magazines," +said Jasmine; "the magazine is called _The Joy-bell_--hasn't it a +delicious title? Oh, Daisy! I must go at once to see him." + +"Take me with you," said Daisy, coming up close to her sister--"take +me with you, darling, dear Jasmine. I'm much better, I've nearly lost +my cough, and the spring is coming; the air feels quite warm +to-day--do take me, Jasmine, for it is our own secret, and then, after +you've got your money--for I suppose you'll get a lot of money--we can +both tell Primrose to-night." + +Jasmine hesitated, but the sun was shining warmly, and Daisy's little +face was very pleading--Jasmine felt so happy at this moment that she +greatly longed to give happiness. + +"Yes," she said, suddenly, "I don't suppose Primrose will really mind, +and you must wrap up well; only there's just one thing, Daisy, we'll +have to call for Poppy. I would not on any account go to the +publisher's without Poppy." + +As Jasmine and Daisy were hurrying quickly down the street to catch +the first omnibus which went in the direction of the Edgware Road, +Daisy suddenly clutched her sister's hand, the color left her pretty +face, and she began to hurry forward at a very rapid pace. + +"What is the matter, Daisy?" said Jasmine: "you have quite hurt my +hand; has anything frightened you? have you seen any one?" + +"Oh, it's nothing--I mean I'm subject to starts," said poor little +Daisy, in a sad voice. "I'll be better when I get into the omnibus +with you, Jasmine; and please, Jasmine, may I sit very close to you? +and may I hold your hand?" + +"You poor little darling!" said Jasmine, affectionately, "you are not +a bit strong yet--you must have some more chemical food; I am told +there is nothing so good for starts as chemical food." + +Daisy gave another start and a very gentle sigh. She knew well in her +little breast that no amount of chemical food would take away the +terror which inspired her when she saw the face of Mr. Dove. She had +seen him just now, although Jasmine had not--he was standing with +several other men at the corner of the road, and his blood-shot eyes +had seemed to look through her, and as she passed by he had raised his +hand, and shaken it at her in a truly menacing manner. + +Dove had not forgotten Daisy, as Daisy had fondly hoped. Daisy +Mainwaring meant to him a certain amount of money. Dove was not the +sort of man to allow the chance of gaining money dishonestly to go by. +As to earning money, and coming by it as the sweet fruits of honest +toil, that did not at all suit his idea. When he saw the child going +out with her sister he recollected, with much pleasure, that +quarter-day was about due. Feeling in his own pockets, he confessed +they were unpleasantly light and empty, and then he wondered if he +might find any agreeable little pickings in the girls' trunks. He had +subjugated poor little Daisy so completely that he would have ventured +to rob even in her presence, but of course he preferred doing his +burglary work alone. + +He very quickly made up his mind to pay a visit that very day to the +girls' new rooms in Miss Egerton's house. He made an excuse to get +away from his companions, and then, walking quickly in the direction +of Miss Egerton's house, he took his bearings carefully. At this hour +Miss Egerton was busy with her school and Bridget was employed in the +kitchen. He might do what he liked, therefore, in that part of the +house which the girls called the Palace Beautiful. He knew a way by +which he could get on the roof--from the roof there was an easy +entrance to the girls' rooms. By the time Jasmine, Daisy, and Poppy +were joyously driving towards the city Dove had taken possession of +their nice bright rooms. When he got in he locked the outer door, and +then he felt quite comfortable, and at leisure to look around him. + +The first thing he saw was the letter directed to Primrose on the +sitting-room table. He took it up, and examined it closely. He could +spell out--for he was by no means a proficient reader--the word +Rosebury on one of the post-marks; that was enough for him; the letter +was tucked neatly into his pocket, and then he went round the room in +search of fresh spoil. + +He found very little, for the Palace Beautiful showed none of its +charms to his eyes; in Dove's opinion it was a poor sort of +place--clean, certainly, but what of that? Dove considered that +cleanliness meant poverty. Dove's tastes lay in the direction of rooms +thickly carpeted; he liked two or three carpets, one on the top of the +other, on a floor; he liked the rooms to be well crowded with +furniture--furniture of the good old mahogany type, heavy and +dark--and the windows draped with thick merino. A room so furnished +would, as Dove expressed it, look solid, and mean a heavy purse, and +perhaps a nice little nest-egg laid by tidily in one of the drawers or +bureaus. Such a room would be very interesting to examine, but this +sitting-room, with its crimson drugget, and its white flooring, its +one or two choice engravings on the walls, and its little book-case +filled with good and valuable books, was, Dove considered, very shabby +indeed. He found nothing more worth taking, and having given the Pink +a kick by way of a parting blessing, he left the room, made his exit +again by the roof, and so departed unperceived. He had Primrose's +letter in his pocket, and he thought himself very lucky to have so +nicely secured her quarter's allowance. He returned to his own house +in Eden Street, and in the privacy of his back parlor opened Mr. +Danesfield's letter. It was a short letter, and, as it happened was +not written by Mr. Danesfield at all. Dove, however, by patient +spelling and peering, presently mastered its contents. + + "The Bank, + "High Street, Rosebury, + "April 21. + +"MADAM, + +"In Mr. Danesfield's absence, I send you a cheque for £17 10_s._, +according to his orders. The cheque will require your signature at the +back, and if you will kindly sign it you, or any one else, can obtain +cash for the amount at the Metropolitan Bank, Strand. + +"I expect Mr. Danesfield home in about six weeks; he has been +wintering abroad. + + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN DAVIS." + +Dove took the greater part of an hour to make this letter out; next he +fingered the cheque, turning it backwards and forwards; then his face +grew very blank--for, unsigned, that cheque was valueless. He was a +violent man, and he uttered some strong expressions, and his wife, on +hearing them, took good care to keep out of his way. She could not +make out why Dove sat so long in the back parlor, and why he refused +to eat his dinner, which was very hot and tasty. After a time, with a +sigh of relief, she heard him go out. + +Dove had hastily fastened up the letter, trusting to no one's noticing +that it had been opened. Again he reached Miss Egerton's house; again +he made his way from the roof to the upper landing, and from the upper +landing to the girls' rooms; the letter was not placed on the table, +but was skilfully slipped down between some books which lay in a pile +on Jasmine's little writing-table. It might have been put there by +any one who was dusting the room, and it might have lain in its +present position unseen for many days. Dove hoped no one would +perceive it; he scowled at the poor little Pink, who crouched away +from him, and turning on his heel again, left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +_THE JOY-BELL_. + + +It is to be feared that Poppy stole away from her work that morning. +Poor Poppy was getting into a sadly defiant mood. She was getting +thoroughly tired of her aunt, Mrs. Flint, and when Jasmine appeared +and said a few coaxing words the naughty girl left her work undone, +disregarded the many cries for Sarah Ann and Sarah Maria, and putting +on her brilliant hat and her smart jacket, sallied forth citywards +with Jasmine and Daisy. In due time the three reached the office of +_The Joy-bell_ and were admitted into the presence of the editor. + +"You musn't let me accept too low terms, Poppy," said Jasmine, as they +were going in at the door. + +Poppy nodded very brightly in reply, and Jasmine took the seat the +editor offered her with a certain little air of modest elation. + +"I got your note," she began, "and I thought you'd like to see me +immediately, so I came. This is my sister; she knows all about it; +she's in the story herself. I've drawn all my characters from the +life; and my friend, Poppy Jenkins--you saw her a fortnight ago--she's +in the book too." + +The editor--Mr. Potter was his name--had a habit of waving his hand +when anything that he considered superfluous was being said; he now +waved both Daisy and Poppy into the background, and addressed himself +to Jasmine in a style which, as she said afterwards, riveted her +attention on the spot. + +"I wrote to you, Miss Mainwaring," he said, "because I saw germs of +promise in your composition--it is young, of course, for you are very +young, but it is fresh, and with due correctness, which I myself am +willing to supply, I do not see why 'The Pursuit of Happiness' should +not appear in our journal. We publish, however, only under certain +conditions, and before I make any offer for your writings I should +like to know whether you are able to fulfil them." + +"That sounds in the nature of a bargain," here burst from Poppy's +lips. "Now, Miss Jasmine, please will you listen very sharp, and see +what the gentleman is after? Bargains seem to me to be all in favor of +them that makes them. Aunt Flint made a bargain with me, and, oh my! I +thought it good enough to leave the country and come up to a town +whose name is wanity. Nothing have I got, Miss Jasmine, from my share +of the bargain but a swimming head and the name of Sarah!" + +"If this young person will cease to interrupt us," proceeded the +editor, in his blandest tones. + +"Oh, yes; Poppy, please stop talking," said Jasmine. "I beg your +pardon, sir; I only wanted Poppy to help me when we came to terms. We +have not come to the money part yet, dear Poppy. Yes, sir, I am most +anxious to listen to you." + +"Well, Miss Mainwaring, the facts are these--yes, I fear it is a +question of money, after all. _The Joy-bell_ is a new magazine; we are +most anxious to extend its circulation by every means in our power. We +have hit on what we consider a novel, but effective expedient. Each +contributor to our pages is expected to subscribe for a hundred copies +per month of our magazine--these copies he is asked to disseminate as +widely as possible amongst his friends. The magazine is only sixpence +a month. Of course you get your friends to take the copies off your +hands. Your story will, I think, run for six months--you are really +put to no expense, for, of course, you must know a hundred people who +will gladly take a magazine in which you appear. Thus you gain the +advantage of having your story widely read and published not at your +own expense." + +"But please--" began Jasmine. + +"If I might speak who am brought here for the purpose," here burst +from Poppy, "what pay is the young lady to have for the words of +genius that she has wrote upon the paper? Yes, Miss Jasmine, you said +I was to let my voice be heard here--I'm not afraid, not of nobody, +and here, I puts down my foot, and I says, 'What's the pay?'" + +"The pay?" echoed the editor. "Surely the young lady does not expect +to be paid for anything so very amateur--no, she cannot expect to be +paid in money--in another way she is paid, and largely; she obtains a +reputation, and what immature talent she has is brought to the fore! I +am afraid, Miss Mainwaring, I must not take up any more of your +valuable time--I think I have explained myself quite clearly--do you +accept my offer? If you are willing to become a subscriber for one +hundred copies monthly of _The Joy-bell_ your story shall appear; if +not, I must return you your MS. with regret." + +Poor Jasmine's white little face grew piteous. + +"Oh, Poppy!" she began. + +"Do you want it, Miss Jasmine?" said Poppy. "I calls it a cheat; but +do you want it?" + +"Oh, dear Poppy, I thought my words would look so lovely in Print--I +am disappointed!" + +"Then you shan't be, Miss Jasmine, darling. Here, sir, you're another +of the Aunt Flint tribe, but my darling Miss Jasmine shall not look +as she does now if I can prevent it. Please, sir, will you look in +this here little purse given to you by the honest hand of toil, and +see if it contains the price of a hundred of those nasty _Joy-bells_. +There's my three months' wage in that purse, sir, so I expect it will +prove sufficient." + +The editor opened the little purse gingerly. + +"Do you wish your friend to subscribe for you?" he asked, looking at +Jasmine. "I will allow you to have the first instalment at a +reduction. The full price for a hundred copies of _The Joy-bell_ at +sixpence a copy will be, of course, fifty shillings. On this occasion +you shall have these delivered to you at your residence for forty-five +shillings." + +"It's in the purse, sir," said Poppy, with an air of modest pride. +"Forty-five shillings, and fifteen shillings over, for my wage with +Aunt Flint comes exactly to three pounds a quarter. The fifteen +shillings will find me in boots and house shoes, Miss Jasmine; and as +my 'at is fresh trimmed, and I have enough cotton dresses to go on +with, you are more than welcome to the two pound five." + +"We will arrange it so, then," said the editor. "Miss Mainwaring, you +must give me your address, and you shall receive proofs in a day or +two. This sum of money provides for the appearance of the first +instalment of your story. From the sale of the hundred copies you will +be provided with funds for the second instalment, and so on." + +"But how am I to pay Poppy back if I must give you the money that I +get for the magazines?" asked Jasmine, her face becoming more crimson +each moment. + +"Ah! that," said the editor, with a slightly sarcastic smile, "that is +surely not my affair." + +After this a few comparatively trivial arrangements were made. Jasmine +gave the address of the Palace Beautiful to Mr. Potter, and walked +downstairs, feeling excited, pleased, and disappointed. + +"Oh, Poppy!" she said, "how light, how very light your purse is." + +"No, Miss Jasmine," answered Poppy, "you're out altogether there, for +fifteen shillings in silver weighs more than three pounds in gold. +It's my heart, not my purse, that's light, Miss Jasmine--it has done +me a sight of good to help you, Miss Jasmine; I know he is a cheat in +there, but never mind, when your pretty, beautiful tale appears +there'll be a run on it, I think, and that _Joy-bell_ will be asked +for high and low. You'll pay me back, never fear, and I'll be real +proud to my dying day to feel that I was the first to help you." + +That evening, as Jasmine and Daisy sat together waiting for Primrose +to return, Daisy said suddenly-- + +"Did you soar to-day, Jasmine, when you took Poppy's wages to have +your story printed?--was that what you call a soaring flight?" + +Daisy spoke innocently, and with real desire for information, but at +her words Jasmine covered her face and burst into tears. + +"What a cruel remark, Eyebright," she said. "Do you know I'm quite +miserable about this; I've been getting more and more wretched ever +since I left that man's office. Suppose, Daisy, I don't sell a hundred +copies of _The Joy-bell_; then I shall never be able to have any more +of my story printed, and I shall never have it in my power to pay +Poppy back. I think I must have yielded to temptation that time; +perhaps I'm nothing but a vain little girl, and think myself cleverer +than I am." + +"Oh, I'm sure you're a genius, Jasmine," said Daisy. "I know, for I +have studied your face a great deal; in the story-books I generally +notice that the geniuses have the same kind of face that you +have--they generally have a little discontented, surprised look about +them. I admire the expression very much myself, and sometimes when I'm +alone--for you know you and Primrose have to leave me a good deal +alone--I try to practice it before the glass. I think it's mostly +done with a rise of the eyebrows, but I never can keep mine up long +enough." + +Jasmine laughed. + +"I do hope I am a genius," she said; "I have always longed so to be +one. If I really am, it will be all right about Poppy's money, for, of +course, the public will try to buy my story. It's really rather a +striking story, Daisy. There's a girl in it who does such wonderfully +self-denying things--she never thinks of herself for a moment--she is +very poor, and yet she earns money in all sorts of delightful ways, +and supports her family--she has got two sisters--they are not half as +clever as she is at earning money. The story begins by the sisters +rather despising Juliet, but in the end they find out how much she is +worth. The leading idea in the story is the inculcation of +unselfishness--oh dear! oh dear! I hope I shall prove myself a genius +in having developed this character. If so, I shall be able to pay +Poppy back." + +"There is something so beautiful in unselfishness," said Daisy, in a +rather prim, moralizing little tone. "Do you know, Jasmine, that I was +once going to be frightfully selfish?--I should have been but for the +Prince, but he spoke to me; he made up a lovely little story, and he +told me about the Palace Beautiful." + +"I never can make out why you call these rooms the Palace Beautiful, +Daisy," said Jasmine. + +"It's because of the way they've been furnished," said Daisy. "They +are full of Love, and Self-denial, and Goodness. I do so dearly like +to think of it. I lie often on the sofa for hours, and make up stories +about three fairies, whom I call by these names; they are quite +playmates for me, and I talk to them. I often almost fancy they are +real, but the strange thing is, Jasmine, they will only come to me +when I have tried to be unselfish, and cheerful, and done my best to +be bright and happy. Then Goodness comes, and makes the walls shine +with his presence, and Self-denial makes my sofa so soft and easy, and +Love gives me a nice view through the window, for I try to take an +interest in all the men and women and little children who pass, and +when I sit at the window and look at them through Love's glass you +cannot think how nice they all seem. I told the Prince about it one +day, and he said that was making a real Palace Beautiful out of our +rooms." + +Jasmine sighed. + +"I hear Primrose's step," she said. "Oh, Daisy! you are a darling! how +sweetly you think. I wonder if these rooms could ever come to mean a +Palace Beautiful to me! I don't think fairies could come to me here, +Daisy. I don't think I could see things through their eyes. I want my +palace to be much larger and grander than this. Perhaps if I am a real +genius it will come to me through my story; but, oh! I hope I did not +do wrong in taking Poppy's money." + +"No, for you are a genius," said little Daisy, kissing her +affectionately. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +ENDORSING A CHEQUE. + + +Primrose's life was very busy at this time. Certainly nothing could be +more irksome than the daily task of reading to poor Mrs. Mortlock, but +the fifteen shillings a week which she now earned regularly was a +wonderful help to the household purse, and Primrose performed her +irksome duties with a cheerful, and even thankful heart. Her anxieties +about Daisy were almost laid to rest. Since the child had been moved +to Miss Egerton's house she seemed quite a changed creature. Her old +cheerfulness and sweet calm were returning to her. Morning after +morning she bade Primrose good-bye with a bright smile on her little +face, and however long and dull her day was, she greeted her sister +happily at night. What, therefore, was poor Primrose's consternation +to find, on returning home the evening after Jasmine had made +arrangements for the publication of her manuscript not only Jasmine, +but Miss Egerton and Bridget all surrounding poor little Daisy, who +lay on the sofa with a ghastly white face, and burst into nervous +troubled weeping whenever she was spoken to. + +"We found her in such a queer state," said Jasmine; but Miss Egerton +held up a warning hand. + +"Let it rest now, my dear," she said; "we need not go into the story +in Daisy's presence; she wants perfect quiet. Primrose, she has been +longing so for you; will you sit down by her, and hold her hand?" + +Daisy opened her eyes when she heard Primrose's name, and held up a +hot little hand to her sister, who clasped it very firmly. + +"I want to speak to you all by yourself, Primrose," she whispered. +"Please ask Jasmine, and Miss Egerton, and Bridget to go away. I want +to say something most important to you." + +"Leave us for a moment," said Primrose to the others; and Jasmine went +down with Miss Egerton to the sitting-room. + +The moment Daisy found herself quite alone with Primrose she raised +her head, ceased crying, and looked at her sister with bright feverish +eyes, and cheeks that burned. + +"Primrose," she said, "would you think it very, very wrong of me if I +did something that wasn't in itself the very best thing to do, but +something that I had to do to prevent a dreadful ogre putting me down +into a dark dungeon? Would it be very wrong of me to do a very little +thing to prevent it, Primrose?" + +"My darling," said Primrose, "your poor little head must be wandering. +I don't understand what you mean, my dear little one. Of course it +would be only right of you to keep away from an ogre, and not to allow +one to touch you--but there are no ogres. Daisy love--there never were +such creatures. You need not make yourself unhappy about beings that +never existed. The fact is, Daisy, you are too much alone, and your +little head has got quite full of the idea of fairies. I must ask Mr. +Noel not to talk to you in so fanciful a manner." + +"Oh don't, Primrose, for it is my one and only comfort. Oh! I am glad +you think I ought to keep out of the ogre's power. He is a dreadful, +dreadful ogre, and he has tried to get into the Palace, and I am +awfully afraid of him." + +Then Daisy laughed quite strangely, and said, in a wistful little +voice-- + +"Of course, Primrose, this is only fairy-talk. I always was fond of +fairies, wasn't I? Primrose, darling, I want you to do a little thing +for me, will you?" + +"Of course, Daisy. Why, how you are trembling, dear!" + +"Hold my hand," said Daisy, "and let me put my head on your shoulder. +Now I'll ask you about the little thing, Primrose; there's your +letter from Mr. Danesfield on the table." + +"Has it come?" said Primrose; "I am glad. I expected it yesterday +morning." + +"It's on the table," repeated Daisy. "Will you open it, Primrose? I'd +like to see what's inside." + +"Oh, there'll be nothing very pretty inside, darling; it is probably a +postal order for our quarter's money." + +"Yes, but let me see it, Primrose." + +Primrose moved slowly to the table, took up the letter, and opened it. + +"It's just as I said, Daisy," she remarked, "only, no--it's not a +postal order, it's a cheque. I must write my name on the back, and +take it to the Metropolitan Bank to cash to-morrow." + +"Let me see you writing your name on the back, please, Primrose," said +Daisy, in a queer, constrained little voice. + +Primrose smiled to herself at the child's caprice but, taking up a +pen, she put her signature across the back of the cheque. + +"May I take it in my hand, Primrose?" said Daisy. "Oh, thank you! My +hand shakes, doesn't it? but that's because I'm so dreadfully subject +to starts. Isn't it funny, Primrose, to think that this little paper +should mean a lot of golden sovereigns? Doesn't it make you feel rich +to have it, Primrose?" + +"It makes me feel that with it and the help of my weekly salary we +shall be able to pay for our bread and butter, Daisy." + +Daisy turned ghastly white. + +"Oh, yes," she said, "oh, yes, dear Primrose. Will you put the cheque +back into the envelope, and may I sleep with it under my pillow? I'll +stay so quiet and still, and I'll not start at all if I have the +cheque that you have signed under my pillow." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +DAISY'S REQUEST. + + +Primrose was so anxious to soothe Daisy that she allowed her without a +moment's hesitation to have her way. The moment the child felt her hot +little fingers clasping the letter with its precious enclosure she +became quiet, and ceased to speak. Primrose had undressed her, and +placed her in bed, and she now turned her back on her sister, and +still clasping the letter tightly, closed her eyes. Primrose hoped she +was asleep, and went softly out of the room to talk over matters with +Jasmine and Miss Egerton. Miss Egerton could throw no light on the +subject of Daisy's queer attack, and when Primrose at last went to bed +she had to own that her anxieties with regard to her little sister had +returned. + +The next morning she was obliged to leave earlier than usual, and +rather to Daisy's astonishment, and very much to her relief, said +nothing about Mr. Danesfield's letter. Primrose had not forgotten the +letter, but she knew she would not be able to go to the bank that +day, and she thought it would comfort Daisy to take care of it. + +"Jasmine," she said to her second sister, "must you go out this +morning? I think it is hardly well to leave Daisy alone." + +Jasmine's face clouded over. + +"Have you forgotten, Primrose, that Miss Egerton and Mr. Noel were to +take me to South Kensington Museum to-day? They arranged that I should +go with them quite a week ago, and it would never do to put them off +again now. I'll tell you what I'll do, Primrose; I'll take Daisy too; +I'll see that she is not over tired, and Mr. Noel will take great care +of her; they are very fond of each other." + +"Try to arrange it so, then, Jasmine," said Primrose; "for I do not +feel happy about her being left." + +Primrose went away to spend her day as usual with Mrs. Mortlock, and +sat down to her "continual reading" with a heavy heart. + +Mrs. Mortlock was losing her sight rapidly--cataract was forming on +her eyes, and she could now only dimly see the face and form of her +young companion. Primrose, however, always managed to soothe the +somewhat irascible old lady, and was already a prime favorite with +her. + +To-day she took up the newspaper with a heavy heart, and the anxiety +which oppressed her made itself felt in a certain weary tone which +came into her voice. + +Mrs. Mortlock was fond of Primrose, but was never slow in expressing +an opinion. + +"Crisp up, Miss Mainwaring," she said; "crisp up a little; drawling +voices give me the fidgets most terribly. Now, my dear, try to fancy +yourself in the House of Commons; read that speech more animated, my +love. Ah, that's better!" + +Primrose exerted herself, and for a few minutes the reading came up to +its usual standard, but then, again, thoughts of Daisy oppressed the +young reader, and once more her voice flagged. + +"There, my dear, you had better turn to the bits of gossip; they are +more in your line, I can see, this morning. Dear, dear, dear! I can't +tell what's come to girls these days; they don't seem to find no heart +nor pleasure in anything. Now, if there is a girl who, in my opinion, +has fallen on her feet, it's you, Miss Mainwaring; for, surely, the +handsome salary I allow is earned with next to no trouble. When once a +girl can read she can read continual, and that's all I ask of you." + +"I'm sorry," said Primrose; "some things at home are troubling me, and +I cannot help thinking about them. I shall do better over the gossip." + +"That's right, my love! I'd ask you about the home troubles, but my +nerves won't stand no worriting. Get on with the gossip, dear, and +make your voice chirrupy and perky, as though you saw the spice of it +all, and enjoyed it--do." + +Just at this moment, while poor Primrose was trying to train her +unwilling voice, the door was opened, and Poppy, red in the face, and +with her best hat and jacket on, came in. + +"Miss Primrose, I'm come to say good-bye, I am. No, Mrs. Mortlock, +when about to quit I don't fear you no longer--not all the Sarahs in +Europe would have power over me now. I'm going. Aunt Flint and me we +has quarrelled, and I has given her fair warning, and I'm going back +to my native place, maybe this evening. Never no more will this city +of wanities see me. I'm off, Miss Primrose; I leaves Penelope Mansion +now, and I go straight away to your place to bid Miss Jasmine and Miss +Daisy good-bye." + +"For goodness sake, Sarah Matilda Ann!" here interrupted Mrs. +Mortlock, speaking with great excitement, "before you go see you bring +me up my beef-tea--Mrs. Flint won't give it a thought, and my nerves +won't keep up without the nourishment. Run down to the kitchen this +minute, Sarah Mary, and bring me up the beef-tea, and a nice little +delicate slice of toast, done to a turn, to eat with it. Mind you, +don't let the toast get burnt, for if I can't see I can taste, and +well know when my toast is burnt." + +Poppy was about to give a saucy answer, but a look from Primrose +restrained her, and before she left Penelope Mansion she had provided +the old lady with her luncheon. Primrose said a few words of farewell +and regret, and then Poppy set out, determined to take her chance of +finding Jasmine and Daisy at home. + +"I'll go back to my own place to-night," she said to herself, "and +tell my mother that wanity of wanities is London--my fifteen shillings +will just buy me a single third, and I needn't eat nothing until +to-morrow morning." + +When Poppy arrived at Miss Egerton's she was told by Bridget that Miss +Jasmine was out, but that she would find Miss Daisy by herself +upstairs. Poppy ran nimbly up the stairs, and knocked at the +sitting-room door; there was no answer, and turning the handle, she +went in. Daisy was lying with her face downwards on the sofa--sobs and +quivers shook her little frame, and for a time she did not even hear +Poppy, who bent over her in some alarm. + +"Now, Miss Daisy, darling, I'm real glad I has come in--why, what is +the matter, missie?" + +"Nothing, Poppy; nothing indeed," said Daisy, "except that I'm most +dreadfully unhappy. If I was a really quite unselfish little girl I'd +go and live in a dungeon, but I couldn't do it--I couldn't, really." + +Whatever Poppy was, she was practical--she wasted no time trying to +find out what Daisy meant, but bringing some cold water, she bathed +the child's face and hands, and then she made her take a drink of +milk, and finally, she lifted her off the sofa, and sitting down in an +arm-chair, took her in her arms, and laid her head on her breast. + +"There now, pretty little dear, you're better, aren't you?" + +"My body is better, thank you, Poppy--I like to feel your arms holding +me very tight. My mind will never, never be well again, dear Poppy." + +"Would it ease it to unburden?" said Poppy. "Sometimes it's a +wonderful soother to speak out about what worries one. At Aunt Flint's +I used to let fly my worries to the walls for want of a better +confidant. You think over about unburdening to me, Miss Daisy. I'll +promise to be a safe receptacle." + +Daisy shook her head mournfully. + +"It would be no use," she said; "even telling now would be no manner +of use. Oh, Poppy, I wish I had been strong enough, and I wish so +dreadfully I had not minded about the dungeon. If the Prince was here +he would say I ought not to live any longer in the Palace Beautiful, +and I don't think the rooms do look like the rooms of a palace +to-day. Please, Poppy, look round you, and see if you can see any +goodness shining on the walls, and if you can see through Love's glass +into the street." + +"Oh lor! no, Miss Daisy; I'm not so fanciful. The walls is just fairly +neat, and the windows, they're just like any other attic windows. Now, +missy, you're just fairly worn out, and you shall shut your eyes and +go to sleep." + +Poor little Daisy was so weary and weak that she absolutely did close +her eyes, and comforted and soothed by Poppy's presence, she fell into +a short and uneasy doze. She awoke in about an hour, and lay quite +still, with her eyes wide open. Poppy said something to her, but she +replied, in an imploring tone. + +"Please let me think. I had a dream when I was asleep. I did something +in the dream, and I think I'll do it now really--only you must let me +think Poppy." + +"Think, away, pretty little miss," said Poppy: "and while you are +worriting your poor little brain over thoughts I'll take it upon me to +prepare a bit of dinner for you." + +Poppy made some tea, and boiled an egg, and toasted some bread to a +light and tempting brown. When the meal was prepared she brought it to +Daisy, who said wistfully-- + +"If I do what I want I must be strong, so I'll eat up that egg, and +I'll take some toast, and you must take something too, Poppy." + +"Seeing as I can't get no meal till to-morrow morning I'm not inclined +to refuse a good offer," said Poppy. "You don't know, missy, as I'm +going back to my native 'ome to-night." + +"Poppy," said Daisy, suddenly, taking no notice of this remark, "do +you know if Mrs. Ellsworthy is a very rich woman?" + +"Mrs. Ellsworthy of Shortlands?" said Poppy; "why, in course; ever +since I can remember, my mother has said to me, 'Poppy, child, them +there Ellsworthys is made of money.'" + +"Made of money," repeated Daisy, a little shadowy smile coming to her +face; "then they must be really rich. Do you think, Poppy, that Mrs. +Ellsworthy is rich enough to give away £17 10_s._ to buy the daily +bread, and to help a little girl who could not help being selfish out +of a dreadful dark dungeon? Mrs. Ellsworthy has always been very kind, +and I used to love her when I lived at home, but if I thought she was +not really very, very rich, I would not ask her, for that might be +putting _her_ to great trouble. Losing money makes one's heart ache +terrible, Poppy, and I would rather bear my own heartache than give it +to another person." + +"Mrs. Ellsworthy is made of money," repeated Poppy, "and £17 10_s._ +would be no more than a feather's weight to her. All the same, I can't +make out what you're driving at, Miss Daisy." + +"I wonder if Mrs. Ellsworthy is at Shortlands now," continued Daisy. + +"To be sure she is, Miss Daisy; shall I take her any message when I +goes back home?" + +"Oh, no, Poppy, thank you very much. Poppy, I wish you had not lent +all that money to Jasmine two days ago--you have not any money in your +pocket now, have you, Poppy?" + +Poppy gave a slight sigh. + +"Just the price of a third single to Rosebury, and no more, Miss +Daisy, darling." + +"Oh, dear me," said Daisy, "it's just exactly that much money which +would make me perfectly happy. Must you go to Rosebury to-night, +Poppy?" + +"Well, missy, I'd do something to make you 'appy, but I don't know +where to go if I don't go to my home--to be sure, Aunt Flint would +give her eyes to get me back again, but I fears that even for you, +Miss Daisy, I can't bear no more of that Sarah game." + +"But don't you think you might be able to bear it just for a week, +Poppy? If I loved you always and always all the rest of my life, do +you think you could bear it just for one little week longer? I'd be +sure to let you have the money back again then, dear Poppy." + +Poppy gazed hard at the child, who was sitting upright on her sofa, +with her cheeks flushed and her eyes shining, and a fitful quiver +about her pretty lips. + +"What does it all mean?" thought practical Poppy; "it's more than +common worries ails the little dear. I'm sure I'd bear Sarah to my +dying day to help her, the sweet lamb! I wonder, now, has she lost +some of Miss Primrose's money. I know they're short enough of means, +the darling ladies, and maybe the child has mislaid some of their +money, and is frightened to tell. Dear me, I shouldn't think Miss +Primrose would be hard on any one, least of all on a sweet little lamb +like that; but there's never no saying, and the child looks pitiful. +Well, I'm not the one to deny her." + +"Miss Daisy," said Poppy, aloud, "I have got exactly fifteen shillings +in my purse, and that's the price of a third single to Rosebury, and +no more. It's true enough I meant to go down there to-night, and never +to see Aunt Flint again, but it's true also that she'd give her eyes +to have me back, and was crying like anything when I said good-bye to +her. 'Sarah,' she says, 'it's you that's ongrateful, and you'll find +it out, but if you comes back again you shall be forgiven, Sarah,' she +says. So I can go back for a week, Miss Daisy, and if you have lost +fifteen shillings, why, I can lend it to you, dearie." + +"Oh, Poppy, you are a darling!" said little Daisy. "Oh, Poppy, how can +I ever, ever thank you? Yes, I have--lost--fifteen shillings. You +shall have it back again, Poppy, and Poppy, I will always love you, +and always remember that you were the best of good fairies to me, and +that you took me out of the power of a terrible ogre." + +"All right, Miss Daisy," said Poppy, returning the child's embrace; +"here's the fifteen shilling, and welcome. Only I never would have +called sweet Miss Primrose an ogre, Miss Daisy." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +THE JOURNEY. + + +Poppy went away presently, and the moment she was gone Daisy began to +make some hasty little preparations. + +"I'll take the Pink with me," she said to herself. "I'll empty all the +things out of my little work-basket, and my darling Pink can sleep in +it quite snugly, and she'll be great company to me, for I cannot help +feeling very shaky, and I do start so when I see any one the least +like Mr. Dove in the distance. I mustn't think about being frightened +now--this is the least I could do, and if I'm terrified all over I +must go through with it." + +Then Daisy wrote a tiny note--a little note on half a sheet of +paper--which she tore out of her copy-book. It was blotted with tears +and almost illegible. This was what she said:-- + +"Primrose, darling, I and the Pink, we have gone away for a little +bit. Your money is lost, Primrose, and I cannot look you in the face +until I get it back again. Don't be a bit frightened about me--I and +the Pink will come back when we have got the money. + + "Your loving little + "DAISY." + +This note was left open on the table to greet Primrose when she came +in, and then Daisy buttoned on her little jacket, and put on her +strongest pair of boots, and the neat little hat which Primrose had +trimmed for her the week before, and popping the Pink into her +work-basket, she stole softly downstairs and out of the house without +old Bridget, who was busily engaged in the back kitchen, hearing her. + +The poor little maid got into the street just when the shades of +evening were beginning to fall. She had the Pink in her basket, and +fifteen shillings clasped tightly inside one of her gloves. Fifteen +shillings paid for a third single to Rosebury, and she was going to +Rosebury--so far her plans were definite enough; beyond this broad +fact, however, all was chaos. + +Daisy knew very little more about London than she had known nine +months before, when first she and her sisters arrived in the great +city. She had gone out much less than the other two, and she had never +gone alone. Whenever she had walked abroad she had gone with a +companion. + +Now her only companion was the Pink, and the poor little heart felt +very lonely, and the little feet trembled as they walked along the +pavement. + +She had been so terrified about Poppy finding out what she really +wanted to do with the fifteen shillings that she had been afraid to +ask her any questions about Rosebury. She had not an idea from what +railway station she was to go, and she feared, as she walked through +the streets, that she might have to walk many miles. + +At first she walked very rapidly, for she was anxious to get out of +Mr. Dove's neighborhood, and she also thought it just possible that +she might meet Primrose or Jasmine returning home. Besides the fifteen +shillings which were to pay for her ticket she had threepence of her +own in her pocket. When she had walked about half an hour, and thought +that she had gone a long way, and felt quite sure that she could not +be very far from the railway station which led to Rosebury, the Pink +awoke, and twisting and turning in her narrow basket began to mew +loudly. + +"Oh, poor Kitty Pink," said Daisy, "she must be wanting her supper, +poor dear little kitty! I'm not at all hungry myself, but I think I +ought to buy a penno'th of milk for my kitty. I'll just go into that +shop over there--I see that they sell bread and milk. Perhaps they'll +give me some bread and milk for kitty for a penny, and oh, perhaps +they will know if I am near the right railway station for Rosebury." + +Summoning up all her courage, for Daisy was naturally a timid child, +she ventured into the shop, and having asked for some bread and milk +for her cat, which was given with a little stare of amusement by a +good-natured looking woman, she put her important question in a very +faltering voice. + +"Rosebury, my little dear?" said the shopwoman; "no, I never heard of +the place. Is it anywhere near London, love?" + +"No," said Daisy; "it's miles and miles away from London. I know the +county it's in--it's in Devonshire and a third single costs fifteen +shillings, and I have got fifteen shillings in my glove. Now, perhaps, +you'll know where it is." + +"In Devonshire?" repeated the woman. "And a third single costs fifteen +shillings? Surely, miss, you are not going all that long way by +yourself?" + +"Yes," said Daisy, in a dignified little tone. "I'm obliged to go. +Thank you very much for Pussy's milk. How much am I to pay? Oh, a +penny? Thank you. Good evening." + +The Pink was once more shut down into her basket, and Daisy hurried +out of the shop. The good-natured woman stared after her, and felt +half inclined to call her back; but, like many another, she reflected +that it was no affair of hers. The child went on to the end of the +long street, and then stood at a corner where several omnibuses came +up. A conductor, seeing her wistful little face, jumped down from his +stand, and asked her if she wanted to go anywhere. + +"To Rosebury, in Devonshire," said poor little Daisy. "It's fifteen +shillings a single third." + +The man smiled at the anxious little face. + +"You want to get to Devonshire, missy," he said. "Then I expect +Waterloo's your line, and this here 'bus of mine goes there. Jump in, +missy, and I'll put you down at the right place." + +"I've only got two pennies," said Daisy, "Will two pennies pay for a +drive to Waterloo for me and kitty?" + +The man smiled, and said he thought he might manage to take her to +Waterloo for that sum. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT. + + +There are little girls of ten years old who in the present day are +possessed of a large amount of self-possession. Some of these little +maids are, in their own way, quite womanly--they can ask their way +without faltering, and they can even walk about alone in a great world +like London without losing themselves. + +But to this class of self-possessed little girls Daisy Mainwaring did +not belong. She had a charming, babyish little face, and was something +of the baby still in the confiding and wistful way in which she leaned +on others for support. Daisy was, perhaps, in all particulars younger +than her years. When at last, after inconceivable difficulties--after +being jostled about by an indifferent crowd, and pushed rudely against +by more than one stupid, blundering porter--she did find her way to +the right ticket-office, and did secure her single third to Rosebury, +and then get a very small allowance of room in a crowded third-class +carriage her heart was beating so loudly that she almost wondered it +did not burst. The great train, however, moved out of the terminus, +and Daisy felt herself whirling away through the night, and then she +became conscious of a little sensation of thankfulness. Surely the +worst of her journey was over now; surely she and the Pink would be +received very kindly and very lovingly by Mrs. Ellsworthy; surely Mrs. +Ellsworthy would listen with full credence to the little tale Daisy +would make up about an ogre having stolen away her money, and would +hasten to fill the poor empty little purse from her own abundant +stores. Daisy thought such happy and hopeful thoughts as she was +commencing her weary journey, and then she clasped the basket which +contained the Pink tightly in her little arms, and presently, from +sheer weariness, dropped asleep. When the little head bobbed forward +two or three times a good-natured neighbor put her arm round the +child, and after a little even took her into her arms, where Daisy, +after many hours of deep slumber, awoke. The night train to Rosebury +went very slowly, stopping at every little wayside station, and +sometimes seeming to the exasperated passengers scarcely to move at +all; but all these weary hours Daisy slumbered peacefully, and when +she awoke the sun was shining brightly, and a new day had begun. + +"Well, my dear, you have had a hearty sleep," said the good-natured +woman; "and where are you bound, if I may make so bold as to ask, +little miss?" + +"I am going to Rosebury," said Daisy. "Oh! how kind of you to let me +sleep in your arms. I've had quite a nice nap, and I'm not so very +tired. Thank you very much for being so very good to me. Are we near +Rosebury now, please?" + +"In half an hour you'll get there, dear. Now I must say good-bye, for +this is my station. Good-bye, missy, and a safe journey to you." + +"I'm so sorry you are going away," said Daisy, and she raised her +little lips to kiss her friend. + +"God bless you, love," said the nice, pleasant-faced woman, and then +she got out of the carriage, nodding her head to Daisy as she walked +away. + +The loneliness which had more or less been soothed or kept in abeyance +by this good woman's company now returned very strongly, and Daisy had +to feel a certain empty little purse which she held in her pocket to +keep up her resolution. She did not seem so certain about Mrs. +Ellsworthy being nice and kind as she was the night before. The +third-class carriage in which she had travelled was now nearly empty, +and when she at last arrived at Rosebury she was the only passenger to +alight. She gave up her ticket and walked out of the station, a +forlorn and unnoticed little personage. It was still very early in the +morning, not quite six o'clock, and there were very few people about, +and the whole place had a strange, deserted, and unhomelike feeling. +Could this be the Rosebury where Daisy was born, where she had been so +petted and loved? She did not like its aspect in the cold grey morning +light. There was a little drizzling mist falling, and it chilled her +and made her shiver. + +"I know I've been very, very selfish," she kept murmuring to herself. +"I oughtn't to have minded the dungeon. I ought not to have been so +terrified at the ogre. I'm afraid God is angry with me for being so +dreadfully selfish, and for letting the ogre take Primrose's money. I +always did think the sun shone at Rosebury, but perhaps even the sun +won't get up because he is angry with me." + +Daisy knew her way down the familiar and straggling village street, +but there were one or two different roads to Shortlands, and she +became puzzled which to take, and what with the drizzling rain, and +her own great fatigue of body, soon really lost her way. + +An early laborer going to work was the first person she met. She asked +him eagerly if she was on the right road; but he answered her so +gruffly that she instantly thought he must be a relation of Mr. Dove's +and ran, crying and trembling, away from him. The next person she came +across was a little boy of about her own age, and he was kind, and +took her hand, and put her once more in the right direction, so that, +foot-sore and weary, the poor little traveller did reach the +lodge-gates of Shortlands about nine o'clock. + +But here the bitterest of her disappointments awaited her, for the +woman who attended to the gates said, in a cold and unsympathizing +voice, that the family were now in London, and there was no use +whatever in little miss troubling herself to go up to the house. No +use at all, the woman repeated, for she could not tell when the family +would return, probably not for several weeks. Daisy did not ask any +more questions, but turned away from the inhospitable gates with a +queer sinking in her heart, and a great dizziness before her eyes. She +had come all this weary, weary way for nothing. She had taken dear +Poppy's last money for nothing. Oh, now there was no doubt at all that +God was very angry with her, and that she had been both wicked and +selfish. She had still twopence in her pocket--for the good-natured +omnibus conductor had paid her fare himself. She would go to the +nearest cottage and ask for some milk for the Pink, and then she +wondered--poor, little, lonely, unhappy child--how long it would take +her to die. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +MRS. DREDGE TO THE RESCUE. + + +High tea at Penelope Mansion was an institution. Mrs. Flint said in +confidence to her boarders that she preferred high tea to late dinner. +She said that late dinner savored too distinctly of the mannish +element for her to tolerate. It reminded her, she said, of clerks +returning home dead-beat after a day's hard toil; it reminded her of +sordid labor, and of all kinds of unpleasant things; whereas high tea +was in itself womanly, and was in all respects suited to the gentle +appetites of ladies who were living genteelly on their means. Mrs. +Flint's boarders were as a rule impressed by her words, and high tea +was, in short, a recognized institution of the establishment. + +On the evening of the day when poor little Daisy had disappeared from +her Palace Beautiful Mrs. Flint's boarders were enjoying their genteel +repast in the cool shades of her parlor. They had shrimps for tea, and +eggs, and buttered toast, and a small glass dish of sardines, to say +nothing of a few little dishes of different preserves. Mrs. Dredge, +who was considered by the other ladies to have an appetite the reverse +of refined, had, in addition to these slight refreshments, a mutton +chop. This she was eating with appetite and relish, while Miss Slowcum +languidly tapped her egg, and remarked as she did so that it was +hollow, but not more so than life. Mrs. Mortlock, since the +commencement of her affliction, always sat by Mrs. Flint's side, and +when she imagined that her companions were making use of their sight +to some purpose she invariably requested Mrs. Flint to describe to her +what was going on. On this particular evening the whole party were +much excited and impressed by the unexpected return of Poppy, alias +Sarah. + +"It took me all of a heap!" said Mrs. Flint; "I really thought the +girl was saucy, and had gone--but never a bit of it. If you'll believe +me, ladies, she came in as humble as you please, and quite willing to +go back to her work in a quiet spirit. 'Sarah,' I said to her in the +morning, 'you'll rue this day,' and she did rue it, and to some +purpose, or she wouldn't have returned so sharp in the evening. She's +a good girl, taking her all in all, is Sarah, and being my own niece, +of course I put up with a few things from her which I would not take +from a stranger." + +"She spoke pretty sharp this morning about you, Mrs. Flint, to my +continual reader," said Mrs. Mortlock; "I wouldn't take no airs, if I +was you, from Sarah Maria. Miss Slowcum, I'll trouble you for the +pepper, please. Seeing that I'm afflicted, and cannot now use my +eyesight, I think there might be a little consideration in the small +matter of pepper shown to me, but feel as I will I can find it in no +way handy. Thank you, Miss Slowcum; sorry to trouble you, I'm sure." + +"She grows more snappish each day," whispered Miss Slowcum to Mrs. +Dredge; but just then the attention of all the good ladies was +diverted by a ringing peal at the hall door-bell, followed by eager +voices in the hall, and then by the entrance of Poppy, alias Sarah, +who broke in upon the quiet of high tea with a red and startled face. + +"An awful trouble has happened," she began, breathlessly. "Oh, ladies, +you'll pardon me, but this is no time for standing on ceremony, when +my own darling little lady, Miss Daisy Mainwaring, has gone and left +her sheltering home." + +"Good gracious! my continual reader's little sister!" exclaimed Mrs. +Mortlock. "Left her home! you must be mistaken, Sarah Jane." + +"No, ma'am, it's a most sorrowful fact," said poor Poppy, who looked +terribly dejected, and nearly sobbed as she spoke; "the other two dear +young ladies has come for me, and I must go back with them. I'm +sorry, Aunt Flint, to part again so soon, but this is unexpected, and +my duty lies with my young ladies." + +"Your duty lies with your aunt, miss," here exclaimed the exasperated +Mrs. Flint. "Sarah, I was taking your part, but your airs are now past +standing. Ladies three, I feel convinced that this story is all a +make-up. I don't believe for a moment the child has gone away. It's a +make-up of Sarah's, who is turning into a most wicked girl." + +"I don't believe it," here exclaimed Miss Slowcum. "Sarah Bertha has +spoken the truth, I feel convinced. I had a warning dream last night. +I dreamt of white horses, and that always signifies very great +trouble. It's my belief that the poor dear innocent little child has +been murdered!" + +"Murdered!" almost screamed Mrs. Mortlock. "Miss Slowcum, I'll thank +you to come and take the seat next me, my dear, and tell me all your +reasons in full for making this most startling remark. My dear, I +don't object to holding your hand while you're pouring forth the tale +of woe. How and where, Miss Slowcum, did the child meet her death?" + +Meanwhile, during this wrangling and fierce disputing, Mrs. Dredge, +more kind-hearted than the others, had left the room. She had gone +into the hall, where Primrose and Jasmine stood side by side. She had +listened to their bewildered and agitated little story, and then +asking them to sit down and wait for her, she had returned to the +parlor. + +"Mrs. Flint," she said, "I have been talking to the two elder +Mainwaring girls; they are in the hall. No, Mrs. Mortlock, you can't +see Miss Primrose at present. The girls are in great trouble, for the +little one has gone away, and there seems to be a mystery about it +all. Your niece Sarah seems to be the last person who has seen the +child, Mrs. Flint, and, of course, Miss Primrose and Miss Jasmine want +to talk to her, and she had better go home with them. The friend they +live with, a Miss Egerton, left home this very afternoon to spend a +week in the country, and so the girls are quite defenceless, and have +nobody to consult. That being the case, I'm going back with them also +to their lodgings in a four-wheeler. Sarah Ann, go and fetch a +four-wheeler this instant, and don't stand gaping. Mind, a +four-wheeler, girl, and don't bring a hansom on no account near the +place. Yes, ladies, it's my duty to go with the poor orphans, and go I +will." + +While Mrs. Dredge was speaking Mrs. Mortlock ceased to hold Miss +Slowcum's very thin hand. Miss Slowcum's face looked decidedly +jealous, for she would have dearly liked to have been herself in Mrs. +Dredge's interesting and sympathizing position. Mrs. Mortlock raised +her almost sightless eyes to the fat little woman's face, and remarked +in a slightly acid voice-- + +"I'm obliged to you, Mrs. Dredge, for thinking that in the moment of +trial the sight of me and a sympathizing squeeze from my hand would +have done my continual reader any harm. It's very good-natured of you +to go with the orphan girls, Mrs. Dredge, and I'm glad to think you've +just had the support of your chop to sustain you under the fatigue. +Please remember, Mrs. Dredge, that we lock up the house in this home +at ten o'clock, and no latch-keys allowed. Isn't that so, Mrs. Flint?" + +"Under ordinary circumstances, quite so, ma'am," answered Mrs. Flint, +who would not have minded snubbing Miss Slowcum, but was anxious to +propitiate both the rich widows; "under ordinary circumstances that is +so, but in a dire moment like the present I think the ten minutes' +grace might be allowed to Mrs. Dredge's kind heart." + +"Here's the four-wheeler!" exclaimed Mrs. Dredge. + +"Good-bye, ladies. If I'm not in at ten minutes past ten don't look +for me until the morning." + +When Mrs. Dredge, Primrose, Jasmine, and Poppy got back to the girls' +pretty sitting-room the good-natured little widow proved herself a +very practical friend. First of all, she listened carefully to Poppy's +account of all that had transpired that day. She then got Primrose to +tell her as much as possible about Daisy. All the child's distress and +nervousness and unaccountable unhappiness were related, and the sage +little woman shook her head several times over the narrative, and said +at last, in a very common-sense voice-- + +"It's as clear as a pikestaff to Jemima Dredge that that sweet little +child has been tampered with. Somebody has been frightening the bit of +a thing, Miss Primrose, and it's for you to find out who that somebody +is. As to where she's gone? Why, she has gone back to where she was +born, of course, and you and me will follow her by the first train in +the morning, my dear." + +"She was taking care of a cheque of mine for seventeen pounds ten +shillings," exclaimed Primrose, "and in her little note she speaks of +the money being lost. I think nothing of the loss of the money beside +Daisy, but, Mrs. Dredge, Jasmine and I cannot afford even a +third-class ticket to Rosebury just at present." + +"Tut, tut, my dear," said Mrs. Dredge, "what's the good of a full +purse except to share it? My poor husband Joshua was his name--we was +two J's, dear--he always said, 'Jemima, thank God the chandlery is +prospering. A full purse means light hearts, Jemima. We can shed +blessings with our means, Jemima.' Those was Joshua's words, Miss +Mainwaring, and I hear him now telling them to me from his grave. You +and me will go down to Rosebury in the morning, dear, and Miss +Jasmine will stay at home with Sarah Mary for company, for there's no +sense in waste, and one of you is quite enough to come." + +While this conversation was going on Bridget knocked at the girls' +door, and presented Jasmine with a thick parcel, which had just +arrived for her by post. It was some of the manuscript, and the first +proofs of her story. The parcel came to hand at a sorrowful moment, +and Jasmine laid it on the sofa, made no comment about it, and did not +attempt to open it. Primrose scarcely raised her head from her hands, +and was not the least curious, but Poppy's eyes gleamed brightly, for +sharp Poppy guessed what the parcel contained, and she sincerely hoped +that whatever happened this story would prove a great success, and +that it would bring in so many gold coins to her young lady that she +would become not only rich herself, but able to pay back what she had +borrowed from her. For although Poppy was the soul of generosity, she +_did_ want her wages back. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +A NEW EMPLOYMENT. + + +At an early hour the next morning Mrs. Dredge and Primrose started for +Rosebury, and poor Jasmine and Poppy prepared to have a long and +lonely time by themselves. Poppy hoped that Jasmine would cheer up, +and look at that lovely printed story of hers, and perhaps read it +aloud to her; but poor Jasmine was really nearly broken-hearted, and +said once almost passionately-- + +"How can I look at it, Poppy, when I don't know where our little +darling is? Did she not share my secret? And she was so proud of me +and she always would believe I was a genius. I can't look at it, +Poppy--no, I can't; but if you like to open the manuscript, and read +what is printed of the story, why you may. Yes, I expect you will find +it exciting. Sit down and read it, Poppy, and I will go to the window +and look out. Oh, dear! oh, dear! Primrose promised to send me a +telegram when she got to Rosebury. Oh, what shall I do if I don't soon +hear some news of my darling little Daisy?" + +"Seeing as I can't comfort you, Miss Jasmine, I may as well take to +reading the mysterious, lovely story," answered Poppy. "Maybe when +you're having your dinner bye-and-bye, miss, you won't object to me +telling you what I thinks of it." + +"Only I shan't care in the least what you think to-day, dear Poppy," +answered poor little Jasmine, in a tone of deep melancholy. + +She went and stood by the window, and Poppy ensconced herself +comfortably on the sofa, and began to enjoy herself as best she could +under the circumstances. + +In about an hour there came a tap at the door, and Arthur Noel came +in. Jasmine gave a little pleased exclamation when she saw him; then +she ran forward, took his hand in hers, and burst into tears. + +"Daisy is lost," she said; "our sweet little Daisy, who loved you so +much, is lost." + +"It's inferred that she's gone down with a single third to Rosebury, +sir," here interposed Poppy. + +"Come and tell me all about it, Jasmine," said Noel, in his most +sympathizing tones. He led the poor little girl to the sofa, and, +sitting down by her, listened attentively to her story. + +"But the Ellsworthys are in London," he said, when he heard that Daisy +had gone to them. + +On hearing this news poor Jasmine burst into floods of fresh weeping. + +"Oh, then she's sure to be quite lost!" she said. "Oh, Mr. Noel, if +you are in any sense a true friend, won't you try to find her?" + +"Yes, Jasmine; I will never rest until I find her. I am glad I came in +to-day. I came to ask you to do something for me, but I find you want +my help instead. I will come here this evening, about the time your +sister is likely to be back, and I will then go and look for Daisy, in +case she is not found. Don't be frightened, Jasmine, I am quite sure +we shall soon get tidings of the dear little girl." + +"And do you know," said Jasmine, who felt a little comforted, "that we +have not only lost Daisy, but all our quarter's money. It is most +mysterious. Primrose gave Daisy a check to take care of for her, and +Daisy says she has gone away because the cheque is lost. We have no +money now that the cheque is lost, except just what Primrose earns +from Mrs. Mortlock." + +"There's a likelihood of some more earnings presently, Miss Jasmine," +here interposed Poppy, in a cheerful voice; "there's a likelihood of a +good bit more money when this powerful and thrilling romance is +published." + +"Your story, Jasmine?" said Noel, "and in type? Who did you get to +publish it, my dear child? Oh, you must let me read this." + +"Another time, please, Mr. Noel. I don't think I could quite bear it +to-day," said Jasmine. + +Noel looked at her earnestly. + +"I wonder, Jasmine," he said, "even though you are in such trouble, if +you would be brave enough to help _me_, and to earn a little money to +day? I want you to do quite a simple thing, and something you will +probably enjoy. I have never read any of your romances, but I have +often noticed that you possess rather remarkable artistic tastes, and +that you have a very correct eye for the arrangement of color. I have +been struck with this even in this little room, and I happened to +mention my observations one day to a lady who is a friend of mine. +That lady is giving a dinner-party to-night, and she wants some one to +arrange the flowers on her table in as fresh and new a style as +possible. Will you come with me to her house now, and see what you can +do? She will provide you with the flowers and the glasses to put them +into, and you can arrange them on the table just as you like best. She +will give you a guinea for the work, and I think you will find it +light and pleasant." + +Jasmine's eyes began to sparkle. + +"Oh! at another time it would be delightful," she said. + +"But don't you want a guinea very badly now? Don't you think you had +better put on your hat and come away with me, and try to earn it?" + +"I will," said Jasmine, with sudden enthusiasm. "Oh, Mr. Noel, how +good you are! How I wish I had a brother, and that you were he!" + +Noel took Jasmine to his friend's house, where the little girl began +by being almost frightened, but soon forgot herself in the strong +interest of her pleasant work. Noel was right when he said Jasmine had +true artistic instincts. Certainly, hers was untaught genius, but her +unerring taste came to her aid, and Mrs. Daintree's dinner-table never +looked prettier or fresher than when the little maiden had completed +her work. The room was bright and sunny, but Jasmine gave the table a +bower-like and cool effect, and she not only dressed the dinner-table +but placed flowers here and there about the room. Mrs. Daintree was +delighted, and asked the pretty little girl to come again to arrange a +dinner-table for her the following week. + +With her golden sovereign and her shilling tucked tightly away in her +glove Jasmine did not feel altogether miserable as she went home; even +though Daisy might still be lost, those first earnings were sweet. She +rushed upstairs and told her tale to Poppy, who sympathized most +warmly with her. Very soon after her arrival a four-wheeler was heard +to draw up to the door, and Mrs. Dredge alone returned. + +"I have left Primrose at Rosebury," she said; "we have made inquiries, +and there is no doubt a child resembling Daisy went down by the night +train yesterday. We have searched high and low, however, but cannot at +present get any trace of her. Don't look so pale, Jasmine, she must +soon be found. Primrose is staying with Miss Martineau, and they are +not leaving a stone unturned to find her. Most likely they have done +so by now. Don't cry, Jasmine; take example by your sister--she's a +fine plucky bit of a lass, and does not waste her time in tears when +there's something to be done." + +"Yes, that's just it," said Jasmine; Primrose has got something to do, +but I haven't--I can do nothing to find my little darling! Oh, Mrs. +Dredge, are not you awfully frightened about her?" + +"Tut, tut, my dear, not a bit of it! Of course, when a little lass +runs away all by herself there are most times difficulties in getting +trace of her, but don't you be in a way, for they won't last long." + +Poor little Jasmine sighed, and all her deep depression returned. She +was soothed again, however, by the sight of Noel, who came in very +soon afterwards. He said he had seen the Ellsworthys, and meant to go +down to Rosebury by the night train. + +"I'm pleased to hear it, young man," said Mrs. Dredge; "you're doing +just what my Joshua would have approved of had he been alive. Even +though Joshua was in the chandlery line he had a truly noble heart, +and one of his mottoes was that the strong should help the weak, and +if shoulders are made broad they should carry big burdens, so you go +down to Rosebury, young man, and prosper in your work." + +Noel smiled. + +"I will certainly do my best," he said; "I quite agree with your +husband's sentiments." + +"Well, well, young man, Joshua would have liked to know you in his +day. Dear, how stupid I am! but I didn't rightly catch your name. What +are you pleased to call yourself, sir?" + +"My name is Arthur Noel." + +"Well, what a small world we live in; it was only to-day I heard talk +of you. When Miss Primrose and I were down at Rosebury we came across +a gentleman of the name of Danesfield, and he came straight up to Miss +Primrose and said he had had a letter from you which he had not been +able to answer, because he was away. He said a lot to Miss Primrose +about the letter you wrote him; it seems that somebody must have +stolen three five-pound notes, which Mr. Danesfield put into a closed +envelope, and gave Miss Primrose for a kind of emergency fund when +she left her home. The poor lassie turned as white as a sheet when he +talked to her. Well, young man, you look white enough yourself at the +present moment, but I'll tell you, now, what has struck me, that +whoever took the three five-pound notes helped himself or herself to +that cheque of Miss Primrose's, and that poor little Daisy knows about +it." + +"I should not be the least surprised if you were right, Mrs. Dredge," +answered Noel. "Well, I must go now if I want to catch my train. +Good-bye, Jasmine keep up your heart--expect good news soon, and get +all the orders you can for dressing dinner-tables." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +IN THE FIELD. + + +Poor little Daisy, very faint and tired, and with a feeling of almost +despair in her little heart, presently crept through a gap in one of +the hedges, and sat down on the grass in a large field. She was so +foot-sore she could not walk another step; she was also terribly weak +from long fasting, and as she now had no hope at all of bringing +Primrose back her money, she felt disinclined to walk another step. + +"I suppose I'll soon die," she said to herself. "I wonder if God will +take me to heaven? I know I was very selfish about the dungeon. I +might have gone to the dungeon, and dear Primrose would have had her +money, and she and Jasmine would not have starved; but Mr. Dove did so +terrify me I really had not courage. Please, dear Jesus, I had not +courage. I'm only a very weak, frightened little girl, and I gave Mr. +Dove Primrose's money, and now I can't get it back from him, and I +think my heart is broken. I know, Jesus, you are angry with me, but +please don't go on being angry; please forgive me, for I am all alone +now without Primrose and Jasmine, and I think I'll soon die, for I +feel so very weak. I didn't tell a lie, either, Jesus; I never told +any one about Mr. Dove and the sticky sweetmeats--no, though I am a +coward about the dungeon, I would not go so far as to break my word. I +often longed to tell the Prince, for I felt he would deliver me from +the ogre, but I couldn't tell a lie even to be saved. Please, Jesus, +forgive me for being such a cowardly little girl." + +By this time the drizzling mist of the early morning had passed away, +the sun had come out, and the robins and thrushes in the hedge close +to Daisy began to sing. They poured out full notes of thrilling +sweetness and their music comforted the child, and she began to smile +very faintly to herself, and to hope that as God had let the sun come +out, and the birds sing, so He had forgiven her. + +The poor little Pink began to mew loudly in her basket, and Daisy let +her out of her prison, and when kitty rubbed her soft head against her +little mistress's sleeve the child felt some fresh thrills of comfort. +She felt terribly disinclined to move, however, and was really more +weak and exhausted than absolutely hungry. The day wore on, and the +little girl and her cat remained unnoticed in their corner of the +large field. There was a right of way through the field, and +foot-passengers came and went, but Daisy in her sombre little black +dress failed to attract any attention. She was quite in the shade +under her hedge-row, and it is to be doubted if any one saw her. At +last from utter weariness she sank down on the ground and fell asleep. +The Pink curled herself up by her little mistress's side and slept +also. It was then that the sun, slowly travelling across the heavens, +found them out in their shady corner, and kissed them, and made +pussy's soft little grey coat shine. The child and the cat were thus +made visible, and attracted the attention of a woman who was walking +across the field with a market-basket on her arm. She came up at once +to examine the little group; then she bent down close, then she gave +an exclamation half of horror, half of delight, and then she took the +sleeping child up in her arms, and covered her with passionate kisses. + +[Illustration: SHE CAME UP TO EXAMINE THE LITTLE GROUP. Palace B] + +"Oh! my own little Miss Daisy--my own little darling precious lamb! +And is it thus you have come back to your poor old Hannah again!" + +Nothing could have comforted Daisy more under present circumstances +than to find herself in her old nurse's arms. She quite gasped with +the joy and relief, and putting up her little hand to Hannah's face, +she stroked it fondly. + +"Now, my darling, where have you come from? and what are you doing? +and--why, if that isn't the little Pink, I declare! Now, my pet, tell +me, have you all three come back to Rosebury again?" + +"No, Hannah, I'm the only one who has come back. Oh Hannah, will you +please take me to our little cottage for a few hours--I should so like +to die there--I was born there, wasn't I, Hannah?" + +"Yes, love, but you're not going to die there, nor nowhere else. I +can't take you back to the cottage, dearie, for it's let, and I'm not +living there. I've a little bit of a place of my own in the village of +Teckford and I keep a small shop, and don't do so bad. You must come +home now with me, darling. Oh, yes, you must--not a word must you say +against it; then, when you've rested, and have had some nice bread and +milk, you shall tell old Hannah your story; and if so be as you're in +any trouble, why, your old nurse Hannah will set her wits to work to +find a way out of it. Now, my darling, I'm going to carry you to my +cottage." + +Daisy was certainly very weak. She tried to expostulate with +Hannah--she tried to say that her one and only duty was to try and get +tidings of Mrs. Ellsworthy's whereabouts, and then to follow her on +foot if necessary; but if the little spirit was willing, the flesh was +weak. The comfort of seeing her nurse again was too much for +Daisy--the knowledge that those were the very arms which had carried +her as a baby, and soothed her and tended her as a little child, was +quite too cheering to be resisted. Daisy made a valiant effort to say +"No," but instead, her lips formed a faint "Yes, Hannah, take me to +your home," and then Hannah, who was a strongly-built woman, lifted +the slight little girl in her arms, and carried her across the fields +to her tiny cottage at Teckford. All the time, while she was being +carried in those kind arms, Daisy kept repeating to herself, "I'll +have some bread and milk, for I am a little hungry, and I'll rest for +perhaps an hour, and then I'll go away on foot with my dear Pink to +find Mrs. Ellsworthy." + +But when the child and the woman reached the house in the village +Daisy was too faint and weary to take more than a spoonful or two of +bread and milk, and long before the night arrived she had forgotten +that she meant to undertake any journey, and lay with burning cheeks +and bright, feverish eyes on Hannah's bed in her little home. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +TOO MUCH FOR DOVE. + + +Mrs. Dredge's remarks had by no means been lost on Noel. When he left +Miss Egerton's house he consulted his watch, and found that he had +still an hour to spare before he need try to catch his train. He +thought for a moment or two, recalled certain expressions on Daisy's +face, certain words which dropped from her lips, and, above all, a +look which had filled her pretty eyes on the one and only occasion +when they had met Dove together. + +Noel began to feel more and more certain that this man, to whom he had +taken a great dislike, had something to say to all the child's misery. +Noel knew, however, that suspicion in such a case would be of little +avail--he must have certainty, and certainty could only be his by +cautious and wary movements. + +Again he consulted his watch, and now he determined on a bold course. +He remembered that the girls had once told him that Dove was a painter +by trade, but that he seldom or never had anything to do. Noel was +extremely fastidious, and, if possible, almost over-refined in the +arrangements of his own home. He made his little plan with a sigh, but +he would have done more than this for the sake of pretty little Daisy. + +Walking quickly, he soon found himself at the Doves' address in Eden +Street. His knock at the hall door was answered by Tommy Dove, who +assured him that both his father and mother were having high tea with +shrimps and watercresses in the back parlor. + +Noel said he wanted to see Dove on business, and Tommy, remarking that +the back parlor was as good a place as any other for this purpose, +ushered the visitor in direct. + +"I believe you are a painter," said Noel--"I have chambers at +Westminster, and want to have my balcony and front windows painted. +I've heard of you through the Miss Mainwarings, and as I'm in a hurry +to get the job completed at once, I have called round to know if you +are disengaged." + +"Of course you are, Dove," said his wife. + +"Softly, my only love," replied her husband. "Sir, be pleased to take +a seat. I shall be glad to do my best for you, and any recommendation +from the young ladies you mention is most gratifying to me. Sweet +young ladies they was, and ever will be--and my wife and me, we +mourns unceasing for their departure." + +"Speak for yourself, Dove," said the wife--"we are doing better with +our present attics than we ever did with our late attics. Sir, you'll +excuse me, but truthful I ever will be at all costs." + +"Can you paint my windows or not?" said Noel, rising to his feet, and +speaking with some asperity. "If you are too busy to undertake the +work pray say so, and let me seek some one else, for my time is +precious." + +"Of course he'll do it, sir," said Mrs. Dove. "Say yes to the +gentleman, Dove, and thank him, and have done with it." + +"Well, sir, I am very busy," said Dove. "I haven't a moment to call my +own for weeks to come, but all the same, I wouldn't disoblige the late +attics for a good deal, so I'll just put off the Cooks, who are wild +to get their house-cleaning through, and Mr. Martin, who keeps the +bacon and 'am shop, must wait. Yes, sir, I wait your pleasure, sir--I +can come." + +"To-morrow morning, then, early," said Noel, "this is my address. Ask +for my servant when you arrive, and he will show you what you are to +do, and will also give you directions as to the colored paint I wish +used. I must hurry off now, for I'm going down to the country on some +very sad business. You will be sorry to hear, Mr. Dove, that Miss +Daisy Mainwaring has lost a considerable sum of money, and the poor +little child is in such trouble about it that she has run away. Of +course, I don't believe for a moment that she has really lost the +money--of course it was stolen from her. Well, good-bye, I'm going to +seek her, and to try to catch the thief. Be sure you arrive at my +house in good time in the morning, Dove." + +"Yes, sir, very sorry to hear your bad news," said Dove, in a +self-possessed voice, but Arthur saw that his color had changed, and +he wanted no stronger clue to confirm his suspicions. When he got into +the street he not only consulted his watch, but a time-table. A later +train than he had intended to travel by would take it to Rosebury +early in the morning. He would go by this train. Now he jumped into a +hansom and drove to his chambers. His servant came to him, to whom he +gave hasty directions. + +"You're to buy the paint yourself, Lawson; see that it is properly +mixed, and the right shade. Move the plants from the balcony early in +the morning--the man will arrive in good time, and listen, Lawson, I +don't want him to be too closely watched." + +"What do you mean by that, sir?" said Lawson. + +"Only that you need not stay in the room all the time--come in and +out, of course--but don't imagine the man to be a thief until he is +proved such." + +"Well, sir, your commands must be obeyed, of course, but you have many +articles of virtue and elegance about." + +"Never mind that, Lawson--do as I tell you." + +When his servant left the room Noel took a five-pound note out of his +pocket, and enclosing it in an open envelope laid it carelessly on the +chimney-piece. There was no writing on the envelope, and the note +might well have been slipped into it by mistake. Noel also slipped a +ring of some value from his finger, and dropped it into a little tray, +which contained odds and ends of different descriptions. + +"Now I've laid my trap," he said to himself. "My poor little Daisy, I +hope I may ensnare your ogre to his destruction." + +The next morning early Dove, well pleased with his job, and never +guessing that the smallest suspicions had attached themselves to him, +arrived at Noel's rooms. He was a most idle man, and seldom cared for +work, but he was pleased at Noel's singling him out, and imagined that +notwithstanding her running away, he owed this visit to little Daisy. + +"She's a pert little thing," he said to himself, "and if she's so true +to me as all this, why I suppose I must leave her alone in the future. +I made a nice little haul out of her the other day, and I've got +several of them sovereigns about me still; but lor, wasn't she in a +piteous fright when I took that cheque away with me!" + +Dove was highly pleased with the appearance of Noel's rooms. He could +see no beauty in the simplicity of the girls' Palace Beautiful, but +although he was quite incapable of judging of the value of the +pictures and exquisite little statuettes which adorned the walls, he +was judge enough of the depth and richness of the Turkey rugs, and of +the wealth which must have been expended over the very select +furniture of Noel's sitting-room. + +Lawson, wondering much at his master's directions but supposing that +Dove must be a very special _protégé_, received him with much +cordiality, gave him directions with regard to his work, and then left +him alone. Dove painted and cleaned, and whistled as he worked; he +felt quite cheerful and virtuous, and began to consider that the +position of British workmen was not such a bad one after all. He felt +more and more pleased with Daisy Mainwaring for having put him in the +way of such agreeable and profitable occupation, and more and more +resolved to leave her alone for the future. + +"Maybe if I was to talk to the pretty little dear she'd find me a deal +more jobs of this yere sort," he said to himself. "A little lady she +is, and no mistake, and she keeps very genteel friends, as any one can +see with half an eye." + +After Dove had worked for two or three hours he began to feel thirsty, +for he was quite unaccustomed to any continuous labor. The sun was +shining brightly on the balcony, and he was also a little hot, and the +inside of Noel's room looked deliciously cool and inviting. He had +just seen Lawson walking down the street, too, so he was quite sure of +having the premises to himself. Slipping off his shoes he stepped into +the room and began to look about him with an appreciative air. He +handled some of Noel's choicest books, and looked through a portfolio +of rare engravings but neither books nor engravings were quite in +Dove's way, and after a time he strolled over to the mantel-piece, as +he said, to see how he looked reflected in the over-mantel glass. +There were letters there directed to Noel. Dove would have dearly +liked to acquaint himself with their contents, but he was a slow and +deficient reader. Some cigars lay in a little cigar-case at one end. +Dove, as a matter of course, and without weighing the question at all, +slipped a couple into his pocket. After doing this he did not feel +quite so virtuous, nor so like the proverbial British workman; he +jingled some of Daisy's sovereigns in his pocket, and laughed when +they made a pleasant sound. Still eagerly peering at all the articles +on the mantel-piece his quick eyes presently detected amongst a heap +of rubbish and odds and ends Noel's valuable signet-ring; it was of +heavy workmanship, and its gold alone made it worth money. + +"Why, Isaacs the Jew would give me two pound ten, or perhaps three +pounds for this," queried Dove. "It has plainly been forgotten here, +and if the gent does miss it he'll lay the blame on that fine fellow +Lawson." + +It took a very small parley with Dove's seared conscience to make him +pocket the ring, and by the time Lawson returned to the house the +five-pound note had also been appropriated. Dove whistled more +cheerily than ever over his work that afternoon, and in the evening he +went home quite unsuspecting any little trap which might have been set +for him. + +He had scarcely gone before a boy arrived with a telegram directed to +Lawson, and with a reply pre-paid. Lawson read the following words:-- + +"Look on the mantel-piece in my sitting-room for a blank envelope, +open, which contains a five-pound note--No. 11267. I also left my ring +in the cigar tray. Wire reply if note and ring are safe.--ARTHUR +NOEL." + +The address to reply to was added. + +Poor Lawson spent an agonized ten minutes in searching over the +contents of the mantel-piece. In the end he had to fill in the reply +telegram with the news that nowhere could the five-pound note nor the +ring be found. + +A little over two hours passed, and again the worthy servant was +startled by a telegraphic dispatch. This was what it contained:-- + +"Have reasons to believe that the painter Dove is the thief. Go +instantly to the nearest police-station, give them the number of the +note, and go with one of their staff to Dove's house. His address is, +10, Eden Street, Junction Road, Holloway. The note and ring will +probably be found on his person. Get him apprehended if possible. Take +all necessary cabs.--ARTHUR NOEL." + +Thus it came to pass that when that evening Dove sat down tranquilly +to a luxurious supper of lobster salad, chops, and bottled stout, he +was unpleasantly interrupted. When two policemen, accompanied by +Lawson, came into his room, he was guilty of using very violent +language, and altogether conducted himself in a most excited manner; +but, notwithstanding his resistance, and Mrs. Dove's hysterics, and +some terribly distressing chuckles, really sounding more like laughter +than tears, which were heard to issue from the lips of that naughty +boy, Tommy, a strict search of his person was instituted, and in +consequence he was that very night locked up in jail. + +Oh, if only poor little Daisy, tossing on her hot and feverish pillow, +could have known! + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +THE PRINCE TO THE RESCUE. + + +Hannah was doing well in her little shop at Teckford. She had always +been a most saving body, and although Mrs. Mainwaring had never been +able to pay her high wages, she had managed to put the greater portion +of what she received away. Hannah was one of those fortunate +individuals on whom even a shabby dress will look neat. Her boots +lasted twice as long as any one else's, her caps retained their starch +and their whiteness long after another servant's would have had to be +resigned to a fresh cleaning process. Hannah therefore required little +or no money to spend on dress, and in consequence, when the Mainwaring +girls went away, she had a little nest-egg laid by to stock a shop. +She found a suitable little house at Teckford, laid in her little +store of provisions with care, for she argued wisely that however poor +people were they required food, and was living very comfortably on the +proceeds of her sales. Hannah, as a rule, had a smooth and unruffled +brow; she was a careful woman, but not a troubled one. At the present +moment, however it could scarcely be said of this good soul that she +was without cares. The neighbors who came in to buy their bacon, and +fresh eggs, and candles, and tea, remarked that Hannah had no longer a +cheery word and a pleasant smile to give them, and the children, when +they tumbled out their halfpennies and asked for "a little piece of +taffy, please, ma'am," noticed that Hannah's eyes had red rims round +them, and they wondered if she was naughty, and that was why she +cried. + +Yes, poor Hannah had a troubled heart during those early summer days, +for Daisy lay so weak and languid, and indifferent to all external +things, on her tiny little bed, never giving Hannah any information as +to why she had wandered alone to Rosebury, never saying anything about +the weight of sorrow which rested on her little heart, only now and +then moaning out that she must get up and go to Mrs. Ellsworthy, and +now and then feebly saying that she wished so very much that the +Prince was there. + +Hannah knew all about Mrs. Ellsworthy, and how she had taken the girls +up, and tried to help them, after their mother's death; but who was +the Prince? + +Finding that the child continued slightly feverish, and most +unnaturally weak--finding that the dainties she prepared were only +just tasted by the little sufferer--Hannah looked well into her little +store of hardly-earned money, and finding that she had sufficient to +pay him, called in the village doctor. + +Of course, with his limited experience, this good man could little +understand Daisy's case. He ordered medicine for her, and plenty of +cooling drinks, and said that he could not find anything very much the +matter, only she was most unnaturally weak. + +"It's my thinking, sir," said Hannah, "that this is the kind of +weakness that ends in death. My little lady is all on the pine for +something or some one, and unless she gets what she wants soon she +will die." + +Hannah's view of the case was rather puzzling to the doctor, who +stared at her, and considered her from that day forward a very +fanciful woman. He repeated his injunctions to give Daisy plenty of +milk, and to see that she took her tonic three times a day; and then +he took his leave. + +When he was gone Hannah went to her next-door neighbor and asked her +if she would be so very kind as to go and sit in the child's room for +a couple of hours. Then she put on her bonnet and neat black cloak, +and started off on foot to Rosebury. She had made up her mind to get +Mrs. Ellsworthy's address from some one, and to write to her about +Daisy. In due time she arrived at the lodge, saw the woman who kept +the gates, obtained from her without much difficulty Mrs. Ellsworthy's +address, and then prepared to return home. Just as she reached the +stile, however, which led into the field where she had found Daisy, a +thought struck her--she had no writing-paper in the house, and what +could be bought at Teckford was almost too bad to use. Hannah made up +her mind to go to Rosebury, which was a much more important village +than Teckford, and get a few sheets of note-paper, and an envelope or +two. She walked very fast, for she did not like to leave Daisy so long +by herself, and, panting and hurried, she at last arrived at the +little stationer's shop. The stationer's wife knew Hannah, and greeted +her with effusion. + +"I'm truly pleased to see you, Mrs. Martin," she said. "Why you're +quite a stranger in these parts, and I did not expect to see you round +now, with one of your young ladies returned and all." + +Hannah heaved a profound sigh. + +"She's very, very ill, poor darling," she said. "Very dangerously weak +and ill; and I must trouble you to hasten with the paper, Mrs. Jones. +One penn'orth of your most shining note, and two envelopes to match. +Mind you, give me a paper with a good gloss on it, Mrs. Jones." + +Mrs. Jones stared at Hannah Martin; but fetching down a box of +note-paper, prepared to wrap some sheets in tissue paper. + +"I shouldn't say Miss Primrose was ill," she remarked as she did so, +"though she do seem worried, dear young lady." + +When the shop-woman made this observation Hannah's pence tumbled down +on the counter with a crash. + +"Goodness gracious me, ma'am!" she exclaimed, "you don't mean to tell +me that Miss Primrose Mainwaring is at Rosebury?" + +"Why, of course, ma'am; why, don't you know? why you said but now how +weak and ill she was." + +"Never mind the paper," answered Hannah, "and never mind a word I said +about anybody; just have the goodness to tell me where I'll find Miss +Primrose." + +"She was staying with Miss Martineau but yesterday and there's a +gentleman come down, too--a very 'ansome, harristocratic-looking young +man, I call him, and for all the world as like our pretty Miss Jasmine +as if he was own brother to her--and they two and Miss Martineau are +fairly scouring the place for that poor little tot Miss Daisy, who it +seems 'as run away from home. Why, Hannah--Hannah Martin, woman! are +you daft?" + +For Hannah had rushed from the shop while Mrs. Jones was speaking, +leaving her neglected paper and two or three pence behind her on the +counter. A few moments later the good soul was knocking at Miss +Martineau's door, and very soon Primrose and Arthur Noel too were in +possession of all the facts that Hannah could give them. + +"Oh, Hannah! it is so good to think you were the one to save her and +find her," said Primrose, as she kissed her old nurse, and shed some +thankful tears. + +"You had better come back with me now, Miss Primrose," said Hannah, +"and perhaps the gentleman or Miss Martineau will send a telegraphic +message to poor Miss Jasmine." + +But Primrose's difficulties had not come to an end. She instantly +started to walk across the fields with Hannah; but when Daisy heard +she had come she absolutely refused to see her, and cried so +piteously, and got into such an excited state, that Primrose felt +herself obliged to yield to the child's caprice, and to keep out of +the room. + +"I can't see her, Hannah," poor little Daisy said. "Of all people in +all the world, I can't see my own Primrose. Oh, if only I were well +enough to go to Mrs. Ellsworthy, or if only the Prince would come!" + +Primrose heard Daisy's weak little voice through the thin walls of +Hannah's cottage. + +"Hannah," she said, "I know who Daisy means by the Prince. The Prince +is that kind Mr. Noel, who has been helping me to find the little +darling. If he has not gone back to London, for he said he would go +back at once after he knew we had found Daisy, he could come to her. +Oh, Hannah," continued poor Primrose, "I cannot think what has +happened to your dear baby, Daisy. I begin to believe what Mr. Noel +has been hinting to me--that some one has got a secret influence over +her." + +"We had better see and find this Mr. Noel at once, miss, now," said +practical Hannah. "We can think of secret influences and all that sort +of thing when we have found the gentleman whom the dear child is +pining to see. If Mr. Noel is still at Rosebury you had better put on +your hat, Miss Primrose, and walk across the fields to the village, +and bring him back with you. I'll stay with Miss Daisy and soothe her +the best way I can. She's dreadful agitated and very weak and +trembling ever since you came in, miss." + +Primrose said she would go back to Rosebury directly, and she was so +fortunate as to meet Noel as he was starting for London. + +"You must come with me," she said earnestly. "I fear our dear little +Daisy is even worse than Hannah represented her to be. She has +absolutely refused to see me, and talks only about you and Mrs. +Ellsworthy. I don't know what she can want with either of you, but it +is quite evident that she thinks you can help her and save her from +some great trouble. Poppy said she wanted Mrs. Ellsworthy to give her +money; I suppose to replace what she lost of mine. Well, Mrs. +Ellsworthy is not here; so can you come to see her to-night?" + +"I will come at once, Miss Mainwaring," answered Noel. "If we walk +down this street we shall pass the post-office, and I can send a +telegram to Mrs. Ellsworthy and also to my servant, Lawson. I must try +and get into town some time to-morrow, however, for I have got to +attend the trial of no less a person than your old landlord, Dove. He +was apprehended for stealing a bank-note and a ring from my +mantle-piece." + +"I never liked that man," said Primrose; "indeed, I never thought +either of the Doves quite honest. Mrs. Dove made a rule of keeping +back a little of the money she borrowed from me on all occasions." + +Then Primrose and Noel walked as quickly as they could down the +village street. Noel despatched his necessary telegram, and in a short +time they both found themselves in Hannah's humble cottage. + +"She is asleep," said Hannah, as she came out to meet them. "She is +moaning in her sleep, and she gives sighs enough to break your heart. +You had better, both of you, stay in my little sitting-room until she +awakes." + +"If you will allow me," said Noel, "I will go and sit beside her bed; +she is accustomed to me. I will promise to be very careful in my +dealings with her. I believe I can talk to her without startling her +in the least." + +Hannah looked dubious, but Primrose interposed in her gentle voice-- + +"Yes, Hannah, Mr. Noel will not startle Daisy; he has always had a +most happy influence over her." + +Poor little Daisy! the sight of her wan face, the anxious expression +which seemed indelibly stamped on her childish brow, gave Noel so +strong a sense of pain and indignation that he sincerely longed to +secure for Dove as severe a punishment as the law would give. He sat +down gently by the humble little bed, and when the child moaned and +tossed in her sleep he laid his cool hand on her forehead. That hand +had a magnetic effect--even in her sleep Daisy seemed to know it. She +murmured, "The Prince, has he come?" and a moment after she opened her +dark blue eyes and fixed them on Noel, while a very faint smile +flitted across her little face. + +"You have come at last, Mr. Prince. I am very, very glad; I have +wanted you," she said. + +"I have wanted you, Daisy; I have been looking for you everywhere. I +have been in great trouble about you," answered Noel, in his gentlest +tones. + +"Have you?" said little Daisy; "I am sorry you have been in trouble. +Do you know that Primrose came to-day and I could not see her? I can +see you, but not Primrose. Please let me hold your hand. I don't feel +so dreadfully weak when I hold your hand. Will you stoop down, and let +me talk to you. I can't talk at all loud, for I'm dreadfully weak. Do +you know, Mr. Prince, that I'm going to die?" + +"No, Daisy, I don't think you are," answered Noel. I am the Prince who +delivers little girls from ogres. I never heard of a little girl dying +after she was delivered from the ogre." + +"Wicked little girls are not delivered," answered Daisy. "I was so +dreadfully cowardly. I was afraid of a dark dungeon, and so--and +so--but I mustn't tell you. I did lose Primrose's money, and I was a +coward, but I haven't been so bad yet as to tell a lie. You mustn't +ask me to tell you what it all means, Mr. Prince, for I can't. I hope +very much you'll forgive me for being a cowardly little girl; God has, +long ago, for I asked Him, and I am not really afraid to die. I +shouldn't feel a bit afraid or unhappy about it if I thought Primrose +and Jasmine could have their money." + +Here Daisy's voice quite failed her, and she looked so dreadfully +white and weak that Noel began to fear there was some truth in her +poor little words. He saw that their interview must not be prolonged, +and that he must give the child relief as soon as possible. + +"Daisy, you have got to listen to me," he said. "You need say very +little yourself, but you can listen to my words. I know why you want +to see Mrs. Ellsworthy--yes, dear, you can hold my hand as tightly as +possible. No, don't tremble; you want Mrs. Ellsworthy to give you some +money. She is not here; I know she would help you, and feel sorry for +you, but there are others who do that. Daisy, suppose I give you back +your money instead of Mrs. Ellsworthy? Give me your little hand, dear, +and let me put the money into it. Here; it makes quite a small +parcel--a ten-pound note, a five-pound note, two sovereigns and a +half. Now, Daisy, shall we keep this as a little secret between +ourselves? Primrose will ask no questions if you beg of her not, and +when you have put that money into her hand will you not be able to +have her with you again?" + +Daisy's little hot hand closed tightly over the money. She did not +speak, or even attempt to thank Noel, but her eyes, wider and wider +open each moment, were fixed intently on his face. + +"That is settled, then, Daisy," continued Noel, "and we need not think +of Mrs. Ellsworthy just at present, for you do not now need her +services. Of course a Prince is the right person to deliver a little +girl from a dreadful ogre. I don't see that Mrs. Ellsworthy should +have anything to do with it. Now, my dear, I'm going to say one or two +other things to you--you need not feel the least frightened." + +"May I really keep the money?" whispered Daisy at last. + +"Of course, I said so. We will not say any more on this subject at +present. I have given you the money to-night, because I want you to +have Primrose sitting by your side and nursing you and comforting you. +When Primrose is with you again you will cease to think those gloomy +thoughts about dying. Now I have something else to add before I leave +you." + +Noel had now taken a very firm hold of Daisy's little hand. She had +been trembling a good deal, but she had certainly grown calmer. +Perhaps the knowledge that she really did possess some money to give +to Primrose was comforting her. Noel felt a sense of distress at +disturbing even for her eventual good the child's present calm. It +must be done, however, and he thought a moment how he could most +gently deal with her. + +"I'm going to tell you a story, Daisy," he said--"a very sad story, +and, alas, a true one. There lives a little girl, I will not tell her +name, although I know it, who has been unfortunate enough to get into +the power of a very bad man. The man is very, very bad, but I will +not mention his name here, although I know it also. The man came to +the little girl and talked to her, and no doubt he threatened her, and +at last he made her promise him something--what, I cannot say. From +the moment this little girl made this promise she became thin and +white, and anxious and unhappy. She struggled against the terrible +promise which seemed to bind her with fetters of iron, but she could +never get away from it, and the man appeared like a terrible ogre to +her, and she longed for a Prince to come and deliver her from him. The +wicked man having terrified this poor little girl, did his best to use +his influence over her to his own ends. At one time she lived in the +house with him, but although she struggled against it her friends +induced her to go elsewhere. Even in the new palace, however, she was +not safe from the terrible ogre; he followed her, and, it is to be +feared, although nothing is absolutely known, that he used cruel +threats to induce her to give him some money which was not hers to +give. The poor little weak girl was afraid to consult any one on +account of her promise. It was quite natural she should think it right +to keep her promise, although it was very sad. She was so completely +under the power of the wicked man, or the ogre, as we will call him, +that she gave him her sister's money--the money that was to support +them all for some months, and then in her great despair she ran +away." Here Noel paused--Daisy's eyes were fixed on him. Her face was +white as death. + +"You see, dear, it is a painful story," he said, "but it is not quite +finished yet. The poor little girl ran away, but she never knew what +was happening to the ogre. That wicked man was not allowed to continue +his evil ways without punishment. At the present moment he is locked +up safely in prison, where he can hurt no one. He was put there +because he stole a five-pound note and a ring from the gentleman whom +the little girl used to call the Prince. It is believed, though of +course nothing is certainly known, nor will be until the little girl +is taken out of the thraldom of the ogre and confesses what has +happened, that this wicked man has also stolen a good deal of money +from an envelope which the elder sister used to consider her +'Emergency Fund' envelope. In short, it is thought that his one object +in frightening the poor little girl was simply to rob her and her +sisters. Now that he is in prison, however, and quite out of the way +of harming any one, it is greatly hoped by those who love her that the +poor little one, who was made to suffer so cruelly, will be released +from the thraldom of the wicked ogre, and be made to see that there +are times and circumstances during which even the most truthful little +girl would do better to break her word than to keep it. Now, Daisy, +that is the end of my story; I've got nothing more to say about it, +for at present I know nothing more. Good-night, dear--I will send +Primrose to you. I will come to you when you want me again." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +DELIVERED FROM THE OGRE. + + +"Here's the money, Primrose--here's all the money," said little Daisy, +in a weak, weak voice, when her sister came up to her bedside, and +bent over her. "It was lost and the Prince brought it back; you won't +ask me any questions about it, will you, Primrose?" + +"No," exclaimed Primrose, in her very quiet and matter-of-fact +voice--the kind of voice which was most soothing to the excitable and +nervous child at the present moment. + +"I'm glad to have it back, Daisy, dear, for I have missed it; but of +course, I shan't ask you any questions about it. I shall just put it +into my purse, and you shall see what a nice fat purse I have got once +more." + +Then Primrose held her little sister's hand, and shook up her pillows, +and tended her as only she knew how, but all that night Daisy grew +more and more restless. The drowsy state in which she had hitherto +been had changed to one of wakefulness. All through the long night +the little creature's bright eyes remained open, and her anxious face +had a question on it which yet she never spoke. At last, as the bright +summer's morning broke, she turned to Primrose and said eagerly-- + +"Kneel down, Primrose, and ask God what a very ignorant, very unhappy +little girl ought to do. Oh, Primrose, it's all about a promise--a +promise that was most faithfully given. What shall I do about it?" + +"Do you want to keep it, or to break it?" asked Primrose. + +"It seems to me I ought to keep it, Primrose, because a promise, +faithfully given, ought always to be kept; but Mr. Noel says I ought +to break this promise; oh, I don't know what to do!" + +"Your heart won't be at rest, Daisy, and you won't really get better, +until you do know what to do," answered Primrose. "Of course, I will +kneel down and ask God to tell you." + +Then the elder sister prayed aloud a very few earnest words, and the +little one joined her in whispered sentences. The prayer was not long, +but in Daisy's case it was quickly answered. When the morning quite +broke, and the real working-day had begun, Primrose sent a message to +Noel to come at once to see the child. Daisy received him with a +touching little smile. + +"Was the little girl me?" she asked. "And was the wicked, wicked ogre, +Mr. Dove?" + +"It is clever of you to guess that much, Daisy," answered Noel. + +"Am I the little girl?" continued Daisy, "who made a promise which she +ought now to break? Will God forgive me for breaking a promise which I +made so very, very faithfully? Mr. Noel, I will tell you something. +That promise has nearly killed me. The old Daisy went away when that +promise was made, and such a poor, cowardly, wretched Daisy came in +her place. She'd have been selfish, too, but for you; but you taught +her a little bit about the Palace Beautiful, and she was trying to be +good in spite of the dreadful promise. Then the ogre came again, and +the second time he was so dreadful that she even became very selfish +to get rid of him. Oh, Mr. Noel, is it right for me--will God think it +really right for me--to break that dreadful promise?" + +"He will, Daisy. The promise ought never to have been made. Only an +innocent and ignorant little child would have made it; yes, Daisy, +dear, yours is one of the rare cases of a promise better broken than +kept. See, I am the Prince, and I'm going to take the spell of the +ogre from you. The wicked ogre is locked up in a dungeon instead of +you, and the Prince commands the poor little captive to tell him +everything." + +Then Daisy, with some broken sobs, and with a piteous light in her +blue eyes, told Noel the whole cruel story. He listened without once +interrupting the little narrator. When she had finished, he kissed +her, and told her that she now had nothing to fear, and then, bidding +her sleep away all her troubles, he left her to Primrose's care. By +the next train he himself went to London in full time to attend Dove's +trial. + +That worthy was at first inclined to brazen matters out, but when +Noel, primed with Daisy's confession, appeared on the scene, his face +underwent a remarkable change. Its rubicund tints quite deserted it, +an alarming pallor spreading over every feature. Tommy Dove, who might +have been seen in a foremost position amongst the crowd of spectators, +was heard audibly to exclaim-- + +"Law, I guess there ain't no leg for my respected pa to stand on now!" + +This, although not expressed aloud, seemed also to be Dove's opinion, +for he then and there made a full confession of his wicked practices, +and of the cruel threats he had employed to terrify Daisy. He received +his sentence, which was a severe one, with much stoicism, and, as he +was led away from his place in the prisoner's dock, addressed a +parting word to his affectionate and hysterical spouse-- + +"Never mind, Mrs. Dove, my only love, even fourteen years comes to an +end somehow, and when we meets again we'll make a rule for there being +no attic lodgers." + +"To the very end his was a poetic turn," his wife afterwards remarked +to her favorite cronies. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +ALMOST DEFEATED. + + +With the weight of her secret removed Daisy began slowly, very slowly, +to mend. The strain she had undergone had been too great for her +quickly to recover her strength; but little by little a faint color +did return to her white cheeks, she slept more peacefully, and began +to eat again. + +"There's nothing at all for you to do, Miss Primrose," said Hannah, +"but to give up that post of continually screaming out book and +newspaper stuff to a deaf old lady." + +"She isn't deaf, Hannah," interrupted Primrose. "She wants me to read +to her because her sight is very bad." + +"Well, well," replied Hannah Martin, in a testy tone, "whether she's +deaf or whether she's blind, it ain't no way a fit post for you, Miss +Primrose. You've got to stay here now, and take care of that precious +little lamb, and you had better send for Miss Jasmine to keep you +company." + +"I am certainly not going to leave Daisy at present," replied +Primrose. "I've got money enough to go on with, but I must go back to +town as soon as possible in order to earn enough to return Mr. Noel's +money to him. As to Jasmine, do you know, Hannah, she has got quite a +nice way of making a little income? You remember how cleverly she +always arranged the flowers in our drawing-room at dear Rosebury, and +how our mother always asked her to make bouquets for her? It now seems +that Jasmine has got rather remarkable taste, and some fine ladies in +London are employing her to arrange flowers on their dinner-tables. +They pay her very well indeed for this, and the labor is nothing at +all." + +"Hoot!" said Hannah; "I think it's rather demeaning of herself. Well, +Miss Primrose, I suppose the poor dear will want a holiday the same as +the rest of you. To tell the truth, Miss Primrose, my old eyes ache to +see the darling, she was always such a bonny one." + +Primrose smiled. + +"When the fine ladies go out of town, Hannah, we will have Jasmine +down, and you shall squeeze us all into that nice, cosy little bedroom +of yours. What a good thing it was, Hannah; that you did not follow us +to London, but that you started this nice shop in the country, for +now we three girls can have our change in the country at such small +expense." + +Tears started to Hannah's eyes. + +"I've been always saving up for this, Miss Primrose, and if you will +talk of paying me at all, I'll never forgive you; aren't you my +nurslings, all three of you, and the only creatures I have got to live +for?" + +In the meantime while things were mending for Primrose and Daisy, and +Daisy was beginning once more to get that soft pink in her cheeks +which gave her such a curious and touching likeness to her +name-flower, poor little Jasmine, left behind in her Palace Beautiful, +was not having quite so good a time. + +Jasmine was beset by several worries and anxieties; she was also +extremely lonely, for Miss Egerton, owing to the dangerous illness of +a near relation, was still absent from home, and Poppy, driven by the +dire necessity of earning bread to eat, had been obliged to return, as +little maid-of-all-work, to Penelope Mansion. + +Jasmine was alone, but she was a brave child, and her strong longing +now was to help Primrose, and above all things not to ask for any +money from her. + +For the first few days after Primrose had gone to the country the poor +little girl's resources were very meagre indeed. She had thought that +first sovereign she had earned simply inexhaustible, but it was +surprising how it melted in her inexperienced grasp, and how very, +very little it seemed capable of purchasing. + +In her first delight at finding herself capable of earning money she +had written an extravagantly hopeful letter to Primrose. + +"You need not think at all of me, dear Primrose," she wrote; "keep all +the money you can collect to buy nice nourishing things for dear +little Daisy. Perhaps I shall become quite famous as an arranger of +flowers on great London dinner-tables. If I do get orders, and I think +I am sure of them, I shall not only be able to pay my own London +expenses, but will save something towards our emergency fund. Oh, +Primrose, my heart burns with longings to earn lots of money, and to +be great and strong and famous!" + +This poor little enthusiastic letter reached Primrose when Daisy was +at her worst, and it so happened that it lightened her cares about the +little sister alone in London. She felt quite sure that Jasmine was +getting plenty of orders, and was earning sufficient money for her own +modest wants in the pretty way she spoke of; and in consequence she +did not send her any of the money which Daisy had returned to her. + +But poor little Jasmine was not receiving orders so fast as Primrose +anticipated. One or two other ladies did ask her to dress their +dinner-tables for them, and one or two more promised to do so, and +then forgot all about it; but no one paid her as well as Mrs. Daintree +had done. Noel was out of town, and was unable to interest himself in +her behalf, and so it came to pass that the slender purse could not +supply the modest needs, and Jasmine was much too proud, and too +determined to help herself, to write to Primrose for money. + +These were hard days for the little girl--days which were to prove the +stuff she was made of to the very uttermost--but doubtless they gave +her, as all anxious days of pain bravely borne do, a valuable +experience and a depth of character which she could not otherwise have +acquired. + +The lesson she was to learn, however, was a painful one, and its +sharpness was to be felt very quickly. + +Jasmine's hope of hopes lay in her beloved manuscript. That story, the +first-fruits of her young genius, must surely make her purse bulky, +and must wreathe her little brow with laurels. That story, too, was to +refund poor Poppy the money she had lent, and was to enable Jasmine to +live in comfort during her sister's absence. + +One day, about ten days after Primrose had gone to Rosebury, Jasmine +stood by the windows of the Palace Beautiful to watch the postman. He +was coming up the street, and Jasmine greatly, greatly hoped he would +stop at Miss Egerton's and drop into the letter-box, perhaps, a letter +from Primrose, and more delightful still, a roll of proofs of her dear +story. The postman, however, passed on his way, and gave his loud +rat-tat at the doors to right and the doors to left, but neither +sounded the bell nor gave his double-knock at Miss Egerton's door. +Jasmine sighed deeply, and retiring from the window, sat down to her +frugal breakfast. She looked pale, and her eyes were not as bright and +starry as usual. Presently she took out her purse and looked at its +contents. This was Thursday. She had dressed a dinner-table on Monday, +and had received seven and sixpence. Her purse now contained three +shillings, and she certainly could not accuse herself of any +extravagance in the matter of diet. + +"This will never do," she said to herself. "I believe if I do not get +any more money I shall be obliged to apply to Primrose, and it was +only last night I heard from dear old Rose saying how glad she was +that I was able to support myself. She said Daisy's illness had cost a +great deal, and we must all economize in every possible manner for +some time. Dear darling old Primrose, I will not ask her to help me--I +will manage for myself. Now how shall I do it? I am afraid those +ladies did not care for the star arrangement of flowers which I made +at that last house. I thought them lovely, peeping out through their +dark green leaves, but I heard Mrs. Lee whispering to Mrs. Mansell, +'How peculiar! _do_ you quite like it?' and then Mrs. Mansell said +nothing more about my dressing her dinner-table. Her dinner-party was +to have been to-day, and she _almost_ promised to have me when I +arrived in the morning. Well, there is no use thinking of that; I +cannot swell my purse in that manner this day, that is very evident. +Oh, dear! oh, dear! what shall I do?" + +Here a sudden thought came to Jasmine. Under its influence her cheeks +flushed, and her eyes began to shine. + +"Why, of course," she exclaimed; "how very silly of me to forget!--my +hundred copies of _The Joy-bell_ ought to have arrived by now. Yes, of +course they ought, and perhaps I shall be able to sell some of them. I +have no doubt Mrs. Dredge would buy a couple if Poppy asked her and +perhaps Mrs. Mortlock and Miss Slowcum would also like to see my first +story in print. Yes, of course, I can sell a few copies. Bridget said +she would buy one, and she said she had two cronies who would be sure +to take a copy each. Yes, I expect I shall make a few shillings by the +sale of _The Joy-bell_ to-day, and that will keep me going fine. Oh, +dear! the very moment I have earned a little money by them I must +send a copy down to Daisy. Won't the darling like to show my words of +genius to Primrose? I'll run downstairs this minute, and ask Bridget +if she has not got a parcel for me." + +But alas! no _Joy-bells_ had arrived for Jasmine, and after the little +girl had wondered a great deal, and talked the matter over with +Bridget she determined to put on her hat and go off to consult with +Poppy. + +She was not long finding her way to Penelope Mansion, and Poppy opened +the door for her, but greeted her in a sad voice, and looked decidedly +depressed. + +"I have come about _The Joy-bell_" began Jasmine at once, in an +excited voice. "It ought to have come--my hundred copies, you know, +and they haven't. I must go to inquire about it at once; and, Poppy, +dear, could you come with me?" + +Poppy turned very red. + +"No, Miss Jasmine, darling, I couldn't," she said, in the meekest +voice. + +Poppy's tones were so unlike those she usually employed that Jasmine +glanced at her in some surprise. + +"Why, Poppy, how funny you are!" she exclaimed. "Is anything the +matter?" + +"Don't you notice it, Miss Jasmine, but I'm a bit low-like," said +Poppy. "I has my low fits and my high fits same as t'other folks, and +this is a low fit day--that's all, miss." + +"Oh! I am so sorry. Poor Poppy! And is the swimming in your head as +bad as ever?" + +"It's continual, Miss Jasmine. It seems to have become a kind of +habit, same as the smuts and the Sarah Janes. A swimming head is most +certain the London style of head for a girl like me. Yes, I am sorry I +can't go with you, Miss Jasmine, darling, but I can't this morning. I +hope you will get safe to the City, miss, and that you will see the +editor, and give it to him sharp for not sending you your _Joy-bells_. +Oh, my, Miss Jasmine! to think that your beautiful words is in print +at last! Most likely the whole of London is flooded by them now, and +the editor will be asking you for more of your words of beauty and +wisdom. You make a sharp bargain with him, Miss Jasmine, and before +you put pen to paper again for him, you get your money down. There's +nothing so safe in clinching a bargain as money down. Oh, dear! I wish +I could go with you. And, Miss Jasmine, if you could find it +convenient to pay me back say one and sixpence of the little loan, +I'll be for ever obliged, darling." + +At this moment Mrs. Flint's voice was heard calling Poppy, and +demanding who she was standing gossiping with. Mrs. Flint's voice +sounded quite sharp, and Jasmine guessed that something unusual must +have occurred to disturb her, for Mrs. Flint was known on principle +never to excite herself. + +"What is the matter with her?" she inquired of Poppy, who flushed up +at her tones. + +"Oh, nothing, miss. She's only a bit put out about the broken boots. +There, I must run." + +Poppy almost shut the door in Jasmine's face. She was certainly very +unlike her usual self. + +Jasmine walked down the steps of the Mansion, and slowly, very slowly, +went up the street to meet the omnibus which was to convey her +Citywards. + +She was quite a clever little Londoner now, and knew which were the +right omnibuses to take, and, in short, how to find her way about +town. She hailed the City omnibus, and hastily and humbly took her +place amongst its crowded passengers. She was the unlucky twelfth, and +her advent was certainly not hailed with delight. The bright morning +had turned to rain, and the passengers, most of them women, were +wrapped up in waterproof cloaks. Jasmine, when she entered the +omnibus, looked so small, so timid, and unimportant, that no one +thought it worth while even to move for her, and at last she was +thankful to get a little pin-point of room between two very buxom +ladies, who both almost in the same breath desired her not to crowd +them, and both also fiercely requested her to keep her wet dress from +touching their waterproofs. + +At another time Jasmine would have been quite spirited enough to +resent the unfriendly behavior of the inmates of the City 'bus; but +her interview with Poppy had depressed her greatly, and she had a kind +of terrified little fear that she knew the reason of Mrs. Flint's +sharp tones, that she could guess why Poppy's bright face should look +so dismal, and why she was obliged so earnestly to beg of her to +return her one and sixpence. + +"She wants her own money--her wages, that she earned with a swimming +head and all," thought poor Jasmine. "How selfish of me not to +remember before that of course, poor Poppy would want her wages; it is +perfectly dreadful to think of her doing without them. Why, of course, +Mrs. Flint would be likely to scold her if she went about with her +ragged boots when she earns such good wages. Poor, dear, brave Poppy! +she would never tell what she did with her money. Well, she must have +it all back to-day. Yes, I am determined about that, she shall have it +back, to-day." + +Jasmine was thinking so hard, and so absorbing was her theme, that she +leaned unconsciously against the fat neighbor on her right. This good +person immediately pushed her with some vigor into the arms of the +portly neighbor on her left, who exclaimed, in a cross voice-- + +"Lor' sakes! my dear, sit upright, do." + +"I hope the young person will soon get out," exclaimed the other +neighbor. "I call it downright unconscionable to crowd up Christian +women like this. Might I make bold to inquire, miss, when you are +thinking of alighting?" + +"I am going to Paternoster Row," said Jasmine, in a meek voice. "I do +not think I am very far from there now." + +"Oh, no, miss! we have only to go down Newgate Street, and there you +are. It's a queer place, is Paternoster Row, not that I knows much +about it." + +"A mighty bookish place," took up the other neighbor "they say they +are all bookworms that live there, and that they are as dry as bits of +parchment. I shouldn't say that a bright little miss like you had any +call to go near such a place." + +Jasmine drew herself up, and her face became sunshiny once more. + +"You would not think," she began, with an air of modest pride, "that I +belong to the booky and the parchmenty people, but I do. I am going +down the Row to inquire about one of my publications, perhaps I ought +to say my first, so I am anxious about it." + +"Lor', who would have thought it!" exclaimed both the ladies, but they +instantly fell back and seemed to think it better to leave so +alarmedly learned a little girl alone. For the remainder of the ride +they talked across Jasmine about the price of onions, and where the +cheapest bacon was to be purchased, and they both breathed a sigh of +relief when she stepped out into the rain and they could once more +expand themselves in the space which she had occupied. + +Meanwhile the forlorn little adventurer walked down the narrow path of +this celebrated Row. It was still raining heavily, and Jasmine's +umbrella had several rents in its canopy. Now that she was so close to +her destination she began to feel strangely nervous, and many fears +hitherto unknown beset her. Suppose, after all, _The Joy-bell_ which +contained the first portion of her story had not had a large success; +suppose, after all, the public were not so delighted with her flowing +words. Perhaps the editor would receive her very coldly, and would +tell her what a loss her story had been, and how indisposed he felt to +go on with it. If this was the case she never, never would have +courage to ask him to give her Poppy's wages. If the editor scolded +her she felt that she would be incapable of saying a word in her own +defence. Nay, she thought it extremely probable that then and there +she would burst into tears. Undoubtedly, she was in a very low frame +of mind to-day. She, as well as Poppy, had her low fit on, and she +greatly trembled for the result of the coming interview. Since that +pathetic little last speech of Poppy's about her broken boots Jasmine +had quite forgotten how sorely she needed money for herself. Her one +and only desire just now was to restore Poppy's money. + +"I must do it," she said to herself; "I must do it, and I will. I have +made up my mind, and I really need not be so frightened. After all, +Poppy and Daisy are both quite sure that I am a genius. Daisy says +that I have got the face of a genius, and Poppy was in such great, +great delight at my story. It is not likely that they would both be +wrong, and Poppy is a person of great discernment. I must cheer up and +believe what they told me. I daresay Poppy is right, and London is +half-flooded with my story. Ah, here I am at the entrance of the court +where the editor of _The Joy-bell_ lives. How funny it is to be here +all alone. I really feel quite like a heroine. Now I am at the +office--how queer, how very queer--I do not see any _Joy-bells_ +pressed up against the window. No, not a single one; there are lots of +other books and papers, but no _Joy-bells_. Dear, dear! my heart does +beat, for I am thinking that perhaps Poppy is right, and that all the +copies of _The Joy-bells_ are bought up; that, of course, is on +account of my story." Then Jasmine entered the house, and went into a +little office where a red-haired boy was sitting on a high stool +before a dirty-looking desk. The boy had a facetious and rather +unpleasant face, and was certainly not remarkable for good manners. + +"I want to see the editor of _The Joy-bell_," asked Jasmine, in as +firm a tone as she could command. + +The red-haired boy raised his eyes from a huge ledger which he was +pretending to occupy himself over, and said, "Can't see him," in a +laconic tone, and dropped his eyes again. + +"But why?" asked Jasmine, somewhat indignantly. "I have particular +business with him; it is most necessary that I should see him. Pray, +let him know that I am here." + +"Very sorry," replied the boy, "but can't." + +"Why not?" + +"'Cause he ain't in town." + +"Oh!" + +Poor Jasmine fell back a pace or two; then she resumed in a different +tone-- + +"I am very much disappointed; there is a story of mine in _The +Joy-bell_, and I wanted to speak to him about it. It was very +important, indeed," she added, in so sad a voice that the red-haired +boy gazed at her in some astonishment. + +"My word," he said, "then you do not know?" + +"Don't know what?" + +"Why, we has had a funeral here." + +"A funeral--oh, dear! oh, dear! is the editor of _The Joy-bell_ dead?" + +Here the red-haired boy burst into a peal of irrepressible laughter. + +"Dead! he ain't dead, but _The Joy-bell_ is; we had her funeral last +week." + +Poor Jasmine staggered against the wall, and her pretty face became +ghastly white. + +"Oh, boy," she said, "do tell me about it; how can _The Joy-bell_ be +dead, and have a funeral? Oh, please, don't jest with me, for it's so +important." + +The genuine distress in her tones touched at last some vulnerable +point in the facetious office-boy's breast. + +"I'm real sorry for you, miss," he said, "particular as you seems so +cut up; but what I tell you is true, and you had better know it. That +editor has gone, and _The Joy-bell_ is decently interred. I was at her +birth, and I was at her funeral. She had a short life, and was never +up to much. I never guessed she'd hold out as long as she did; but the +editor was a cute one, and for a time he bamboozled his authors, and +managed to live on them. Yes, _The Joy-bell_ is in her quiet grave at +last, and can't do no more harm to nobody. Lor', miss, I wouldn't +take on if I was you, you'd soon get accustomed to it if you had a +desk at an office like this. In at the births, and in at the deaths am +I, and I don't make no count of one or t'other. Why, now, there was +_The Stranger_--which went in for pictorial get up, and was truly +elegant--it only lasted six months; and there was _The Ocean Wave_, +which did not even live as long. And there was _Merrie Lassie_--oh, +their names is legion. We'll have another started in no time. So you +must be going, miss? Well, good morning. If I was you, miss, I +wouldn't send no more stories to this yere office." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +ONE SHOE OFF AND ONE SHOE ON. + + +"I must see you, Poppy--I must see you, and I can't come into the +house. I could not face Mrs. Mortlock, nor Mrs. Dredge, nor Miss +Slowcum. I am a dreadful failure, Poppy, a dreadful, dreadful failure, +and I cannot look any one in the face. Do come out with me, dear +Poppy, and at once; for if I can't speak to you at the present moment +my heart will break." + +"They're teaing just now," said Poppy, in a reflective tone; "they are +all in the dining-room as snug as possible over their high tea. They +have shrimps for tea, and a wonderful new kind of paste that Aunt +Flint brought in to-day. It's called Gentlemen's Relish, and eats well +on hot toast, and I made a lot. Oh, my! won't the ladies go in for it! +Though Miss Slowcum always is so bitter against gentlemen, she will +eat their relish, and no mistake. Well, Miss Jasmine they are all +engaged over the pleasures of the social board, and what's to hinder +you and me going down to the back scullery and having our talk there? +You see, miss, if I went out with you I'd have to tidy up a bit first, +and that would take time." + +"You are quite sure they won't hear me, Poppy, if I walk across the +hall. Miss Slowcum is dreadfully curious, and if she heard my step in +the hall she would run out even though she was eating Gentlemen's +Relish. I do not want any one to see me now that I am a failure." + +"Step on this mat," said Poppy--"now on this; now make a spring here. +There you are. Now we'll be down in my scullery long before Miss +Slowcum can get to the dining-room door. Now, miss, let me put a seat +for you. The scullery ain't so damp to-day, is it, Miss Jasmine?" + +"I don't know," said Jasmine, who looked very tired, and almost ill. +"Poppy, dear, I have not brought the one and sixpence." + +"Oh, it don't matter," said Poppy. "One and sixpence never fretted me +yet, and it ain't going to begin. You'll pay me when you can, Miss +Jasmine, and there ain't no hurry." + +But Jasmine noticed that Poppy moved her little feet out of sight, and +in spite of her brave words Jasmine observed a look of dismay creeping +into her bright eyes. + +This slight action on Poppy's part--this little lurking gleam of +disappointment--were as the proverbial last straw to poor Jasmine. Her +fortitude gave way, and she burst into the bitterest tears she had +ever shed. + +Poppy was much alarmed, and stood over her dear little lady, and +brought her cold water, and tried to comfort her by every means in her +power. + +When Jasmine had a little recovered herself she told the whole bitter +story of her morning's adventure to Poppy. That young person's +indignation knew no bounds. + +"The editor must be put in prison," she said; "he must be caught and +put in prison. Mrs. Jones the charwoman has a second cousin once +removed, whose first cousin is married to a policeman, and Mrs. Jones +is coming here to-morrow, and I'll get her to see her second cousin, +and the second cousin shall see her first cousin who is married to a +policeman, and he will tell us what is to be done. That's going to the +fountainhead, ain't it, Miss Jasmine? Never you fear, miss, darling, +that editor shall be locked up in prison, and be made to give back +your money. Never you fear, dear Miss Jasmine, it will all come right +when Mrs. Jones sees her second cousin who has a first cousin who is +married to a policeman!" + +Poppy became quite cheerful when she remembered Mrs. Jones's +remarkable means of getting at a policeman, but Jasmine could not be +comforted; she shook her head almost petulantly. + +"It's all most puzzling for me," she said, "about Mrs. Jones and her +policemen; it sounds exactly like the House that Jack Built, and I +shall have a swimming head myself if I listen to you. No, Poppy, that +policeman will never lock the wicked editor up in prison; he is a +great deal too clever to allow himself to be locked up. Oh, dear! +Poppy, what shall I do? All your money is gone, and my story is gone, +and I know you are wanting boots as badly as possible. You are a dear, +brave Poppy, but I know you have not a boot to your foot." + +"Yes, Miss Jasmine, I has, I has one boot and one shoe; the shoe is an +out-door one, and heavy, and the boot is a light one. Worn together, +they make one walk a little one-sided, and the ladies, in particular +Miss Slowcum, don't like it, but, lor', that don't matter nothing to +speak of; they can't do nothing to me except tack on a few more names +to Sarah. It don't fret me, Miss Jasmine, and it needn't fret you." + +"All the same, I am going to get you your money, Poppy. I have +absolutely made up my mind. I don't know how to do it, but do it I +will. I had to come here to-night to tell you what had really +happened; but now I am going home. You won't have to wear that +dreadful boot and shoe together much longer." + +After this Jasmine managed to walk through the hall without being +detected by Miss Slowcum; and very tired and weary, in process of time +she found her way back to the Palace Beautiful. She drank a glass of +milk which Bridget had laid ready for her, and ate two or three slices +of bread and butter. Then she went into the little bedroom, with its +three pretty white beds, and opening her own special trunk began to +examine its contents. She was dreadfully frightened at what she was +about to do, but all the same she was determined to do it. She would +pawn or sell what little valuables she possessed to give Poppy back +her wages. + +When the girls left Rosebury, Primrose made a very careful division of +her mother's possessions. To Jasmine's share had come some really +beautiful Spanish lace. Jasmine had not particularly admired it, but +Primrose fancied that it would some day suit her speaking and +vivacious face better than it would herself or Daisy. Jasmine had +jammed the lace into a corner of her trunk, and but for the memory of +dear mamma which it called up, would have made it a present to +anybody. But one day it so happened that Miss Egerton caught sight of +it; she exclaimed at its beauty, and said that it was really worth a +considerable sum of money. + +The lace consisted of a handsome shawl of black Spanish, and what was +more beautiful, and also rarer, two very lovely flounces of white. + +Miss Egerton was quite right when she spoke of the lace as valuable, +but her ideas of value and Jasmine's were widely different. Jasmine +would have thought herself well repaid if any one had given her +Poppy's wages for the old lace; she would indeed have opened her eyes +had she known at what sum Miss Egerton valued it. In addition to the +lace Jasmine had a little thin gold ring which Mrs. Mainwaring had +worn as a guard to her wedding-ring. Jasmine much preferred the ring +to the lace, but she slipped it on her finger, intending to part with +it also, if the lace did not fetch enough money. She knew that +Primrose would be deeply hurt at the lace being sold, for she had over +and over said that come what might, they would not part with their few +little home mementoes; but Jasmine was past caring even for what +Primrose said to-night. With her lace wrapped up in an untidy parcel +she slipped downstairs. Bridget came into the hall to speak to her. + +"Look here, missie, is it not a little late for you to be going out?" + +"Oh, not at all, Biddy, dear. I am going a little way. I won't be +long." + +Then Jasmine went up to the old servant and spoke in her most coaxing +and fascinating tones. + +"Biddy, what did you say was the sign of a pawnshop?" + +"A pawnshop, Miss Jasmine? Why, bless us and save us, miss, what have +you got to say to such places?" + +"Oh, nothing in particular, Bridget, only I thought I would like to +know. I am always trying to get information on every kind of subject. +Is the pawnshop the sign of the three balls, Biddy?" + +"Yes, yes, miss--what a curious young lady! There, run out and take +your walk quick, and come back as soon as possible, for though it's +close on Midsummer Day we'll have the night on us before you return if +you are not quick." + +Jasmine left the house, nodding brightly to Bridget as she did so, and +the old servant returned to her interrupted work. + +"She's a bright bonnie girl," she said to herself, "and hasn't she got +a winsome way? I hope she drank up her milk, for she is looking a bit +pale, and I hope she won't stay out late, for it may turn damp when +the dew begins to fall." + +Bridget was busy over her work, and was thinking of Jasmine after all +in only a very lazy and comfortable fashion when a cab drew up to the +door, and Miss Egerton most unexpectedly returned. She was not in the +house a moment before she asked for Jasmine. + +"She's just gone out, ma'am," answered Bridget. "She had a parcel in +her hand, and she said she was going out for a run. No, ma'am, I don't +say she's looking at all particularly well. She's very white and +worried looking, and she is scarcely ever in the house. She says she +must improve her mind, and that is why she is out, and she do ask the +funniest questions. Just now it was to know what was the sign of a +pawnshop." + +"The sign of a pawnshop?" echoed Miss Egerton; "and did you tell her, +Bridget?" + +"Why, of course, ma'am. She said she wanted to know for the improving +of her mind. She had a little parcel in her hand, and she said she +would be back again in no time. Shall I get you a cup of tea, ma'am?" + +"No, thank you, Bridget. I cannot eat until I find out about Miss +Jasmine. I do not like her asking you those questions, Bridget, and I +do not like her taking a little parcel with her. The child may be in +want or trouble. I must see to it at once. Bridget, have you any idea +which is the nearest pawnshop to this?" + +"Oh, ma'am, there's Spiller's round the corner, and there's Davidson's +in the main road. Now, Miss Egerton, I am most certain Miss Jasmine +wanted to hear about the pawnshop for the sake of improving her mind, +and for that reason only. I wish you would stay, ma'am, and have your +cup of tea, for you look real tired." + +But Miss Egerton was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +SPANISH LACE. + + +She walked quickly down the street, hoping every moment to overtake +Jasmine. Miss Egerton had old-fashioned ideas about many things, and +nothing could exceed her horror at the thought of this pretty and +refined-looking child finding her way alone to a pawnshop. + +"Poor little girl!" she said to herself. "She must be really in +absolute want. What has she taken to pawn? Oh, dear! this anxiety is +terrible--and yet, and yet, how glad I am to know those orphan girls." + +Miss Egerton was very tired, had just returned from the death-bed of +her dearest friend, had certainly heaps of worries of her own; but +that did not prevent her whole heart from going out to Jasmine with an +affection which was almost motherly. + +When at last she found the little girl just coming out of Spiller's +pawnshop she laid a trembling hand on her arm. + +"Jasmine, oh, my dear child, you have been in there! You have been +pawning something." + +Jasmine was in such a depressed state of mind that even Miss Egerton's +unexpected return failed to astonish her. She said, raising two sad +eyes to the good lady's face-- + +"It was only that old Spanish lace. I always knew it was not worth +much. The man only laughed when I asked for Poppy's wages for it. He +has given me ten shillings, and I am going off with it to Poppy +to-night. Yes, Miss Egerton, I must, I really must." + +"What have you tried to pawn, Jasmine?" asked Miss Egerton, when she +could find her voice. "Surely not that lovely, valuable Spanish lace. +My dear child, come back with me into the shop this moment." + +"But I must keep my ten shillings," exclaimed Jasmine "Oh! Miss +Egerton, don't, don't! You don't know what has happened to me!" + +Miss Egerton took Jasmine's little hand in hers. + +"My poor child, you shall tell me all. Jasmine, dear, that lace is +worth pounds. I shall redeem it at once, for my sake, if not for +yours. There, poor little girl, keep your ten shillings, if it makes +you happy." + +The man who had lent Jasmine half a sovereign on the Spanish lace of +course knew little or nothing of its true value, and the good lady had +therefore small difficulty in getting it back. She walked home holding +Jasmine's hot little hand, took her into her own pretty drawing-room, +feasted her on many good things, which she had brought from the +country, and finally made her tell her all her sorrowful little story. + +"You always said that my writing was not up to much," said Jasmine, in +conclusion. "I did not like you to say it, and I was most anxious to +prove you wrong, but now I know that you are right." + +Miss Egerton looked quietly at the excited child. + +"My dear," she said, in her gentle tones, "I do not know--no one +knows--whether in the future you will be able to write. Our writers +ought to be our teachers. Do you think you are fit to teach, Jasmine?" + +"I do not know," said Jasmine, hanging her head. + +Miss Egerton got up, and laid her hand tenderly on the pretty little +curly head. + +"This day has taught you a grand though painful lesson, dearest. You +will be better able to write in the future for and because of the +suffering you have gone through to-day. Now, Jasmine, I will say no +more--you must go straight to bed and to sleep. In the morning you can +take your ten shillings to Poppy. Yes, dear, of course it is yours, +and for the present the Spanish lace is mine." + +Jasmine, notwithstanding all her troubles, slept soundly that night, +but Miss Egerton lay awake. + +"The time has come," she said to herself, "when energetic measures +must be taken. The girls--dear, brave, sweet girls--have undoubtedly +to a certain extent failed. Poor little Jasmine! she might have had a +worse experience than the loss of that silly manuscript. But what +terrible dangers sweet little Daisy ran! Yes, I shall go and have a +talk with Mrs. Ellsworthy to-morrow--I know she is in town." + +Accordingly, when Jasmine went off to see Poppy holding her +half-sovereign firmly inside her glove, and dimly wondering if she +would have any money of her own left to buy some dinner with +presently, Miss Egerton stepped into an omnibus which presently put +her down in the vicinity of Park Lane. She was fortunate in finding +Mrs. Ellsworthy at home, and also disengaged. + +The good little lady received her with delight, for Miss Egerton was a +prime favorite with her. + +"Arthur tells me that you know my girls," she said presently. "He +hints to me that you and he have a secret knowledge of the address of +my naughty, troublesome girls." + +"I do know where they are to be found," said Miss Egerton in her +gravest tones; "but before I begin to talk about them I want to +transact a little business with you. I know how kind you are, and how +fond of helping people in distress. At the present moment a lady of my +acquaintance is in great poverty; she has got some valuable Spanish +lace. I should like to sell it for her." + +"I adore Spanish lace," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, her eyes sparkling. + +"I thought I once heard you say you did, so I have brought it with me. +May I show it to you?" + +"How good of you, dear Miss Egerton; let me see it at once. Real +Spanish lace is of great value. Oh, and white, too! What lovely +flounces!" + +"The lady to whom they belonged know nothing of their real value; she +was disposing of both shawl and flounces yesterday evening for ten +shillings." + +"Oh, Miss Egerton! oh, poor, poor thing! I will gladly give her fifty +pounds for them." + +Miss Egerton coughed, and colored slightly. + +"The fact is," she said, "I do not think she ought to sell them; they +are mementoes, and belonged to her mother. Mrs. Ellsworthy, I won't +deceive you any longer. This lace is now the property of Jasmine +Mainwaring. She took it to a pawnshop last night, and but for me would +have absolutely given it away; I was just in time to redeem it. Now +the fact is, I happen to know that Primrose does not wish this lace to +be sold; I offered, long ago, to find a purchaser for it, but she +looked terribly distressed at the idea. What I should like to do would +be this; in short, in short--I do not quite know how to put it--" + +"I know, I know," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, clapping her hands, "you want +me to be a pawnbroker, and to lend money on it. I will, I will, with +pleasure; oh, this is quite a fresh and delightful idea." + +"Give me ten pounds to help the poor child over her present +difficulties," said Miss Egerton, tears in her eyes. "Yes, ten pounds +is quite enough. I will not take a penny more." + +"Now, Mrs. Ellsworthy, as we have comfortably disposed of this little +matter, I want to talk to you most seriously about the girls." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy bent her head to listen with rapt attention; and the +two women were engaged for a couple of hours in most earnest +conversation. + +That afternoon, when Jasmine, very weary and very depressed, toiled up +the stairs to her Palace Beautiful, she found two letters awaiting +her. One was from Primrose, containing very cheerful news about Daisy. +Daisy was really getting better, and had even been out for a few +minutes. The other letter had not come by the post, and Jasmine +wondered who her correspondent could be. She opened it eagerly. It +contained a folded sheet of paper, out of which dropped two crisp Bank +of England notes for five pounds each. The sheet of paper itself +contained the following words:-- + +"DEAR JASMINE:--I have found a pawnbroker who better understands the +value of your old lace. I have borrowed ten pounds for you on it, with +liberty for you to redeem the shawl and flounces at your convenience. +You can pay me back the ten shillings I lent you last night when you +get change; but there is no hurry. Come and have tea this evening at +six, dear. I have much to talk over with you. + + "Your affectionate friend, + "AGNES EGERTON." + +Poor little Jasmine's delight can scarcely be conceived. She found it +an easy matter to change one of the notes, and Poppy was in possession +of the balance of her money long before the evening. Her radiant face +seemed scarcely to belong to the same girl when she entered Miss +Egerton's room in time for that good lady's tea. + +"Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, when the meal was over, and Jasmine had +exhausted her many expressions of rapture, and astonishment, and +gratitude, "I have news to tell you. That dreadful man Dove has +received a long term of imprisonment. He won't trouble our dear little +Daisy again." + +"And Daisy is beginning to get better," said Jasmine. "I heard from +Primrose to-day, and she wrote quite hopefully about her. Yes, I +suppose I am glad that Mr. Dove is locked up; it was so very wicked +of him to frighten our little pet." + +"I also had a letter from Primrose," said Miss Egerton. "She is +unhappy because she thinks that I am at personal inconvenience for the +money which I lent her instead of that which Dove stole. I am not +inconvenienced for it--I can never regret making matters a little +smooth for you poor children. I am going to write to Primrose +to-night; but before I do so I should like to have a little talk with +you, Jasmine." + +"Oh, yes," said Jasmine, "I feel very humble to-night, and very +thankful. I am in the kind of humor to-night when I could listen to +any amount of good advice." + +"Notwithstanding, Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, with a slight smile, +"that advisers are never considered the most agreeable people. +Jasmine, dear, I have seen Mrs. Ellsworthy to-day." + +"Our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy," said Jasmine, flushing brightly; "and +how was she? Does she know that I still care for her?" + +"I think she does, Jasmine, and undoubtedly she cares for you. She +again offers to help you, and, Jasmine, dear, I think the time has +come when you must accept her help." + +Jasmine smiled, and flushed brightly. + +"I do not mind," she said; "I mean I do not mind as Primrose minds, +but I know, I fear that it will go very hard with Primrose." + +"It is often very hard to do right, Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, "and +I can quite believe that Primrose will find it difficult to accede to +our plan. At the same time I feel convinced that although she will +have a great struggle, in the end she will yield to it. This is like +the 'Hill Difficulty' to Primrose, but she is not the sort of girl to +turn away from it without conquering its steepness and its toils. +Jasmine, dear, you three have tried bravely to help yourselves, and +you have--yes, I must say it, dear--you have failed. Primrose cannot +spend her life as continual reader to Mrs. Mortlock; you see now, my +dear little girl, that you are much too young to earn anything by your +pen, and little Daisy--ah! Jasmine, how thankful we ought to be that +we have our little Daisy still with us--but Daisy must never again +have her peace of mind so seriously imperilled. Jasmine, you three +girls want two things--you want education, and you want protection. +You want to be thoroughly educated, first of all, in those general +matters which all cultivated women ought to know about; and secondly, +in the special matter which each of you has a taste for. That special +taste or talent ought to be developed to the very uttermost, so that +bye-and-bye each of you girls can take up a profession and earn her +living usefully to others, and with ease and comfort to herself. If +Primrose feels that she can after a time paint very exquisitely and +very beautifully on porcelain, she ought to be apprenticed to one of +the best houses, and there properly learn her trade; and you, Jasmine, +whether you eventually earn your bread by writing beautiful stories, +or lovely poems, or whether the artist within you develops into a love +for making painted pictures instead of word pictures, you must for +many years to come be taught to think and have your little mind and +vivid imagination fed on the wise and great thoughts of others. +Daisy's future we none of us can talk about, but I have no doubt she +also has her special gift. + +"Now, Jasmine, what a long, long lecture I am giving you, only the sum +and substance of it all is, dear, that I want to protect you, and Mrs. +Ellsworthy is willing and anxious to advance a sufficient sum of money +to have you all properly educated. When you go to bed to-night I am +going to write very fully to Primrose on the subject." + +"I wonder if she will refuse," said Jasmine, speaking in a very +thoughtful tone; "she is very, very determined. You think she will +regard it as a 'Hill Difficulty' which she ought to climb. I think she +will regard it as a fearful, dreadful temptation which she ought to +put away." + +Miss Egerton smiled, for Jasmine's sunny little face looked so grave +and anxious, and there was such a disturbed frown between her brows. + +"At any rate, dear," continued the governess, "you will not oppose my +scheme. You will see, dear, that the greatest strength sometimes shows +itself in yielding. Jasmine, dear, are you not quite tired of having +your own way?" + +"A little," answered Jasmine. "I mean," she added, "that I never again +will offer my stories to papers recommended by people like Mr. and +Mrs. Dove." + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +A DAZZLING DAY. + + +Mrs. Ellsworthy felt very much excited when Miss Egerton left her. She +paced up and down her pretty boudoir, her cheeks were flushed and her +pretty eyes bore traces of tears. Miss Egerton had told the good +little lady for the first time the sad story of Daisy's terrible +adventure with Mr. Dove. All the poor little child's terror, and her +final flight into the country, were graphically described by the good +woman. + +"She went to find me, little darling, little darling," repeated Mrs. +Ellsworthy, tears running down her cheeks. "Oh, my dear little girl! +to think of her being turned away from my very gates." + +When Miss Egerton at last took her leave Mrs. Ellsworthy felt too much +excited to stay quiet; and when her husband came into the room he +found her much perturbed. + +"Joseph," she said, running up to him, "I have such a story for you," +and then she once again repeated little Daisy's adventure. + +"And Joseph," she added, "Miss Egerton and I have quite agreed that +you and I are to educate the girls; and, Joseph, the dear good +creature is resolved that they shall stay with her in town, and that +you and I are only to have the pleasure of spending any amount of +money on them; but I will not have it. Joseph, I am resolved that they +shall come to us at Shortlands, and have the instructions of the very +best governess I can procure for them, and then in the spring the +darlings shall come up to town, and have masters for every conceivable +sort of accomplishment. Oh, Joseph, we shall have our Jasmine yet, as +our very own." + +Mr. Ellsworthy smiled, kissed his wife, patted her on the cheek, told +her to do just what she liked, and went downstairs to his beloved +books. But Mrs. Ellsworthy's excitement kept her on thorns for the +greater part of the evening. + +That night she dreamt of the Mainwarings; dreamt that she saw Daisy's +piteous little face when she was turned away from her gates; dreamt +again a brighter dream, that Jasmine had her arms round her neck, and +was calling her mother; that Primrose, with none of her sweet dignity +abated, was smiling at her, and saying gratefully, "I accept your +kindness; I will gladly take your money; I will come and live with you +at Shortlands, and be to you as a daughter." And Daisy was saying, in +that funny little sententious voice of hers which she sometimes used, +"Weren't we all naughty, and aren't we good now, and is it not a good +thing that our pride should have a fall?" + +Mrs. Ellsworthy sighed deeply when she awoke from this beautiful +dream. + +"It was but a dream," she said to herself, and she went downstairs +sadly and soberly to her breakfast. + +Mr. Ellsworthy had breakfasted at a much earlier hour, and the little +lady had her beautifully-appointed table to herself. + +"Now, if the girls were all here," she thought, "how pleasant and +cheerful it would be! Primrose should sit just opposite to me, and +pour out the coffee; she would do it very nicely and deftly, and would +look so sweet and daughterly. And Jasmine--little witch!--I do not +suppose she would keep the same seat two mornings running, and I +should have to tell her over and over not to jump up every moment to +rush to the window. Daisy would sit near me, and, of course, I should +have to have a special chair made for that funny kitten of hers. I +would dress the three girls in white--white is so sweet for girls--and +how Jasmine and Daisy would chatter; their voices are very sweet in +tone, and they never talk too fast, so as to make one's head ache. I +often fancy I hear Jasmine talking to me now, her voice is so +bright--and--oh, dear! is not that very like her voice? Who is that +asking for me in the hall? Surely, surely, it must be Jasmine +Mainwaring. No other voice that I know has such a ring about it." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy half rose from her seat, half sat down again, and the +color of eager anticipation flushed her cheeks. + +The eager voice outside came nearer, light steps sounded in the hall, +and the next moment Jasmine had her arms round her friend's neck, and +was kissing her, while both woman and girl wept. + +"I had to come to you," said Jasmine, while she wiped some bright +falling tears away. "I have not come to stay, nor to give you our +address, nor to do anything of which Primrose would not approve; but +after Miss Egerton told me last night all that you wanted to do for +us, and how you still loved us, I just had to run round and thank you +and kiss you. Primrose and Daisy are still in the country, and Daisy +is better. Aren't you glad she will be all right again soon?" + +"Have breakfast with me, Jasmine," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "I was +thinking so much about you, and so longing to see you, and to have you +in the room seems like a beautiful dream realized. Sit down now and +have some breakfast with me." + +"I did not have any at home, so I will," answered Jasmine. "I stayed +awake half the night thinking about you. Oh, you are a real, real +friend!" + +"And I spent the greater part of the night dreaming about you three +girls," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Have some buttered toast, Jasmine, and +some of this apricot preserve." + +"Did you dream about us last night?" asked Jasmine. "Did you really? +You must love us very much." + +"I believe I do. Now, Jasmine, I will not ask you for your address. I +will do nothing more to really help you until we get Primrose's +letter, but I want you all the same to spend this whole long day with +me." + +Jasmine smiled, and her cheeks flushed. + +"It would be very luxurious," she said, "and such a change from our +attics, although Daisy does call them a Palace Beautiful. Will you +take me for a drive, if I stay, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and will you let me +imagine myself quite a rich little girl all day long? You must not +give me any presents, you know, for Primrose would not like that; but +I can imagine I have got all kinds of things, and I wonder, oh! I +wonder, if we might call to see Poppy this afternoon?" + +"We will take her too for a drive in the Park," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. +"I have heard a great deal of that Poppy of yours, and I think she is +quite a splendid kind of girl." + +Thus a very delightful programme was unexpectedly realized by two +little hard-working London girls, for Mrs. Ellsworthy gave herself up +to be enchanting, and took Poppy away from her work of drudgery, and +from the astonished ladies of the boarding-house. + +Poppy, in her dazzlingly brilliant hat, and with her cheeks quite +flaming with excitement, stepped into the carriage, and drove away, +facing Mrs. Ellsworthy and Jasmine, to the great scandal of the +footman, who was obliged, sorely against his will, to assist her to +her place. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy took the girls all round the Park, and then to a place +of amusement, and finally she presented Poppy with a very neat brown +dress and jacket, and hat to match, saying, as she did so, that really +Jasmine, even though she forbade her to offer her any presents, could +not lay a like embargo with regard to her friends. + +"It's of all the dazzlings, the most blindingly beautiful," was +Poppy's oft-reiterated comment. "Oh! won't I have something to tell +them ladies about bye-and-bye! Oh, my! Miss Jasmine, what a neat hat, +miss! I don't mind denuding this one now, for I has got a 'at from a +West End shop what beats anything that Miss Slowcum wears for +gentility." + +Finally, Jasmine and Poppy both returned to their respective homes, +tired, but wonderfully happy little girls. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy also laid her head that night on her pillow with a +wonderful sense of satisfaction. + +"Even if they do not come to me--although they must come," she +soliloquized, "I am glad--I shall all my life be glad that I gave +Jasmine a happy day." + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +A LETTER. + + +A morning or two after this, when Daisy had greatly advanced towards +convalescence, and was sitting up in Hannah's tiny little sitting-room +to partake of a very dainty little breakfast, Primrose received a long +letter from Miss Egerton. This was what it contained:-- + +"MY DEAR PRIMROSE, + +"You of course know that that wicked man Dove has received the +sentence which he so richly deserves. Alas, we cannot get back all the +stolen money, but we must manage without it, dear, and you are never +even to talk of repaying me for the furnishing of dear little Daisy's +Palace Beautiful. It has been a joy to me to have you, dear, and I +hope you will be able to bring Daisy back with you, and to live here +in peace and comfort next winter. Dear Primrose, it is more and more +evident to me that young girls should not venture to come to London +alone. You showed much bravery in your undertaking; but, my dear +girl, the pitfalls you exposed yourselves to were awful to +contemplate. I don't want to make you unhappy, dear, after all you +have suffered with regard to Daisy, but I must now tell you of a +little adventure which our poor dear Jasmine has had. You know how +very anxious she has been to see herself in print. Of course, I could +not conscientiously encourage her, for although she may have talent +(this I am not prepared to say), yet she is a great deal too young to +have anything printed. All books worth anything should teach, and +surely our dear little girl is only at the age to be taught herself. + +"Well, Primrose, the little maid was fired with the strongest +ambition. She wrote her novel in secret, and one day, accompanied by +that good-natured Poppy Jenkins and sweet little Daisy, went +Citywards, and simply plunged--for I can use no other word--into the +unknown and to me rather awful realm of publishers. + +"Poor child, of course none of the good houses would even look at her +immature productions; but she was taken in by a man who professed +himself to be the editor of a monthly paper--_The Joy-bell_ was its +silly title. On an understanding that her story was to be printed in +the pages of _The Joy-bell_--of course I've never seen the paper, and +should not dream of reading anything so rubbishy--poor Jasmine was +induced to subscribe two pounds five shillings, or, in other words, to +undertake to buy one hundred copies of _The Joy-bell_. Of course she +imagined that her printed words would immediately bring her fame. She +paid her money, and looked out for her story." + +"Where did she get the money from?" thought the anxious reader. + +"Primrose, how wrinkled up your brows are;" called out little Daisy. + +Primrose sighed, and resumed her perusal of the closely-written +sheets. + +"On the very evening our little Daisy ran away Jasmine received her +first proofs. They were barbarously printed on wretched paper, but the +poor child was in such trouble then that she scarcely noticed them. +Afterwards she did read them with care, and was surprised to find what +a very small portion of her story had been printed. + +"You know that I was unexpectedly detained in the country by the +serious illness and death of my poor cousin. Jasmine was not doing as +well as we supposed by her profession of dressing dinner-tables. The +dear child was determined not to ask help from any one, not even from +you, Primrose, and she made a valiant effort to support herself on her +tiny earnings. Alas, her purse was all too soon emptied, and she had +also upon her the awful load of debt, for Poppy Jenkins it seems, lent +her the money to get that rubbishy story published. In her despair she +thought of _The Joy-bell_, and went off to see the editor. + +"She was met at the office (poor child, how she could venture there +alone is a mystery to me) with the intelligence that _The Joy-bell_ +had ceased to exist, and the editor had decamped with poor Poppy's +wages. + +"Luckily I came home that evening, and found your poor little sister +in sad trouble. I am thankful to say I have been able to relieve her +present necessities without the slightest inconvenience to myself. +Jasmine has been greatly shaken, but she is better again now, and is +most anxious that you should not be troubled. I only tell you this +much, dear Primrose, because I consider it my bounden duty that you +should know how matters really stand. Rest happy about Poppy; her +money has been returned to her, and Jasmine has sufficient for her +present necessities. On second thoughts, I had better perhaps let you +into my little secret. I have borrowed ten pounds for Jasmine on that +valuable Spanish lace of her mother's. Do not imagine that the lace is +gone; it will be returned to Jasmine whenever she can refund the +money. It was necessary, dear Primrose, to take it, and I acted as I +am sure you would think right in the matter. Poppy had to be paid her +wages. + +"Now, dear Primrose, I want to talk with you very seriously on another +matter. You must own, dear, that though you have tried bravely you +have not yet, any of you, succeeded in earning your living. It is +almost a year since you began to try, and you have made, I fear, but +small headway. You, Primrose, have done best, and have made fewer +mistakes than your sisters, but even you would not care to spend all +your life in continual reading to Mrs. Mortlock. Jasmine can only earn +a precarious and uncertain living by dressing dinner-tables. Of +course, no one even expects dear little Daisy to contribute to the +family purse at present, but at the same time she need not put us into +terrible frights, nor be in the power of wicked and designing people. +My dear girls have had a trial of their own way; and now I think they +ought to take the advice of those older and wiser than themselves. + +"If, dear Primrose, you want to earn your living well--and nothing +makes a woman braver and better than being able to support +herself--you must be educated to take up some one profession in an +efficient manner. Money must be spent for this purpose, and you must +not be too proud to accept money from those who really love you. I +have been to see Mrs. Ellsworthy, and she and I had a long, long talk +about you girls. She is full of kindness, and she really and truly +loves you. It would be worse than folly, it would be wicked, to throw +such friendship away. Mrs. Ellsworthy tells me that she has been +consulting your old friend Mr. Danesfield about you. Both he and Mrs. +Ellsworthy are arranging plans which they trust you will all listen to +with patience. These plans shall be fully disclosed to you on your +return to town, but I may as well mention here that it will be +absolutely necessary that you should give up your present lives, and +should enter seriously on the great work of education. Money must be +spent for this object; but when you are able to earn well, bye-and-bye +it will be in your power to repay the money to the kind friends whose +happiness it is now to lend it to you. + + "Dear Primrose, + "I am, yours affectionately, + "AGNES EGERTON." + + +There was much in this letter to pain Primrose, and a year before she +might have torn it up and determined in no way to be guided by it; but +a year had brought her some very strange and some very sad +experiences. She was troubled and shocked to think that Jasmine should +have taken poor Poppy's hard earnings. She was deeply distressed at +owing herself so much to Miss Egerton, and now also so large a debt to +Arthur Noel. She had worked hard, and had done wonderfully well +considering, but nevertheless at the present moment, owing to adverse +circumstances, she was plunged in debt in many directions, and saw +little hope of repaying what she owed. Life seemed very difficult to +Primrose just then, and hot tears rose to her eyes. + +Should she go still farther in debt, and give up the great struggle to +be independent? Oh, no, she could not--she could not. Her pride rose +up in rebellion; her passionate longing to be free and her own +mistress, to be beholden to no one for the necessaries of life, was +too strong to be easily crushed. Better the dullest life, better be a +"continual reader" all her days than take the money of strangers. This +was her feeling, and it grew so strong moment by moment, that she +might have sat down to answer Miss Egerton's letter there and then but +for a rather innocent little remark made by Daisy. + +"Dear Primrose, I forgot it in all the other great trouble, but I do +want to send fifteen shillings as soon as possible to dear good Poppy. +She lent me fifteen shillings to buy a single third to come to +Rosebury, and I forgot all about it. Please, Primrose, try and spare +me fifteen shillings to send to Poppy." + +"So you too are in debt, Daisy," said Primrose. "Oh, dear, what shall +I do? Daisy, dear, forgive me, I ought not to mind anything now you +are growing better, but my heart is heavy, and I feel almost crushed. +Yes, Daisy, dear Poppy must have her money. I won't write to Miss +Egerton until to-morrow." + +Here Primrose wiped some tears from her sweet brown eyes, but she took +good care not to allow Daisy to see that she was crying. + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +"I LOVE MRS. ELLSWORTHY." + + +The next afternoon, to the surprise of both Primrose and Daisy, Noel +arrived. Daisy greeted her Prince with rapture, but refused to hear +any particulars of Dove's trial. + +"I want to forget him," she said. "You say he is in the dungeon now. I +don't want to think of it. If I think of it long I shall begin to be +so sorry for him." + +"We will talk of something better and pleasanter," said Noel. "How +soon are you coming back to your Palace Beautiful, little Princess?" + +Daisy looked anxiously across the room at Primrose. Primrose was +bending over some needlework, and a ray of sunlight was shining on her +fair head. She did not raise her eyes or respond in any way to the +little sister's glance. + +"We did think of coming back to Miss Egerton's in the autumn," said +Daisy, "but last night Primrose--May I tell, Primrose?" + +Primrose put down her work suddenly and came up to where Noel and +Daisy were sitting. + +"It is just this," she said; "Daisy did not know she had such a proud +and obstinate sister. We had made our plans for the autumn--at least +we simply intended to struggle on, and hope and watch for brighter +days--but yesterday I had a letter from Miss Egerton, and some of its +contents troubled me a good deal. Daisy saw that I was unhappy, and I +told her what Miss Egerton wanted. I thought the dear little one would +object, but she only said, 'Oh, let us be brave, Primrose; our Palace +Beautiful will be all the brighter if we really earn it.' Then she +added, 'I am beginning to wish to earn a little money myself, for I +want to give a very kind person back what he gave me.'" + +Noel gave Daisy's thin little hand a squeeze. Primrose looked at the +two, and stopped speaking. After a moment's pause she said suddenly-- + +"I don't like the plan; I never can like it. Mrs. Ellsworthy is all +that is kind, but she is no relation of ours. She lived in the same +place with us for years, and she never even called on our mother. Oh, +I don't blame her; she naturally thought that people who lived in an +humble little cottage at Rosebury were not ladies, but you see we are +ladies, and we cannot help feeling sore. I may agree to the plan--I +may be forced to agree to it for Jasmine's and Daisy's sakes--but I +can never, never like it." + +Here Primrose went out of the room. + +"She was crying for a long time last night," whispered Daisy; "it +hurts her dreadfully to take Mrs. Ellsworthy's money. I don't suppose +I mind it so much, because I was coming to Mrs. Ellsworthy to ask her +for some money. I did not find her, and I was miserable until you +found me and helped me, Prince. Then I love Mrs. Ellsworthy, and so +does Jasmine." + +"That is it, Eyebright," answered Noel; "we do not mind receiving +kindnesses and favors from those we love. Yes, I am very sorry for +Primrose; I wish matters could be differently arranged for her." + +While Noel was speaking Hannah came into the room with a cup of +beef-tea for the little invalid. + +"You have done her a sight of good already, sir," she said, peering +with her short-sighted eyes into the young man's face. "I don't know +what we'd have done for her if you hadn't come that day, and talked to +her, and got her to tell you what that most villainous person in +London was after." + +"Oh, don't, Hannah," said Daisy, "he's in a dungeon now--poor, poor +Mr. Dove; I must not think about him if I mean to get well." + +Here Daisy shivered, and added under her breath, with her little pale +face working-- + +"I did promise it very faithfully that I would never tell about the +sweetmeats." + +"He was a bad man, Daisy, and he richly deserves his punishment," said +Noel, in an almost stern voice, for he wished to check any unhealthy +sentimentality on the part of the delicate child. "You must think of +what you and your sisters have suffered, and be glad he has been +prevented doing any more mischief." + +"Drink up your beef-tea, missy," said Hannah. "Please, Mr. Noel, sir, +will you hold the cup for little miss? Oh, my heart alive, what--what +is that?" + +"I don't see anything," said Noel, "what has frightened you, Hannah?" + +But Hannah had grown white, and looked very queer, and a moment after +she hurried out of the room. + +"I never knew your servant was nervous," said Noel to Daisy. + +"Nervous?" she repeated, laughing merrily. "Is it Hannah? why she +always says she hasn't a nerve in her whole body. She's sometimes +almost cross with me for being nervous, Mr. Prince." + +Noel stayed some little time longer with the sisters, and then +returned to Rosebury in time to catch the evening train to London. +When he got there he went straight to Mrs. Ellsworthy's house. That +little lady was anxiously expecting him, and plied him with many +questions on the spot. + +"How is she taking it, Arthur?" she asked. "I have been forming and +maturing my plans, and I now think a resident governess at Shortlands +would be the nicest arrangement for the girls. They cannot be parted, +that is very evident, and as Primrose must be more than eighteen she +would not care to go to school. Yes, a resident governess seems the +plan of plans. I would take them up to London early in the spring, and +give them the advantage of the very best masters." + +"Primrose seems very unhappy about it," replied Noel. "She may in the +end consent to some scheme for perfecting her education, but I'm quite +sure she will not go, nor allow her sisters to go to Shortlands to +live a life of simple luxury. I am sorry for you, Mrs. Ellsworthy, but +I know Primrose will never consent to that." + +"I don't think you are sorry for me, Arthur," answered the pretty +little lady. "In your heart of hearts you quite agree with that +naughty, bad Primrose. You had rather the girls lived in their attic, +and encountered another dreadful Mr. Dove, and fell into the hands of +another designing publisher, than have them safe and happy at +Shortlands. Oh, it is a plot between you all to deprive me of my great +pleasure. Oh, why will girls, and young men, too, be so perverse?" + +Noel smiled. + +"I am sorry for both you and Primrose," he said. "I am convinced she +will never agree to your present scheme, although she may allow you to +help her to perfect her education." + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +TELEGRAPH WIRES. + + +Daisy was quite right when she said that Hannah was not subject to +nervous attacks. Hannah scorned nerves, and did not believe in them. +When she was told that the human body was as full of nerves as an +electric battery was full of electricity, that nerves, in short, were +like numberless telegraphic-wires, prevailing the whole human frame, +she stared at the speakers, and pronounced them slightly daft. + +Yet Hannah went out of her own little sitting-room on that summer +afternoon with, as she expressed it, trembling sensations running down +her back, and causing her fingers to shake when she handled her cups +and saucers. + +"Dear, dear," she said to herself, "one would think I had some of +those awful telegrams in me which Miss Primrose said was the nervous +system. Why, I'm all upset from top to toe. I never had a good view of +him before, for I didn't pay no heed to nobody when my dear little +Miss Daisy was so ill; but I do say that the cut of the hand and the +turn of the head is as like--as like as two peas. Now I do wonder--no, +no, it can't be. Well, anyhow, my name ain't Hannah Martin if I don't +find out where he comes from, and who he really is. Well, well, +well--why this trembling won't leave me, and I don't dare go back into +the room. I suppose I have got a few telegraphs, and I mustn't never +laugh at poor little Miss Daisy again when she says she's nervous." + +Hannah sat and rested for about half an hour--then she drank off a +glass of cold water--then she washed her face and hands--then she said +aloud that the telegrams should not get the better of her, and then +she prepared as nice a little dinner as she could for Noel and the two +sisters. + +That evening, after Daisy was in bed, she came into the room where +Primrose was quietly reading. + +"You haven't never come across no one the least like that brother of +yours in the London streets, Miss Primrose?" she asked. "London's a +big place, and strange things happen there--yes, very, very strange +things." + +"Oh, Hannah, how you startle me!" said Primrose. "I come across my +poor little brother Arthur? How could I? Why, he must be dead for many +and many a year." + +"Not a bit of him," said Hannah; "I don't believe he's dead. He was a +fine, hearty, strong child, and nothing ever seemed to ail him. Oh, it +rises up before me now what a beautiful picture he made when he stood +in his little red velvet dress by your mamma's knee, and she so proud +of him! There's no mistake, but he was the very light of her eyes. She +took him up to London, and a nursemaid--not me, you may be quite +sure--took him out. She went into a big shop, and the child was by her +side. She kept him standing by her as she ordered some things across +the counter, and, I suppose, she turned her head for a minute, for +when she looked round again he was gone. From that day to this he was +never heard of, though everything you can think of was done. Oh, my +poor, poor mistress, what she did suffer!" + +"Hannah, how excited you look!" said Primrose. "Why, you are all +trembling. It is a terrible story, but as I say to Daisy about Mr. +Dove, don't let us think of it." + +"Right you are, honey," said Hannah; "what can't be cured, you know. +If you don't mind, Miss Primrose, I'll just sit down for a minute. I'm +not to say quite myself. Oh, it ain't nothing, dearie; just a bit of +the trembles, and to prove to old Hannah that she is getting on in +years. I nursed you all, darling--him, my beautiful boy, and you +three. Miss Primrose, dear, how old would you say that Mr. Noel was. +I didn't have a fair look at him until to-day, and he seems quite a +young sort of man." + +"Miss Egerton says that he is twenty-six, Hannah." + +"Twenty-six," answered Hannah; "don't interrupt me for a minute, dear. +I'm comparing dates--twenty-six--twenty-six. Law, goodness gracious +me! You haven't never noticed, Miss Primrose, that he have a kind of a +mole--long-shaped, and rather big, a little way up his left arm? Have +you, now, dearies?" + +"No, really, Hannah, I've never seen Mr. Noel's arm without his +coat-sleeve. How very queerly you are speaking, Hannah." + +"Not at all, dearie; it's only because I've got the trembles on me. +Well, love, and so you don't want to be under no compliments to that +Mrs. Ellsworthy, who never took no notice of your poor dear ma?" + +Primrose sighed. + +"I feel sore about it, Hannah," she said. "But I must try not to be +too proud. I will ask God to help me to do what is really right in the +matter." + +"That's it, honey, and maybe you won't have to do it after all. I +wonder, now, dear, if Mr. Noel is well off." + +"Really, Hannah, I think you have got Mr. Noel on the brain! Yes, I +have heard Miss Egerton say that he is a rich man. He was the adopted +son of a very wealthy person, who left him all his property." + +"Adopted, was he?" said Hannah. "On my word, these tremblings are +terrible! Miss Primrose, dear, I have come in to say that I may be +going a little journey in the morning. I'll be off by the first dawn, +so as to be back by night, and the shop needn't be opened at all +to-morrow. There's a nice cold roast fowl for you and Miss Daisy, and +a dish of strawberries which I gathered with my own hands not an hour +back, so you'll have no trouble with your dinner. You see that Miss +Daisy eats plenty of cream with her strawberries, dear, for cream's +fattening; and now good-night." + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + +A DISCOVERY. + + +Hannah Martin had never been much of a traveller. It was years since +she set her foot inside a railway carriage. She often boasted of her +abnormal lack of nerves, but she was also heard to say that accidents +by rail were fearful and common, and likely to happen at any moment. +She sighed for the old coaching days, and hated the thought of all +locomotives propelled by steam. Nevertheless, early in the morning of +the day following her interview with Primrose, Hannah, in her usual +neat print dress, was seen to enter the little railway station at +Rosebury, was observed to purchase for herself a third-class return +ticket, and after carefully selecting her carriage, to depart for +London. + +In the afternoon of that same day Hannah reached her destination, and +securing the first porter whose attention she could arrest, she placed +a bit of paper in his hand, and asked him to direct her to the address +written upon it. The man screwed up his eyes, stared at the paper, +and suggested that Hannah should place herself in a hansom, and direct +the driver to take her to Park Lane. Hannah had not an idea what a +hansom meant; she had never visited London since her early days. She +stared with horror at the proposed vehicle, and finally selecting the +creakiest and most uninviting of the four-wheelers, drove off to her +destination. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy was enjoying some very fragrant tea in her little +boudoir when a servant announced that a person of the name of Martin +had come up from the country in a four-wheeler, and would be glad to +see her as soon as possible. + +"What kind of person, Henry?" asked the little lady. "I am very tired +just now, and I must go out to dinner in less than two hours. A person +from the country in a four-wheeler? What can she want with me?" + +"She seems a respectable sort of body, ma'am," answered the footman, +"but nervous and shaky, and mortal afraid to step out of the cab; the +cabby and me we had both to lend her a hand in alighting, ma'am. She's +sitting now in a chair in the hall, and I can see she's upset with her +journey, but _respectable_; there's no word for the neatness of her +person, ma'am." + +"She is probably poor, and wants me to help her," replied Mrs. +Ellsworthy. "I hate seeing beggars, for I find it absolutely +impossible to say _no_ to them. Show her up, Henry, and give her a +hint that I'm going out to dinner, and can only spare her a very few +moments." + +Hannah could not certainly be accused when she entered Mrs. +Ellsworthy's room, of any want of nerves. Her hands were shaking, her +lips were tremulous, and her face, as she entered the room, became +perfectly white. + +"You'll excuse me, ma'am," she said. "I'm most sorry to trouble you, +but I'm that anxious, I scarce know what I'm doing. I undertook a +railway journey--which I don't think right--and I came here through +most crowded streets in a dreadful vehicle, for I just wanted to ask +you a single question, ma'am." + +"Sit down, my poor woman," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, who, the moment she +looked at Hannah, began to have a dim sort of idea that she had seen +her before, and also became full of pity for her. "Sit down. How you +tremble! I am sorry to see you are so nervous." + +"Nervous, ma'am!" echoed Hannah. "That I should hear that said of me! +No, ma'am, it ain't nervous I am, but I'm rather worried with the +tremblings during the last few hours. I've come to ask you a plain +question, ma'am, plain and direct. It's about the young man Mr. Noel. +Have he, ma'am, or have he not, a mole on his left arm? I'd like yes +or no, ma'am." + +"A mole on his left arm!" echoed Mrs. Ellsworthy. "My good woman, what +a very extraordinary question; you really quite startle me. Has Arthur +Noel a mole on his left arm? Yes, of course he has; I used to notice +it when he was a child. I suppose people don't outgrow moles, so he +probably has it still. Why, Mrs. Martin--I am told your name is +Martin--how very white you are. Would you--would you like a glass of +wine?" + +"Thank you, ma'am--no wine, thank you, ma'am. I'm a bit upset. Yes, +I'm a bit upset, for I believe Mr. Arthur Noel is my long-lost baby." + +The footman downstairs had given Mrs. Martin careful directions not to +occupy more than a moment or two of his mistress's valuable time; but +though he waited on the stairs and lingered about in the +entrance-hall, no bell summoned him to show out this remarkable +visitor. An hour passed away, an hour and a half, and still Mrs. +Martin remained in close conversation with Mrs. Ellsworthy. At the end +of the hour and a half Henry looked earnestly at the clock, sighed, +and felt that it was his duty to go into the room to let Mrs. +Ellsworthy know that she would be late for her dinner-party. He found +that good lady sitting by her writing-table with very flushed cheeks +and tearful eyes, and Hannah standing in quite a familiar attitude by +her side. + +"Give this note to Mr. Ellsworthy when he comes in, Henry, and order +the carriage to be brought round directly. I am not going to dine out +to-night. I will just go upstairs to change my bonnet. And Henry, take +Mrs. Martin down to the servants' hall, and give her some dinner. She +is coming out with me in the carriage, so be quick, please." + +As Mrs. Ellsworthy stood before her glass re-arranging her toilet her +maid saw her wiping some tears from her pretty eyes. + +"Oh, my bonny Arthur," she said under her breath. "Oh, what your poor, +poor mother must have suffered." + +When the carriage came to the door Mrs. Ellsworthy gave the coachman +Noel's address, and the two women drove there at once. They were +fortunate in finding the young man within. He too was engaged to dine +out that night, but he did not go. Hannah, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and he had +a long conference, which lasted until late in the evening, and when +Mr. Ellsworthy joined them he was told a very wonderful story. Hannah +returned to Devonshire on the following morning very well pleased with +her successful expedition. + +"If there had been any doubt," she said to herself, as she was being +whirled homewards in her third-class carriage, "if there had been any +doubt after the sight of that mole on his dear, blessed arm, why, the +little shirt which Mrs. Ellsworthy showed me, and which she took off +his back herself after them horses had all but killed him, would prove +that he's my own boy. Could I ever forget marking that shirt in +cross-stitch, and making such a bungle over the A, and thinking I'd +put Mainwaring in full, and then getting lazy, and only making the +mark A.M.? Well, I was served out for that piece of laziness, for my +boy might have been brought back to his mother but for it. Dear, dear! +Well, there's no mistaking my own A.M., and when I peered close with +my glasses on I could even see where I unpicked the A. and did it over +again. Dear, dear, shall I ever forgive myself for not doing the +surname in full--his poor, poor mother! Well, I mustn't think of +that--it's a merciful Providence that has led me to him now, and he's +as darling and elegant a young man as ever I clapped eyes on, and as +fond of the young ladies as can be even now. + +"'I always felt somehow as if they were my sisters,' he said to me. +Well, well, God be praised for his mercies." + + + + +CHAPTER LV. + +AN INVITATION FOR THE LADIES OF PENELOPE MANSION. + + +"There are limits to all things," said Mrs. Mortlock; "there's a time, +as the blessed Bible says, to sorrow, and a time to rejoice, and what +I say too is, that there is a time when a woman's patience may be +exhausted. Yes, Mrs. Dredge, you may look at me with as round eyes as +you please--I know they are round though I can't see them, but I will +say, if it's my last dying breath, that the moment for my 'continual +reader' to return has arrived. Miss Slowcum, no doubt you'll +corroborate what I say, ma'am." + +"It's hot weather for young bright flowers to shed their fragrance on +the London streets," replied Miss Slowcum; "it's the kind of weather +when flowers fade. I should imagine, Mrs. Mortlock, that your +'continual reader' was doing better for herself in the country." + +Mrs. Mortlock's face became very red. + +"Better for herself, is she?" she said, "and is that all the thanks I +get for keeping my post vacant, and living through days the weariness +of which none may know. If Miss Primrose Mainwaring is doing better +for herself in the country she is welcome to stay there. The post is a +good one, a light and an easy one, and I can get many another lass to +fill it." + +"I think, ma'am," said Mrs. Dredge, whose face had grown wonderfully +smooth and pleasant of late, "that the dear girls will all be in town +this week, and most likely Miss Primrose will come to pay you a visit. +Oh, they are nice girls, pretty, elegant girls, just the kind of girls +my good man would like to have been papa to. I can't help shivering, +even now when I think of that wicked man Dove, and what a state he put +dear little Daisy into." + +"If praises of the Mainwarings is to begin," answered Mrs. Mortlock in +her tartest voice, "what I say is, let me retire. It's all very well +for them as has right to talk well of the absent, but when one of the +absent ones is neglecting her duty the lady who has weak eyes feels +it. Miss Slowcum, ma'am, have you any objection to moving with me into +the drawing-room? I can lend you that pattern you admired so much for +tatting if you read me the latest gossip from the evening papers, +ma'am." + +Mrs. Mortlock rose from her chair, and, accompanied by Miss Slowcum, +left the room. Miss Slowcum took a ladylike interest in all kinds of +needlework, and the desire to possess the tatting pattern overcame +her great reluctance to read aloud to the very tart old lady. + +Mrs. Mortlock placed herself in the most comfortable arm-chair the +room afforded, and having secured her victim, began instantly to +tyrannize over her. + +"Now, Miss Slowcum, read up chirrupy and cheerful please. None of your +drawling, by way of genteel voice, for me--I like my gossip crisp. I +will say this of that dear girl Primrose Mainwaring, that she did her +gossip crisp." + +"You really are a very unaccountable person, Mrs. Mortlock," replied +Miss Slowcum. "You begin by abusing Primrose Mainwaring, and then you +praise her in the most absurd manner. I hope the refined reading of a +cultivated lady is not to be compared to the immature utterances of a +school-girl. If that is so, Mrs. Mortlock, even for the sake of the +tatting pattern, I cannot consent to waste my words on you." + +"Oh, my good creature," said Mrs. Mortlock, who by no means wished to +be left to solitude and herself, "you read in a very pretty style of +your own--obsolete it may be--h'm--I suppose we must expect +that--mature it certainly is; yes, my dear, quite mature. If I praise +Primrose Mainwaring, and a good girl she was when she was with +me--yes, a good, painstaking girl, thankful for her mercies--it's no +disparagement to you, Miss Slowcum. You're mellow, my dear, and you +can't help being mellow, and Primrose Mainwaring is crisp, and she +can't help being crisp. Oh, goodness gracious me! what sound is that +falls on my ear?" + +"An old friend's voice, I hope, Mrs. Mortlock," said a pleasant +girlish tone, and Primrose Mainwaring herself bent down over the old +lady and kissed her. + +Notwithstanding all her grumbling Mrs. Mortlock had taken an immense +fancy to Primrose. She returned her embrace warmly, and even took her +hand and squeezed it. + +"I'd like to see you, dear," she said, "but I'm getting blinder and +blinder. Have you come back to your continual reading, dear? I hope +so, for you do the gossip in a very chirruping style." + +While Mrs. Mortlock was speaking to Primrose Miss Slowcum had taken +Daisy in her arms, and covered her sweet little face with kisses, for +Miss Slowcum was not all sour and affected, and she had shed some +bitter tears in secret over the child's unaccountable disappearance. +Mrs. Dredge and Mrs. Flint had both surrounded Jasmine, who, in a +white summer frock, was looking extremely pretty, and was entertaining +them with some animated conversation. + +"Yes," said Primrose to Mrs. Mortlock, "I will come to read to you as +often as ever I can. I shall know my plans better after to-morrow. We +three girls returned to London a couple of days ago, and we received a +letter from our kind friend Mrs. Ellsworthy. You don't know her, +perhaps, but she is a very kind friend of ours. She is making some +plans for us, but we don't quite know what they are. She has written +us a letter, however, and it is on account of that letter that we have +all come to you to-night. She has invited us to come to her to-morrow, +and she wants all the friends who were kind to us, and who helped us +in every way during our year in London, to come in the evening to hear +what the plans are. Even if you can't see, Mrs. Mortlock, it will +amuse you to come, and I hope so much you will do so. I will try to +stay close to you myself when you do come, so you need not feel +lonely." + +"My dear, you are very kind," said Mrs. Mortlock, and the other ladies +also said the Mainwarings were kind, and they sent their dutiful +respects to Mrs. Ellsworthy and were pleased to accept. Accordingly, +Primrose gave them full directions with regard to the right address, +and the hour at which they were to be present; and finally the girls +left Mrs. Flint and her three lady boarders in a state of considerable +excitement and so deeply interested in what was about to occur that +they forgot to grumble at each other. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + +A PALACE BEAUTIFUL. + + +Hannah Martin had come up with her young ladies to London, and she +also was invited by Mrs. Ellsworthy to come to her house. The girls +all thought Hannah very much altered; they could not understand her +queer illusions, or her mysterious little nods, or in particular the +way she used to stare at Jasmine, and say under her breath, "Yes, yes, +as like as two peas. What a blind old woman I was not to see it when I +clapped eyes on him." + +"I cannot make out what Hannah is always muttering," Jasmine said to +her sisters. "Who is it I am so remarkably like. To judge from the way +Hannah frowns and shakes her head, and then smiles, the fact of this +accidental likeness seems to have a very disturbing effect upon her." + +"I know whom you are like, Jasmine," said little Daisy. "I've seen it +for a long time. You are the very image of my dear Prince. You have +got just the same colored eyes, and just the same curly hair, and +both your foreheads are broad and white. It's perfectly natural," +continued Daisy, "for you are both geniuses, and all geniuses must +have a look of each other." + +Hannah had old-fashioned ideas on many subjects. One of these was that +people could not remain too long in mourning. She liked very deep +black, and wished those who had lost relations to wear it for a long, +long time. The girls, therefore, were quite amazed when she suggested +that they should all go to Mrs. Ellsworthy in white. They began to +consider her quite an altered Hannah; but Jasmine took her advice, and +bought many yards of soft flowing muslin, which the old servant helped +her dear young ladies to make up. + +At last the day and hour arrived when, as Primrose said sorrowfully, +"Our fate is to be sealed and we are to bid 'Good-bye' to dear +independence." + +The girls, looking as sweet as girls could look, arrived at Mrs. +Ellsworthy's at a fairly early hour in the afternoon. The good little +lady received them with marked tenderness, but said, in an almost +confused manner, and by no means with her usual self-possession that a +slight change had been found necessary in the afternoon's programme, +and that the meeting of friends and acquaintances to hear their future +plans was not to take place at her house after all. + +"We are to go to another house not far from this," she said, "indeed, +only a stone's throw away. It is so close that we will walk it. Come, +Daisy, I see a number of questions in your eyes, but they shall all be +answered presently. Take my hand now, and let us lead the way. The +other house is very pretty, but it is smaller than mine." + +The other house was quite close to Mrs. Ellsworthy's luxurious +mansion. It was built more in the cottage shape, was much smaller, and +had a charming little garden and grounds round it. The hall door +opened into a porch, which was covered with roses, so that though the +house was really in London, the effect was quite that of the country. +Standing in the porch, and looking extremely pretty in its flickering +light and shade, stood Poppy Jenkins, in the neatest of handmaiden's +attire, and as the girls all came into the shade of the cool porch, +Noel himself, looking somewhat pale, and with a curious agitation in +his manner, came out to meet them. + +"This is my house," he said, "and Poppy is engaged as one of the +servants. I thought we might all meet here to discuss the new plans. +Poppy, will you take the young ladies to their room? I've had a room +prepared," he continued, blushing slightly, "for I thought Daisy might +like to rest a little." + +Poppy instantly tripped forward, and in quite a demure manner took +the girls up some broad stairs, and into a long, rather low-ceilinged +room on the first floor. There were three little white beds in the +room, and three toilet tables, and, in short, three sets of +everything. It was the prettiest, the brightest, the most lovely room +the girls had ever seen. It contained luxury, and neatness, and +comfort, and refinement, for beautiful pictures were placed on the +walls, and flowers peeped in at the windows, and the furniture was of +that sort which can best accommodate girls' pretty dresses and +knick-knacks. + +"What a room!" said Jasmine. "Why, it's just like a girls' room! Any +one would suppose Mr. Noel had sisters." + +Daisy began to skip about, and to poke her little fingers amongst the +curiosities and treasures which were scattered broadcast. Primrose +became silent, and walked over to one of the windows, and Poppy, +suddenly dropping her demure air, said in a voice of ecstasy-- + +"He's a lovely young man, and I'm engaged here permanent, and it's no +more Sarah Ann, nor Sarah Jane, but Poppy I'm to be from this time and +for ever. Oh, Miss Primrose, don't it make you real happy even to take +off your bonnet in a room like this?" + +"I do feel happy," said Primrose, in that slow voice of hers. "I feel +happy, and I can't tell why. I am just going to give up my +independence, and I ought to be miserable, but at the present moment I +have a peculiar sense of rejoicing." + +"And so have I," said Jasmine, "I could skip all day long; and as to +Eyebright, she looks fit to dance this very moment." + +"I'm happy because I'm with the Prince," said Daisy; "that's always +quite enough for me." + +Then the three sisters linked their arms round one another, and went +downstairs. + +In Noel's very lovely drawing-room many friends were assembled. Mr. +and Mrs. Ellsworthy, of course, were present; also Mr. Danesfield, +Miss Martineau, and Miss Egerton. Old Hannah stood in the background +and when the three pretty sisters came into the room they were +surrounded by eager and loving faces, and were most warmly welcomed. +Mrs. Ellsworthy, it is true, still appeared much agitated; she had an +intense longing to take Jasmine in her arms and cry over her, but she +had, of course, too much sense to do anything so unsuitable and silly. +The girls were asked to sit down, and Mr. Ellsworthy, who had been +elected spokesman, stood up, cleared his throat, and looked at his +wife. Twice he made an attempt at utterance; finally he said in a +voice which trembled--"My dear, I can't manage it--you had better do +it yourself." + +"I presume you are addressing me, Joseph," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. +"I--I--this is unexpected; but anything to get it over. My dear girls, +you have come here to-day to hear what we have arranged for you. We +felt you could not go on as you have been doing." + +"Impossible," here interrupted Mr. Danesfield. "They were the victims +of thieves and rogues. The thing could not have gone on a day longer." + +"So we made plans--very nice plans," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy. "It +never occurred to us that they would be knocked on the head, crushed, +obliterated. Oh, I am very happy, of course, but I could cry at having +my plans spoiled a second time." + +"I don't think they are really spoiled," said Primrose who had grown +very white, and now rose to her feet. "I know I was proud about +accepting help. I had such a longing to be independent. Perhaps I feel +sore about accepting help still, but I have made up my mind; for all +our sakes it is best. I submit--I give in--I am very grateful." + +"Perhaps, Primrose," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, whose bright eyes were now +full of tears, "I may convince you yet that you have no cause to feel +sore, and that proud heart of yours will not be pained. I believe the +help you need is coming to you three sisters in such a guise that you +cannot fail but to accept it gladly, and as your natural right." + +"It cannot quite be our natural right," said Primrose. "There are no +possible circumstances under which it can be quite natural for girls +to take money help from even the kindest friends who are not related +to them." + +"In this case there may even possibly be a relationship," proceeded +Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose, suppose that little brother who was lost +long ago--little Arthur your mother called him--suppose he came here +to-day, and said, 'I am grown up, and rich--I am the right person to +help my sisters,' you would feel no soreness of heart at accepting +help from your own brother, Primrose?" + +"My own brother," repeated Primrose in a wistful and longing voice; +"it is cruel to remind me of my brother. He was lost many, many years +ago; he has probably long been dead." + +"I should be the happiest girl in all the world if I could find my +brother," here interrupted Jasmine; "I often dream of him at night; he +must have been a darling little boy." + +"But if he were to come here twenty times," said Daisy, "I could never +love him better than I love the Prince." + +There was quite a little buzz of admiration through the room when +Daisy made this innocent little speech, and all eyes were turned on +Arthur Noel. Then there was a pause. Mr. Ellsworthy was again heard +to clear his throat, and no one seemed quite to know what to do next. +Suddenly Hannah Martin broke the spell-- + +"Goodness gracious me!" she said, "how long are the darling young +ladies to be kept in suspense? Miss Primrose, why, you have got a +brother, and there he stands. Mr. Arthur, come and kiss your sisters, +my dear. Oh, my darling, darling girls, it's perfectly, perfectly +true; he's the boy your mother broke her heart about long ago." + +The confusion and agitation which followed can scarcely be +described--the joy of the sisters can scarcely be painted. Daisy took +this wonderful and important discovery more coolly and calmly than the +others. + +"It doesn't make a bit of difference in my love to him," she said, +"for I always loved him as if he were my brother." + +"And now, Primrose," said Arthur, "you are mistress of this house, and +please remember that visitors are coming here presently, and that you +are to entertain them." + +"Are we always to live with you, Arthur?" asked Jasmine. "It seems +better than a dream. Oh, Arthur," she continued, not waiting for her +brother's reply, "don't you remember how we made friends the very +first moment we met? we must have always known, deep down in our +hearts, that we were brother and sister." + +"And this is to be our new Palace Beautiful," said Daisy, "and Poppy +is to live here too. Oh, Primrose, do you not feel almost too happy?" + +"I've given up my independence," said Primrose, "and yet I never felt +more happy or more thankful." + +The party that evening was a success. The astonishment of the good +ladies from Penelope Mansion when they heard the wonderful news passed +all bounds. Mrs. Dredge sat plump down on a chair, placed her fat +hands on her lap, and fairly cried. + +"Oh, if only my poor dear husband had lived to see this beautiful +day," she said. "Young man, I have liked you from the first; you're +the kind of young man whom my good husband would have rejoiced to be +papa to." + +Miss Slowcum sighed most deeply when she heard the news. "It's a +touching romance," she said, "quite worthy of the olden times. I could +imagine Mr. Noel--Mr. Mainwaring, I suppose we must call him now--as +belonging to the old knights of chivalry. Yes, I am a person of +discernment, and I long ago saw that the dear girls belonged to the +upper ten." + +"It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," said Mrs. Mortlock. "In +this case, ladies and gentlemen, I beg to reverse the familiar words, +for amid all your joy I have lost my 'continual reader.' She had her +faults--no, I'm not going to deny that being young she had her +faults--but she was ever good-natured, and she did her gossip +chirrupy." + +Of course the girls' future was now assured, for Arthur was a very +rich man. Miss Egerton, at his earnest request, came to live with +them, and they are now known to possess one of the happiest and +brightest homes in London--in short, they live in a "Palace +Beautiful." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Palace Beautiful, by L. 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Meade. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: 1em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: 0; + line-height: 1.4em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + img {border: 0;} + hr.full { width: 100%; } + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Palace Beautiful, by L. T. Meade + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Palace Beautiful + A Story for Girls + +Author: L. T. Meade + +Release Date: February 22, 2005 [EBook #15149] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Suzanne Lybarger and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL.</h1> + +<h2>A STORY FOR GIRLS.</h2> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>L.T. MEADE,</h2> +<p> </p> + +<h4><i>Author of "A World of Girls," "Scamp and I," "Daddy's Boy," &c., &c.</i></h4> + +<p> </p> +<h6>NEW YORK: WM. L. ALLISON CO., PUBLISHERS.</h6> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER</td> +<td></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>I.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Early Days</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>II.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>The First Month of their Trouble</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>III.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Miss Martineau</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>IV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>To the Rescue</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>V.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>The Contents of the Cabinet</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>VI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Many Visitors</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>VII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Shortlands</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>VIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Thirty Pounds a Year</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>IX.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Strange Letter and a Proposed Visit to London</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>X.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Ways and Means of Earning a Living</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>XI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Bread and Butter</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>XII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>They Would Not be Parted</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>XIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Mrs. Ellsworthy's Letter</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>XIV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Quite Contrary</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>XV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>In Spite of Opposition</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>XVI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Penelope Mansion</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>XVII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Escorted by Miss Slowcum</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>XVIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>In St. Paul's Cathedral</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>XIX.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Bright Day</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>XX.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Getting Lost</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>XXI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>How to Paint China and How to Form Style</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>XXII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Cross Purposes</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>XXIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Dark Days</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>XXIV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Dove's Joke</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>XXV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Daisy's Promise</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>XXVI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Delightful Plan</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>XXVII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>The Poor Doves</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b>XXVIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Startling Discovery</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>XXIX.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Blessing</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>XXX.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Voice of the Prince</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI"><b>XXXI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A "Continual Reader"</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII"><b>XXXII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Jasmine Begins to Soar</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII"><b>XXXIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Visiting the Publishers</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV"><b>XXXIV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Plan</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV"><b>XXXV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Their Quarter's Allowance</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI"><b>XXXVI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'><i>The Joy-Bell</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII"><b>XXXVII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Endorsing a Cheque</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII"><b>XXXVIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Daisy's Request</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX"><b>XXXIX.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>The Journey</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XL"><b>XL.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Bitter Disappointment</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI"><b>XLI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Mrs. Dredge to the Rescue</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII"><b>XLII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A New Employment</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII"><b>XLIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>In the Field</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV"><b>XLIV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Too Much for Dove</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XLV"><b>XLV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>The Prince to the Rescue</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI"><b>XLVI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Delivered from the Ogre</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII"><b>XLVII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Almost Defeated</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII"><b>XLVIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>One Shoe Off and One Shoe On</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIX"><b>XLIX.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Spanish Lace</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_L"><b>L.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Dazzling Day</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_LI"><b>LI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Letter</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_LII"><b>LII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>"I Love Mrs. Ellsworthy"</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_LIII"><b>LIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>Telegraph Wires</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_LIV"><b>LIV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Discovery</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_LV"><b>LV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>An Invitation for the Ladies of Penelope Mansion</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_LVI"><b>LVI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A Palace Beautiful</td></tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL.</h1> + +<h2><i>A STORY FOR GIRLS.</i></h2> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>EARLY DAYS.</h3> + + +<p>The three girls were called after flowers. This is how it came about:</p> + +<p>When Primrose opened her eyes on the world she brought back a little +bit of spring to her mother's heart.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mainwaring had gone through a terrible trouble—a trouble so dark +and mysterious, so impossible to feel reconciled to, that her health +had been almost shattered, and she had almost said good-bye to hope.</p> + +<p>The baby came in the spring-time, and the soft, velvety touch of the +little face, and the sight of the round baby limbs, had made Mrs. +Mainwaring smile: had caused her to pluck up heart, and to determine +resolutely to take this new blessing, and to begin to live again.</p> + +<p>The baby came in the month of March, just when the primroses were +beginning to open their pale and yet bright blossoms. Mrs. Mainwaring +said that the child was a symbol of spring to her, and she called her +Primrose.</p> + +<p>The next girl was born in Italy, in the middle of a rich and brilliant +summer. Flowers were everywhere, and the baby, a black-haired, +dark-eyed little mite, had a starry look about her. She was called +Jasmine, and the name from the very first suited her exactly.</p> + +<p>The third and youngest of the sisters also came in the summer, but she +was born in an English cottage. Her mother, who had been rich when +Jasmine was born, was now poor; that is, she was poor as far as money +is concerned, but the three little daughters made her feel rich. She +called the child from the first her little country wild flower, and +allowed Primrose and Jasmine to select her name. They brought in +handfuls of field daisies, and begged to have the baby called after +them.</p> + +<p>The three girls grew up in the little country cottage. Their father +was in India, in a very unhealthy part of the country. He wrote home +by every mail, and in each letter expressed a hope that the Government +under which he served would allow him to return to England and to his +wife and children. Death, however, came first to the gallant captain. +When Primrose was ten years old, and Daisy was little more than a +baby, Mrs. Mainwaring found herself in the humble position of an +officer's widow, with very little to live on besides her pension.</p> + +<p>In the Devonshire village, however, things were cheap, rents were low, +and the manners of life deliciously fresh and primitive.</p> + +<p>Primrose, Jasmine, and Daisy grew up something like the flowers, +taking no thought for the morrow, and happy in the grand facts that +they were alive, that they were perfectly healthy, and that the sun +shone and the sweet fresh breezes blew for them. They were as +primitive as the little place where they lived, and cared nothing at +all for fashionably-cut dresses; or for what people who think +themselves wiser would have called the necessary enjoyments of life. +Mrs. Mainwaring, who had gone through a terrible trouble before the +birth of her eldest girl, had her nerves shattered a second time by +her husband's death; from that moment she was more ruled by her girls +than a ruler to them. They did pretty much what they pleased, and she +was content that they should make themselves happy in their own way.</p> + +<p>It was lucky for the girls that they were amiable, and had strength of +character.</p> + +<p>Primrose was delightfully matter-of-fact. When she saw that her mother +allowed them to learn their lessons anyhow she made little rules for +herself and her sisters—the rules were so playful and so light that +the others, for mere fun, followed them—thus they insisted on their +mother hearing them their daily tasks; they insisted on going +regularly twice a week to a certain old Miss Martineau, who gave them +lessons on an antiquated piano, and taught them obsolete French. +Primrose was considered by her sisters very wise indeed but Primrose +also thought Jasmine wise, and wise with a wisdom which she could +appreciate without touching; for Jasmine had got some gifts from a +fairy wand, she was touched with the spirit of Romance, and had a +beautiful way of looking at life which her sisters loved to encourage. +Daisy was the acknowledged baby of the family—she was very pretty, +and not very strong, was everybody's darling, and was, of course, +something of a spoilt child.</p> + +<p>Primrose had a face which harmonized very well with her quaint, sweet +name; her hair was soft, straight, and yellow, her eyes were light +brown, her skin was fair, and her expression extremely calm, gentle, +and placid. To look at Primrose was to feel soothed—she had a +somewhat slow way of speaking, and she never wasted her words. Jasmine +was in all particulars her opposite. She was dark, with very bright +and lovely eyes; her movements were quick, her expression full of +animation, and when excited—and she was generally in a state of +excitement—her words tumbled out almost too quickly for coherence. +Her cheeks would burn, and her eyes sparkle, over such trivial +circumstances as a walk down a country lane, as blackberry-hunting, as +strawberry-picking—a new story-book kept her awake half the +night—she was, in short, a constant little volcano in this quiet +home, and would have been an intolerable child but for the great +sweetness of her temper, and also for the fact that every one more or +less yielded to her.</p> + +<p>Daisy was very pretty and fair—her hair was as yellow as Primrose's, +but it curled, and was more or less always in a state of friz; her +eyes were wide open and blue, and she was just a charming little +child, partaking slightly of the qualities of both her elder sisters.</p> + +<p>These girls had never had a care or an anxiety—when they were hungry +they could eat, when they were tired sleep could lull them into +dreamless rest—they had never seen any world but the narrow world of +Rosebury, the name of the village where they lived. Even romantic +Jasmine thought that life at Rosebury, with perhaps a few more books +and a few more adventures must form the sum and substance of her +existence. Of course there was a large world outside, but even Jasmine +had not begun to long for it.</p> + +<p>Primrose was sixteen, Jasmine between thirteen and fourteen, and Daisy +ten, when a sudden break came to all this quiet and happy routine. +Mrs. Mainwaring without any warning or any leave-taking, suddenly +died.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRST MONTH OF THEIR TROUBLE.</h3> + + +<p>There are mothers and mothers. Mrs. Mainwaring was the kind of mother +who could not possibly say a harsh word to her children—she could not +be severe to them, she could never do anything but consider them the +sweetest and best of human beings. The girls ruled her, and she liked +to be ruled by them. After her husband's death, and after the first +agony of his loss had passed away, she sank into a sort of subdued +state—she began to live in the present, to be content with the little +blessings of each day, to look upon the sunshine as an unmitigated +boon, and on the girls' laughter as the sweetest music. She had been +rich in her early married life, but Captain Mainwaring had lost his +money, had lost all his large private means, through a bank failure, +and before Daisy came into the world Mrs. Mainwaring knew that she was +a very poor woman indeed. Before the captain went to India he insured +his life for £1000, and after his death Mrs. Mainwaring lived very +placidly on her small pension, and for any wants which she required +over and above what the pension could supply she drew upon the £1000. +She did not care, as a more sensible woman would have done, to invest +this little sum as so much capital; no, she preferred to let it lie in +the bank, and to draw upon it from time to time, as necessity arose. +She had no business friends to advise her, for the few acquaintances +she made at Rosebury knew nothing whatever of the value of money. Like +many another woman who has been brought up in affluence, neither had +Mrs. Mainwaring the faintest idea of how fast a small sum like £1,000 +can dwindle. She felt comfortable during the latter years of her life +at the knowledge that she had a good balance in the bank. It never +occurred to her as a possibility that she who was still fairly young +could die suddenly and without warning. This event, however, took +place, and the girls were practically unprovided for.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mainwaring had never really worked for her children, but a mother +who had worked hard for them, and toiled, and exerted all her strength +to provide adequately for their future, might not perhaps have been +loved so well. She died and her children were broken-hearted. They +mourned for her each after her own fashion, and each according to her +individual character. Primrose retained her calmness and her common +sense in the midst of all her grief; Jasmine was tempestuous and +hysterical, bursting into laughter one minute and sobbing wildly the +next. Little Daisy felt frightened in Jasmine's presence—she did not +quite believe that mother would never come back, and she clung to +Primrose, who protected and soothed her; in short, took a mother's +place to her, and felt herself several years older on the spot.</p> + +<p>For a month the girls grieved and shut themselves away from their +neighbors, and refused to go out, or to be in any measure comforted. A +month in the ordinary reckoning is really a very short period of time, +but to these girls, in their grief and misery, it seemed almost +endless. One night Jasmine lay awake from the time she laid her head +on the pillow till the first sun had dawned; then Primrose took +fright, and began to resume her old gentle, but still firm authority.</p> + +<p>"Jasmine," she said, "we have got our black dresses—they are made +very neatly, and we have done them all ourselves. Staying in the house +this lovely weather won't bring dear mamma back again; we will have +tea a little earlier than usual, and go for a walk this evening."</p> + +<p>Jasmine, whenever she could stop crying, had been longing for a walk, +but had crushed down the desire as something unnatural, and +disrespectful to dear mamma, but of course if Primrose suggested it it +was all right. Her face brightened visibly, and as to Daisy, she sat +down and began to play with the kitten on the spot.</p> + +<p>That evening the three desolate young creatures put on their new black +dresses, and went down a long, rambling, charming country lane. The +air was delicious—Jasmine refused to cover her hot little face with a +crape veil—they came back after their ramble soothed and refreshed. +As they were walking up the village street a girl of the name of +Poppy, their laundress's child, stepped out of a little cottage, +dropped a courtesy, and said, in a tone of delight—</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Mainwaring, I'm glad to see you out; and Miss Jasmine, +darling, the little canary is all reared and ready for you. I took a +sight of pains with him, and he'll sing beautiful before long. Shall I +bring him round in the morning, Miss Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course, Poppy; and I'm greatly obliged to you," answered +Jasmine, in her old bright tones. Then she colored high, felt a good +deal ashamed of herself, and hurried after Primrose, who had pulled +down her crape veil, and was holding Daisy's hand tightly.</p> + +<p>That night the sisters all slept well; they were the better for the +fresh air, and also for the thought of seeing Poppy and the canary +which she had reared for Jasmine in the morning.</p> + +<p>Sharp to the hour Poppy arrived with her gift; she was a pretty little +village girl, who adored the Misses Mainwaring.</p> + +<p>"The bird will want a heap of sunshine," she said; "he's young, and my +mother says that all young things want lots and lots of sun. May I +pull up the blind in the bay window, Miss Primrose; and may I hang +Jimmy's cage just here?"</p> + +<p>Primrose nodded. She forgot, in her interest over Jimmy, to remember +that the bay window looked directly on to the village street.</p> + +<p>"And please, miss," said Poppy, as she was preparing to return home, +"Miss Martineau says she'll look in this evening, and that she was +glad when she saw you out last night, young ladies, and acting +sensible again."</p> + +<p>Primrose had always a very faint color; at Poppy's words it deepened +slightly.</p> + +<p>"We've tried to act in a sensible way all through," she said, with +gentle dignity. "Perhaps Miss Martineau does not quite understand. We +love one another very much; we are not going to be foolish, but we +cannot help grieving for our mother."</p> + +<p>At these words Jasmine rushed out of the room and Poppy's round eyes +filled with tears.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Primrose—," she began.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Poppy," said Primrose; "we'll see Miss Martineau +to-night. I am glad you told us she was coming."</p> + +<p>The neighbors at Rosebury were all of the most sociable type; the +Mainwaring girls knew every soul in the place, and when their mother +died there was quite a rush of sympathy for them, and the little +cottage might have been full from morning till night. Primrose, +however, would not have it; even Miss Martineau, who was their +teacher, and perhaps their warmest friend, was refused admittance. The +neighbors wondered, and thought the girls very extraordinary and a +little stuck-up, and their sympathy, thrown back on themselves, began +to cool.</p> + +<p>The real facts of the case, however, were these: Primrose, Jasmine and +Daisy would have been very pleased to see Poppy Jenkins, or old Mrs. +Jones, who sometimes came in to do choring, or even the nice little +Misses Price, who kept a grocery shop at the other end of the village +street; they would also have not objected to a visit from good, hearty +Mrs. Fry, the doctor's wife, but had they admitted any of these +neighbors they must have seen Miss Martineau, and Miss Martineau, once +she got a footing in the house, would have been there morning, noon +and night.</p> + +<p>Poor Jasmine would not have at all objected to crying away some of her +sorrow on kind Mrs. Fry's motherly breast; Primrose could have had +some really interesting talk which would have done her good with the +Misses Price; they were very religious people, and their brother was a +clergyman, and they might have said some things which would comfort +the sore hearts of the young girls. Little Daisy could have asked some +of her unceasing questions of Poppy Jenkins, and the three would +really have been the better for the visits and the sympathy of the +neighbors did not these visits and sympathy also mean Miss Martineau. +But Miss Martineau at breakfast, dinner, and tea—Miss Martineau, with +her never-ending advice, her good-natured but still unceasingly +correcting tone, was felt just at first to be unendurable. She was +sincerely fond of the girls, whom she had taught to play incorrectly, +and to read French with an accent unrecognized in Paris, but Miss +Martineau was a worry, was a great deal too officious, and so the +girls shut themselves away from her and from all other neighbors for +the first month after their mother's death.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>MISS MARTINEAU.</h3> + + +<p>Primrose was the soul of hospitality; having decided that Miss +Martineau was to be admitted that evening, it occurred to her that she +might as well make things pleasant for this angular, good-humored, and +somewhat hungry personage. Primrose could cook charmingly, and when +dinner was over she turned to her sisters, and said in her usual +rather slow way—</p> + +<p>"I am going to make some cream-cakes for tea; and Jasmine, dear, you +might put some fresh flowers in the vases; and Daisy—"; she paused as +she looked at her sister—the child's blue eyes were fixed on her, she +noticed with a pang that the little face was pale, and the dimpled +mouth looked sad.</p> + +<p>"Daisy," she said, suddenly, "you can go into the garden, and have a +romp with the Pink."</p> + +<p>"The Pink" was Daisy's favorite kitten.</p> + +<p>Daisy laughed aloud, Jasmine started up briskly from the dinner-table, +and Primrose, feeling that she had done well, went into the kitchen to +consult with Hannah, the old cook, over the making of the +cream-cakes.</p> + +<p>The result of all this was that when Miss Martineau, sharp at four +o'clock (the hours were very primitive at Rosebury), arrived at the +Mainwarings' door, the outward aspect of the house bore no tokens of +violent grief on the part of its inmates—the blinds were drawn up, +not quite to the top, for that would have been ugly, and Jasmine was +full of artistic instincts, but they were drawn up to let in plenty of +sunlight, the white muslin curtains were draped gracefully, some pots +of fresh flowers could be seen on the window-ledge, and a canary in a +rather battered cage hung from a hook above, and disported himself +cheerfully in the sunlight.</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau was very old-fashioned in her ideas, and she did not +much like the look of the bay window.</p> + +<p>She comforted herself, however, with the reflection that even under +the direst afflictions blinds must be drawn up some time, and that she +would doubtless find the poor dear girls in a state of tempestuous +grief within. She imagined herself soothing Jasmine, holding +Primrose's hand, and allowing Daisy to sit on her knee. Miss Martineau +was most kind-hearted, and would have done anything for the three +girls, whom she dearly loved, only, like many another good-hearted +person, she would wish to do that anything or something in her own +way.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Hannah," she said, as the old cook opened the door; +"you have had a sad affliction—a terrible affliction. I hope the dear +young ladies are—" Miss Martineau paused for a word, then she +said—"tranquil."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, miss," answered Hannah. "Walk in, please, Miss +Martineau—this way—the young ladies is hoping you'll take a cup of +tea with them, miss." Miss Martineau found herself the next instant in +one of the most cheerful sitting-rooms to be found at Rosebury—it had +always been a pretty room—furnished daintily with the odds and ends +of rich and choice furniture which had belonged to Mrs. Mainwaring in +her wealthy days. Now it was bright with flowers, and the western sun +poured in at one angle of the wide bay window. The three girls, in +their very simple black dresses, with no crape, came forward in a +little group to meet her. In their hearts they were slightly excited +and upset, but rather than give way they put on an air of extra +cheerfulness. Miss Martineau, fond as she was of them, felt absolutely +scandalized—to keep her out of the house for a whole month, and then +to admit her in this fashion—such a lot of sunlight—such a heap of +flowers, no crape on the black dresses, and Jasmine's face quite +bright and her hair as curly as usual. Miss Martineau began a little +set speech, but Jasmine interrupted her.</p> + +<p>"Do come, and have some tea," she said. "Primrose has made some +delicious cream-cakes, and we are all so hungry, aren't we, +Eyebright?" turning to her little sister as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Daisy; "Pink is hungry, too—I chased Pink about fifty +times round the garden, and she's quite starving. May Pink have some +cream in a saucer for her tea, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>Primrose nodded, took Miss Martineau's hand, and led her to the place +of honor at the table, and sitting down herself, began to pour out the +fragrant tea.</p> + +<p>If Miss Martineau had a weakness, it was for really good tea and for +cream-cakes. She took off her gloves now, arranged her bonnet-strings, +put back her veil, and prepared to enjoy herself. Instead of talking +common-place condolences, she chatted on little matters of local +interest with the sisters. Jasmine took care to supply Miss Martineau +with plenty of cream-cakes—Primrose saw that her cup was well +replenished. Miss Martineau was poor and very saving, and it occurred +to her, as she partook of the Mainwaring's nice tea, that she might do +without much supper by-and-by. This reflection put her into an +excellent humor.</p> + +<p>When the tea was over Primrose led her to a comfortable seat by the +window.</p> + +<p>"My dear," she said, "it is well that I should sit just here, within +full view of the street?—your window is, well, a little too like +seeing company, my loves, and if my bonnet is seen by passers-by +you'll have everybody calling directly."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we mean to see everybody now," said Jasmine "we—we—we think it +best, don't we, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Primrose, in her gentle tones. "It does not make us think +less of dear mamma to see people—and—and—we have decided to go on +much as usual now."</p> + +<p>"You might have admitted me before, dears," replied Miss Martineau—"I +felt so intensely for you—I could never get you out of my head. I was +a good deal hurt by your refusing to admit me, my dear girls, for in +all respects I would have wished to be a mother to you."</p> + +<p>"Please, don't," said Jasmine.</p> + +<p>"We <i>couldn't</i> have another mother," said little Daisy, clinging close +to Primrose, and looking up into her sister's sweet face.</p> + +<p>Primrose stooped and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"You may run into the garden, darling, and take the Pink," she said.</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau had no intention of leaving the Mainwarings without +speaking out her mind. It was one of this good lady's essential +privileges to speak out her mind to the younger generation of the +Rosebury world. Who had a better right to do this than she? for had +she not educated most of them? had she not given them of the best of +her French and her music? and was she not even at this present moment +Jasmine's and Daisy's instructress? Primrose she considered her +finished and accomplished pupil. Surely the girls, even though they +had refused to admit her for a month, would turn to her now with full +confidence. She settled herself comfortably in the arm-chair in which +Primrose had placed her, and saying, in her high-pitched and thin +voice—</p> + +<p>"Now, my dears, you will take seats close to me—not too close, loves, +for I dislike being crushed, and I have on my Sunday silk. My dear +girls, I want us now to have a really comfortable talk. There is a +great deal that needs discussion, and I think there is nothing like +facing a difficult subject resolutely, and going through it with +system. I approve of your sending Daisy into the garden, Primrose. She +is too young to listen to all that we must go into. I purpose dears, +after the manner of our school-hours, to divide our discourse into +heads—two heads will probably be sufficient for this evening. First, +the severe loss you have just sustained—that we will talk over, and +no doubt mingle our tears together over; take courage, my dear +children, such an unburdening will relieve your young hearts. +Second—Jasmine, you need not get so very red, my dear—second, we +will discuss something also of importance; how are you three dear +girls going to live?"</p> + +<p>Here Miss Martineau paused, took off her spectacles, wiped them, and +put them on again. She felt really very kindly, and would have worked +herself to a skeleton, if need be, for the sake of the Mainwarings, +whom she sincerely loved. Jasmine's red face, however, grew still +redder.</p> + +<p>"Please, Miss Martineau—yes, Primrose, I will speak—please, Miss +Martineau, we cannot discuss dear mamma with you. There is nothing to +discuss, and nothing to tell—I won't—I can't—Primrose, I won't +listen, and I won't talk."</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau shook her head, and looked really angrily at Jasmine.</p> + +<p>"Nothing to tell," she said, sorrowfully. "Is your poor dear mother +then so soon forgotten? I could not have believed it. Alas! alas! how +little children appreciate their parents."</p> + +<p>"You are not a parent yourself, and you know nothing about it," said +Jasmine, now feeling very angry, and speaking in her rudest tone.</p> + +<p>Primrose's quiet voice interposed.</p> + +<p>"I think, Miss Martineau," she began, "that the first subject will be +more than Jasmine and I can quite bear—you must forgive us, even if +you fail quite to understand us. It is no question of forgetting—our +mother will never be forgotten—it is just that we would rather not. +You must allow us to judge for ourselves on this point," concluded +Primrose, with that dignity that suited her so well. Primrose, for all +her extreme quietness and simplicity of manner and bearing, could look +like a young princess when she chose, and Miss Martineau, who would +have quarrelled fiercely with Jasmine, submitted.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she said, in a tone of some slight offence; "I came here +with a heart brimful of sympathy; it is repulsed; it goes back as it +came, but I bear no offence."</p> + +<p>"Shall we discuss your second subject, dear Miss Martineau?" continued +Primrose. "I know that you have a great deal of sense and experience, +and I know that you have a knack of making money go very far indeed. +You ask us what our plans are—well, I really don't think we have got +any, have we, Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Jasmine, in her shortest tones. "We mean to live as we +always did. Why can't people leave us in peace?"</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau cleared her throat, looked with some compassion at +Jasmine, whom she thought it best to treat as a spoilt child, and then +turned her attention to Primrose.</p> + +<p>"My dear," she said, "I am willing to waive my first head, to cast it +aside, to pass it over, and consider my second. My dear Primrose, the +first thing to consider in making your plans—I take no notice of +Jasmine's somewhat childish remarks—is <i>on</i> what you have to live."</p> + +<p>Primrose knit her brows.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," she said slowly, "we shall have what we always had—we +spent very little money in the past, and, of course, we shall require +still less now. We are fond of Rosebury; I think we shall do for the +present at least just what Jasmine says, and stay on quietly here."</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau cleared her throat again.</p> + +<p>"My dear girl," she said, "even to live here you must have something +to live on. Now, are you aware that your mother's annuity as a +captain's widow ceases with her death? I believe something very +trifling will still be allowed to you, as his orphans, but on that +point I'm rather in the dark."</p> + +<p>"Mother always did get ten pounds a year apiece for us," said +Primrose.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, my dear, we will suppose, and trust, and hope that that +small sum will still be continued; but even at Rosebury you three +girls cannot live on thirty pounds a year."</p> + +<p>"But there is the money in the bank," said Jasmine speaking in a more +interested tone. "You remember Primrose dear, how whenever mother +wanted some money she just wrote a cheque, and we took it down to Mr. +Danesfield, and he gave us nice shining gold for it. Sometimes it was +ten pounds, sometimes it was five pounds, and sometimes it was only +two pounds; but whenever we went to Mr. Danesfield's bank with +mother's cheque he gave us the money. I suppose, Primrose, you can +have a cheque-book now, and Mr. Danesfield can give you the money."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Primrose, in a cheerful tone, "I forgot about the money in +the bank; mother often told me there was plenty. Even if we can't +quite live on our thirty pounds a year, we can manage with what money +dear mamma had in the bank."</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau's face had become extremely lined and anxious.</p> + +<p>"My dears," she said, "I fear I've done a rude thing; I fear I've +taken a liberty; but the fact is, you are so alone, poor darlings, and +Mr. Danesfield is an old friend of mine—and—and—I took the liberty +of asking him what your mother's balance was. He said, my dears—my +poor dears—that it was not quite two hundred pounds."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>TO THE RESCUE.</h3> + + +<p>Miss Martineau told her news with considerable agitation. She +considered it a terrible revelation. It seemed to her a very fearful +and disastrous thing that three girls brought up like the Mainwarings, +three girls still almost children, should be thrown on the world +without any means for their support.</p> + +<p>Simple and primitive as their lives had been at Rosebury, they still +had been tenderly nurtured and warmly sheltered—no cold blast of +unkindness or neglect had visited them—they had been surrounded ever +by both love and respect. The love came principally from their mother +and from one another, but the respect came from all who knew them. The +Mainwaring girls, in their plain dresses and with their +unsophisticated manners, looked like ladies, and invariably acted as +such.</p> + +<p>Soon after making her communication Miss Martineau took her leave; she +hurried home, and sitting down in her dingy little parlor, began to +think.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you, Susan," she said to her little maid-of-all-work, "I +shan't want any supper to-night. I have been at tea with my dear +pupils, the Misses Mainwaring. You may bring the lamp presently, +Susan, but not quite yet; it is a pity to waste the daylight, and +there is quite another quarter of an hour in which I can see to knit. +Yes, give me my knitting-basket; I can get on with Widow Joseph's +mittens."</p> + +<p>"And, if you please, ma'am," asked Susan, lingering for a moment at +the door, "may I ask how, all things considering, the dear young +ladies is?"</p> + +<p>"On the whole, tranquil, Susan—yes, I may say it with confidence; my +dear pupils may be considered in a resigned state of mind."</p> + +<p>Susan closed the door after her, and Miss Martineau took up her +knitting. Knitting woollen mittens is an occupation which harmonizes +very well with reflection and while the old lady's active fingers +moved her thoughts were busy.</p> + +<p>"Thirty pounds a year," she said softly to herself, "thirty pounds +certain, and a lump sum of two hundred in the bank. Doubtless they owe +some of that for their mother's funeral and their own mourning. They +probably owe quite thirty pounds of that, and to make it safe, I had +better say forty. That leaves a balance of one hundred and sixty; +just enough to put away for emergencies, illness, and so forth. My +dear girls, my dear Primrose, and Jasmine, and my pretty little pet +Daisy, you cannot touch your little capital; you may get a few pounds +a year for it, or you may not—Mr. Danesfield must decide that—but +all the money you can certainly reckon on for your expenses is thirty +pounds per annum, and on that you cannot live."</p> + +<p>Here Miss Martineau threw down her knitting, and began with some +agitation to pace up and down her tiny room.</p> + +<p>"What was to be done with these lonely and defenceless girls? how were +they to meet the world? how were they to earn their living?"</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau had never before found herself propounding so painful +and interesting a problem; her mind worked round it, and tried to +grapple with it, but though she stayed up far into the night, and even +had recourse to figures, and marked down on paper the very lowest sum +a girl could possibly exist on, she went to bed, having found no +solution to this vexed question.</p> + +<p>Even Miss Martineau, ignorant and narrow-minded as she was, could +scarcely pronounce Primrose fit to do much in the educational world; +Jasmine's, of course, was only a little giddy pate, and she required a +vast amount of teaching herself; and pretty Daisy was still but a +young child.</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau went to bed and to sleep; she dreamed troubled dreams, +but in the morning she awoke strengthened and restored, even by such +restless slumbers, and quite resolved to do something.</p> + +<p>"Sophia Martineau," she said—for living quite alone she was fond of +holding conversations with herself—"Sophia Martineau, those girls are +placed, to put it figuratively, at your door, and take them up you +must. Gold you have none to bestow, but you can give interest; you +can, in short, rouse others to help the helpless. This is your bounden +duty, and you had better see to it at once."</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau went briskly downstairs, ate her frugal breakfast, and +then made her plans. These plans were decisive enough. At Rosebury no +one thought of being so silly as to be over-educated. None of the +young brains of the rising generation were over-forced or +over-stimulated, and Miss Martineau felt no compunction whatever in +writing a short note to each of six little pupils, and telling them +that they need not come to her that morning, for she meant to give +them a holiday.</p> + +<p>Having done this, and sent Susan out with the notes, she went +upstairs, and once more put on her black silk dress, her old-fashioned +mantle, and her high poke bonnet. Thus attired, she started on an +expedition which she trusted would lead to many happy results for the +Mainwarings.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>THE CONTENTS OF THE CABINET.</h3> + + +<p>The uneasiness Miss Martineau felt was by no means shared by the +girls. Primrose had in reality a very practical nature; she could +housekeep well, and no baker or butcher who ventured to show his face +in Rosebury would dream of cheating this bright young lady. No one +could make half-a-crown, or even a shilling, go farther than Primrose +could. No one could more cleverly convert an old dress into a new, but +her little experiences ended here. She had kept the house for her +mother, and been both thrifty and saving, but real responsibility had +never been hers. The overpowering sensation of knowing that she must +make so much money meet so many absolute necessities had never touched +her young life. Miss Martineau's words had made her a little +thoughtful, but by no means anxious. If she and her sisters could not +live on thirty pounds a year there was still the money in the bank.</p> + +<p>Primrose thought two hundred pounds, if not a large, at least a very +comfortable sum. The only real effect that her old governess's words +had on her was to make her a little extra saving.</p> + +<p>Jasmine never liked Primrose when she was in a saving mood, and she +grumbled audibly when, the morning after Miss Martineau's visit, her +elder sister suggested that they should do without some black cotton +dresses which the day before they had decided to buy and to make for +themselves.</p> + +<p>"Such nonsense!" said Jasmine, stamping her little foot impatiently; +"you know we want the dresses, Primrose. You know poor Daisy can't run +and play in the garden in her black cashmere frock, and I can't dig or +weed. You know, when we decided to go on just as usual, just as if +mamma—was—was—"</p> + +<p>Here Jasmine paused, gulped down a sob, and said, hastily, "We want +our print dresses, and we can't do without them. You are just +frightened, Primrose, by what Miss Martineau said."</p> + +<p>"I am not at all frightened," answered Primrose, calmly; "only I think +we ought to be careful."</p> + +<p>"And we are so rich, too," said Jasmine. "I never thought we had two +hundred pounds in the bank. Why it's heaps and lots of money. +Primrose, what are you so grave about?"</p> + +<p>"Only," said Primrose, in her slow voice, "only Miss Martineau thought +it very, very little money. She looked so grave when she spoke about +it—indeed, she seemed almost sad. Jasmine, I really think Miss +Martineau quite loves us."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Jasmine, in an indifferent tone. "Well, Rose, if you +are quite determined to be shabby and saving, I may as well join Daisy +in the garden."</p> + +<p>Jasmine stooped down, kissed her sister lightly on the forehead, and +then ran out of the room. A moment or two later Primrose heard +laughing voices floating in through the open window. She was glad in +her heart that Jasmine and Daisy were beginning to do things just as +usual, and yet somehow their laughter gave her a pang.</p> + +<p>The little cottage was a tiny place; it consisted downstairs of one +long low room, with a bay window at the extreme end. This room the +Mainwarings called the drawing-room, and it was really furnished with +great daintiness and care. At one end was the bay window, at the other +were glass doors which opened directly into the garden. The kitchen +was at the other end of the narrow hall, and this also looked on the +garden. Hannah, the one servant, was often heard to object to this +arrangement. She gave solid reasons for her objections, declaring +roundly that human nature was far more agreeable to her than any part +of the vegetable kingdom; but though Hannah found her small kitchen +rather dull, and never during the years she stayed with them developed +the slightest taste for the beauties of Nature, she was sincerely +attached to the Mainwaring girls, and took care to serve them well.</p> + +<p>Upstairs were two bedrooms—one looking to the street, in which the +girls slept, the prettiest room with the garden view being reserved +for Mrs. Mainwaring. Hannah occupied a small and attic-like apartment +over the kitchen.</p> + +<p>When Jasmine ran into the garden Primrose slowly rose from her seat +and went upstairs. It occurred to her that this was a fitting +opportunity to do something which she longed and dreaded to +accomplish.</p> + +<p>Since her mother's death, since the moment when the three young girls +had bent over the coffin and strewed flowers over the form they loved, +the sisters had not gone near this room.</p> + +<p>Hannah had dusted it and kept it tidy, but the blinds had been drawn +down and the sun excluded. The girls had shrunk from entering this +chamber; it seemed to them like a grave. They passed it with reverent +steps, and spoke in whispers as they stole on tiptoe by the closed +door.</p> + +<p>It occurred, however, to Primrose that now was an opportunity when she +might come into the room and put some of her mother's treasures +straight. She unlocked the door and entered; a chill, cold feeling +struck on her. Had she been Jasmine she would have turned and fled, +but being Primrose, she instantly did what her clear common sense told +her was the sensible course.</p> + +<p>"We have made up our minds to go on as usual," she said to herself; +"and letting in the sunlight and the daylight is not forgetting our +dear mother."</p> + +<p>Then she pulled up the blinds, and threw the window-sashes wide open.</p> + +<p>A breath of soft warm air from the garden instantly filled the dreary +chamber, and Primrose, sitting down by an old-fashioned little +cabinet, slipped a key into the lock of the centre drawer, and opened +it.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mainwaring had been by no means a tidy or careful person—she +hated locks, and seemed to have a regular aversion to neatly-kept +drawers or wardrobes, but this one little cabinet, which had belonged +to the girls' father, was a remarkable exception to the general rule.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mainwaring never, even to Primrose, parted with the key of this +cabinet. Whenever the girls were present it was locked—even Daisy +could not coax mother to show her the contents of any of those +tempting little drawers—"only mementoes, darling—only mementoes," +the lady would say, but the girls knew that mother herself often in +the dead of night looked into the locked drawers, and they generally +noticed that the next day she was weaker and sadder than usual.</p> + +<p>On the top of the cabinet a miniature painting of Captain Mainwaring +was always to be found, and the girls used to love to keep a vase of +the choicest flowers close to father's picture.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Mainwaring died, Jasmine cried nearly the whole of one night +at the thought of the little old-fashioned cabinet—for now she felt +quite sure that no one would ever dare to open it, "and I don't like +to think of the mementoes being never seen again," she sobbed: "It +seems cruel to them."</p> + +<p>Then Primrose promised to undertake this dreaded task, and here was +her opportunity.</p> + +<p>Primrose was not at all a nervous girl, and with the soft summer air +filling the chamber, and driving out all the ghosts of solitude and +gloom, she commenced her task. She determined to look through the +contents of the little cabinet with method, and she resolved to begin +with the large centre drawer. She pulled it open, and was surprised to +find that it was nearly empty.</p> + +<p>A few papers, on which verses and quotations from Books of Sermons +were copied in her mother's hand-writing, lay about; these, and one +parcel which was carefully wrapped up in soft white tissue-paper, were +the sole contents of the centre drawer. Primrose pulled the parcel +from where it lay half-hidden at the back of the drawer. She felt +self-possessed, but her fingers trembled slightly as she touched it. +It was folded up most carefully—the wrappings were kept in their +place by white satin ribbon, and on a slip of white paper which had +been placed on the top of the parcel, and secured by the ribbon, +Primrose read a few words:</p> + +<p>"Arthur's little desk—for Primrose now."</p> + +<p>She felt her color coming high, and her heart beating. Who was +Arthur?—she had never heard of him—her father's name had been John. +Who was the unknown Arthur, whose desk was now given to her?</p> + +<p>She untied the parcel slowly, but with shaking fingers.</p> + +<p>The little desk was a battered one, ink-stained, and of a slight and +cheap construction. Inside it contained one treasure, a thick letter, +with the words "For Primrose" written in her mother's writing on the +envelope.</p> + +<p>An unexpected message from those who are dead will set the strongest +nerves quivering. At sight of this letter Primrose laid her pretty +yellow head down on the little old cabinet, and sobbed long and +bitterly.</p> + +<p>How long she might have wept she could never say, but her tears were +suddenly brought to an abrupt termination. When she entered her +mother's room she had not locked the door, and now a voice sounded at +her elbow:</p> + +<p>"Eh!—my word—dear, dear, deary me! Now, Miss Primrose, to think of +you creeping up like this, and 'worriting' yourself over the secrets +in the little bit of a cabinet. Your poor mamma knew what she was +about when she kept that cabinet locked, and for all the good they'll +ever do, she might well have burnt the bits of fallals she kept there. +There, darling, don't spoil your pretty eyes crying over what's dead +and gone, and can never be put right again—never. Shut up the +cabinet, Miss Primrose, and put your hair a bit straight, for Mrs. +Ellsworthy, from Shortlands, is down in the drawing-room, and wanting +to see you most particular 'bad.'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>MANY VISITORS.</h3> + + +<p>Miss Martineau's plans had been full of directness. Having made up her +mind, she wasted no precious moments. The girls must be helped; she +could only give them counsel, but others could do more. Miss Martineau +determined to go at once to the fountainhead. In short, she would +attack the one and only rich person who lived in the neighborhood of +Rosebury. Shortlands was a big place, and the Ellsworthys were +undoubtedly big people. Money with them was plentiful. They considered +themselves county folk; they lived in what the Rosebury people +believed to be royal style.</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau had for one short blissful week of her life spent the +time at Shortlands. She had been sent for in an emergency, to take the +place of a nursery governess who was ill. Her French had been of +little account in this great house, and her music had not been +tolerated. The poor old lady had indeed been rather snubbed. But what +of that? She was able to go back to her own intimate friends, and +entertain them with accounts of powdered footmen, of richly-dressed +London ladies, of a world of fashion which these people believed to be +Paradise.</p> + +<p>Twice during her week's sojourn she had been addressed by Mrs. +Ellsworthy. No matter; from that day she considered herself one of the +great lady's acquaintances. Miss Martineau could be heroic when she +pleased, and there was certainly something of the heroic element about +her when she ventured to storm so mighty a citadel at eleven o'clock +in the morning.</p> + +<p>Her very boldness, however, won her cause. The footman who opened the +door might look as supercilious as he pleased, but he was obliged to +deliver her messages, and Mrs. Ellsworthy, with a good-humored smile, +consented to see her.</p> + +<p>Their interview was short, but Miss Martineau, when she launched on +her theme, quite forgot that she was poor and her auditor rich. Mrs. +Ellsworthy, too, after a few glances into the thin and earnest face of +the governess, ceased to think of that antiquated poke bonnet, or the +absurdly old-fashioned cut of that ugly mantle.</p> + +<p>The two who talked so earnestly were women—women with kind and large +hearts, and their theme was engrossing.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy bound herself by no promises, but she contrived to +send the governess away with a heart full of hope.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy had never yet called on any of the people who lived in +the straggling village of Rosebury. Therefore, when her carriage, with +its prancing horses and perfect appointments, drew up at the +Mainwarings' door, the old-fashioned little place felt quite a flutter +through its heart.</p> + +<p>Poppy Jenkins, the laundress's pretty daughter, came out into the +street, and stared with all her eyes. The doctor's wife, who lived at +the opposite side of the street, gazed furtively and enviously from +behind her muslin blinds. The baker and the butcher neglected their +usual morning orders; and Hannah, the Mainwarings' servant, felt +herself, as she expressed it, all of a tremble from top to toe.</p> + +<p>"Let me brush your hair, Miss Primrose," she said, when she had at +last succeeded in inducing her young lady to dry her tears; "and are +your hands nice and clean, Miss Primrose? and your collar, is it neat? +It's very condescending of Mrs. Ellsworthy to call."</p> + +<p>"I wonder what she has come about," said Primrose; "she never knew my +mother."</p> + +<p>Primrose felt at that moment the great lady's visit to be an +intrusion.</p> + +<p>"I'll just run into the garden and stop Miss Jasmine and Miss Daisy +rushing into the drawing-room all in a mess," said Hannah. "Oh! sakes +alive! why, the young ladies will be seen anyhow from the French +window."</p> + +<p>Hannah hurried off, wondering if she could smuggle these troublesome +members of her flock out of sight through the kitchen.</p> + +<p>Alas! she was too late—when Primrose, slim and graceful, and with her +pretty eyes only slightly reddened by her crying fit, entered the +drawing-room, she saw the French doors open, and her guest pacing +tranquilly round the garden, hold the Pink in her arms, while Daisy +danced in front of her, and Jasmine, chattering volubly, walked by her +side.</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad you like those carnations," Jasmine was saying. "Mamma +was very fond of them. Shall I set some slips for you? I will with +pleasure."</p> + +<p>"If Pink ever has a kitten you shall have it," said Daisy solemnly.</p> + +<p>At this moment Primrose joined her sisters.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Primrose—something so delightful!" began Jasmine.</p> + +<p>"She thinks the Pink a perfect beauty. She wants another pussy just +like it," burst from Daisy's pretty dimpled lips.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy, still keeping the Pink in her arms, held out her +other hand to Primrose.</p> + +<p>"I have introduced myself to your sisters, dear Miss Mainwaring. I am +Mrs. Ellsworthy, of Shortlands—a near neighbor. You must not consider +my visit an intrusion."</p> + +<p>Before Primrose could reply Jasmine exclaimed volubly—</p> + +<p>"Indeed we don't—we are quite delighted; we were feeling ourselves +awfully dull. Miss Martineau said every one would call now she had +been. We did not want to see every one, but you are different."</p> + +<p>"You are delightful," echoed Daisy.</p> + +<p>Primrose felt herself almost cross. "Girls, do stop chattering," she +said. "Mrs. Ellsworthy, I hope you will excuse my sisters; and won't +you come into the drawing-room?"</p> + +<p>"I am charmed with your sisters," answered the great lady—"they are +fresh, they are original. Dear Miss Mainwaring, why need we leave this +delightful garden? can we not have our little talk here?"</p> + +<p>"With pleasure," said Primrose, but her stiffness did not disappear; +she still had a slightly sore feeling at the bottom of her heart, and +the thought that Mrs. Ellsworthy never took the trouble to know dear +mamma kept recurring.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy was quite woman of the world enough to read Primrose, +and to guess what was in her heart. She saw at a glance that the girls +were ladies, and would not be patronized. Her task had seemed easy +enough when she assured Miss Martineau that the poor young Mainwarings +must be helped. When she ordered her carriage and drove into Rosebury +she made up her mind to discuss their affairs boldly with them, and to +offer them practical advice, and, if necessary, substantial +assistance. The eldest girl, if she was at all presentable, might be +got into some family as a nursery governess or companion, and she felt +quite sure that she had sufficient interest to procure admissions for +Jasmine and Daisy into some of the schools especially started to +educate the orphan daughters of army men.</p> + +<p>But in the garden, although it was a very shabby little garden, this +programme did not seem quite so easy. Jasmine and Daisy were +delightful children; they hailed her instantly as a comrade; they +thought nothing whatever of her wealth or her position. Shortlands +conveyed no meaning to their unsophisticated minds; they fully +believed that Mrs. Ellsworthy envied them their carnations, and would +have been made happy by the possession of a kitten similar to the +Pink. Primrose, on the contrary, was proud and shy, and had no idea of +treating any stranger in a confidential manner.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy chatted on, but she never got beyond commonplaces; she +invited the girls to visit her at Shortlands, and Primrose, reading a +great desire in Daisy's blue eyes, answered simply, "Thank you; we +shall like to come very much."</p> + +<p>"I'll manage it when I get them to my own house," thought Mrs. +Ellsworthy; "it's quite absurd to be baffled by three little chits, +but I'll settle everything in a satisfactory fashion when I get them +to Shortlands."</p> + +<p>Aloud she said, "My dears, I shall be very glad to see you—and can +you come to-morrow? To-morrow I shall be quite alone."</p> + +<p>"Primrose," burst from Daisy, "there's a Newfoundland dog, and a +mastiff, and two English terriers at Shortlands. The Newfoundland is +black and woolly and the mastiff is tawny, like a lion."</p> + +<p>"Will you really show us over your beautiful conservatories?" asked +Jasmine. "Primrose, she was telling us about her flowers; and they +must be lovely."</p> + +<p>"I'll show you everything, and take you everywhere," responded Mrs. +Ellsworthy, stooping down to kiss Jasmine's upturned face. "You'll +bring your sisters to-morrow, Miss Mainwaring," she continued, turning +to the grave Primrose.</p> + +<p>"Thank you—yes. It is kind of you to ask us," answered Primrose.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy drove away in state, and the sisters saw her off from +their door-steps. They made a pretty group as they stood +together—Daisy's arms clasped her elder sister's waist, and Jasmine +shaded her dark eyes from the full blaze of the sun with her little +white dimpled hand.</p> + +<p>As the great lady drove away Jasmine had actually the audacity to blow +a kiss to her.</p> + +<p>The neighbors at the opposite side of the street felt quite +scandalized, and said to themselves that surely the poor young ladies +had seen the last of Mrs. Ellsworthy, after such a piece of +impertinence. But the lady of Shortlands was really delighted.</p> + +<p>"To think of my being here all these years, and never knowing those +charming creatures," she soliloquized. Just then she saw Miss +Martineau crossing the street, and she ordered her coachman to draw +up.</p> + +<p>"I have been with them, dear Miss Martineau—they are delightful—so +fresh—and so—so pretty! They are coming to Shortlands to-morrow. +Good-bye—warm morning, is it not? Home, Tomlinson."</p> + +<p>The girls had entered the little house, cheered by Mrs. Ellsworthy's +visit. Primrose, it is true, did not share her younger sisters' +enthusiasm, but even she was pleased, and owned to herself that Mrs. +Ellsworthy was a very different neighbor from the village folk.</p> + +<p>Primrose's mind, however, was a good deal absorbed by what she had +discovered in her mother's little old-fashioned cabinet. A letter +directed to herself lay there unopened. She longed to break the seal, +and to acquaint herself with the contents of this message from the +dead. She longed to read the letter, but she knew she could only do so +at some quiet moment. She must peruse those beloved words when she was +alone and quite sure of being undisturbed. She thought she might slip +away into a little glade at the back of the house that afternoon, and +there read her letter, and ponder over its contents.</p> + +<p>Events, however, were to occur which would prevent Primrose carrying +out this scheme.</p> + +<p>Immediately after dinner Miss Martineau's well-known knock was heard +at the hall-door, and Miss Martineau herself, bristling with +excitement and curiosity, invaded the girls in their drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"Now, my dears, tell me all about her. Is she not fascinating? She is +greatly pleased with you three—you have made a most proper +impression; and you are to go to spend the day at Shortlands +to-morrow. Now, my loves, tell me what arrangements she has come to—I +am so <i>deeply</i> interested, my poor darlings."</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau, as she spoke, kept her eyes fixed on Primrose; but +that young lady only gave her a puzzled look, and, after a short +pause, said quietly—</p> + +<p>"I don't understand you. We have made no special arrangements. Mrs. +Ellsworthy was friendly, and she asked us to come and see her at +Shortlands; and we are going. Miss Martineau, I am so very busy this +afternoon; will you forgive me if I run away?"</p> + +<p>Primrose left the room, and Miss Martineau, turning to Jasmine, +clasped her hands in some excitement.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear!" she exclaimed, "I do hope Primrose won't spoil +everything by those little proud airs of hers; they really are—yes, I +am grieved to be obliged to say it—but they really are affected. Now, +Jasmine darling, a great deal depends on this visit—yes, a great +deal. You and Daisy must be on your very best behavior. You have never +been in a great house like Shortlands, and it is only right that I, +your instructress, should tell you how you are to behave. You must +take no liberties, dear; and you must not speak too much, or too fast; +and you must look <i>very</i> grateful when Mrs. Ellsworthy notices you, +loves. Oh, my poor dears! I feel over anxious, for so much depends on +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>It was now Jasmine's turn to stare, and to begin to say—"I don't +understand you." But Daisy burst out volubly—</p> + +<p>"We are going up to Shortlands to run about—she said so. She said we +were to see the dogs—the black woolly Newfoundland and the tawny +mastiff; and she has got a snow-white Persian kitten, only she likes +the Pink best; and I promised her that if ever the Pink had a little +kit of her own she should have it. Mrs. Ellsworthy didn't say a word +about being horrid, and proper, and waiting until you are spoken to. I +won't go to Shortlands if I have to behave like that, I won't," +concluded spoiled Daisy, pouting her lips.</p> + +<p>Jasmine bent forward and kissed her. "You may do just what you like, +darling little Eyebright," she said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Martineau, really Mrs. Ellsworthy is not at all what you +picture her. I should say she was the kind of lady who likes a real +romp. Anyhow, she does not at all want people to be stiff with her. +Daisy, and she, and I were as jolly as possible until Primrose came +downstairs, and I suppose Primrose agreed with you, and thought it was +manners to be formal. But, poor dear, she did not like it a bit. We +three were having such a chatter before Primrose came. She is going to +show me all her conservatories to-morrow, and she took a great fancy +to my carnations. I promised her some slips. Oh dear! oh dear! who is +that knocking at the hall door? Daisy, run and peep from behind the +curtain, and let me know."</p> + +<p>Daisy started off on the instant, and returned in a moment with the +intelligence that Mr. Danesfield, the manager of the bank, was +standing on the steps, and that his face was very red.</p> + +<p>On hearing this intelligence poor Miss Martineau's face also became +suffused with a deep flush, and she pushed her poke bonnet a little +backward in her excitement. An awful idea had suddenly darted through +her brain.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Mr. Danesfield had called to announce some misfortune. Perhaps +the two hundred pounds was lost; perhaps there was no balance at the +bank!</p> + +<p>When the good gentleman was ushered into the room she glanced at him +mysteriously, and even while he was shaking hands with Jasmine and +Daisy, began letting fall short, but mysterious sentences—</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ellsworthy has called—<i>much</i> pleased—inclined to take them up. +They are to spend to-morrow at Shortlands." Mr. Danesfield raised his +eyebrows, pulled Daisy to stand between his knees; and, staring at +Miss Martineau over his gold-rimmed glasses, said—</p> + +<p>"Eh! eh!—Shortlands—Ellsworthy's—worthy folk!" here he laughed, +pleased with his pun; "yes, Miss Martineau, a good opportunity, +undoubtedly!"</p> + +<p>At this moment Primrose came into the room, and Miss Martineau, +judging that she might best serve her cause by retiring from the scene +of action, went away.</p> + +<p>Mr. Danesfield did not pay a long visit. He had known the Mainwarings, +although not very intimately, for years. He was a good-hearted, kind, +and very busy man, and during their mother's lifetime he had taken but +little notice of the girls.</p> + +<p>To-day, however, he seemed to regard them with fresh interest. He +assured Primrose that if he could assist her in any business capacity +he would only be too pleased to do so. "Our good friend Miss Martineau +assures me that your means are likely to be a little straitened, my +dear. I am sincerely sorry, although there are worse troubles—yes, +assuredly, far worse troubles. It cannot do a healthy girl any harm to +work. Yes, come to me for advice if you care to, and look on me as an +old friend. And hark ye, Miss Primrose, I am glad Mrs. Ellsworthy has +called. Make the most of your opportunity at Shortlands, my dears. +Yes; I'll look in another day with pleasure. Good-bye, good-bye."</p> + +<p>When Mr. Danesfield went away the two elder sisters looked at each +other. What did it all mean? What mystery was there in the air? +Jasmine thought both Miss Martineau and Mr. Danesfield very +disagreeable but Primrose pondered these things and felt anxious.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>SHORTLANDS.</h3> + + +<p>"A most extraordinary thing has happened," said Mrs. Ellsworthy that +evening to her husband. "We have lived for several years at +Shortlands, and except when we have people in the house I have +actually been without any society. My dear Joseph, you will forgive my +counting you as nobody at all. Well, we have lived here, and I have +often been dull beyond words, and yet the nicest creatures have been +within a stone's throw of me."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ellsworthy was at least twenty years older than his wife—a +reserved individual, with a rather long and melancholy face. Mrs. +Ellsworthy was plump, and round, and pretty—kittenish some people +called her.</p> + +<p>She was certainly fond of emphasizing her words, and of going into +raptures, and her husband now only raised his eyebrows, and said, +"Well, Kate?" in a somewhat lethargic voice.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy left her seat, and drew a small easy-chair close to +the fire, for though the weather was hot Mrs. Ellsworthy always +insisted on indulging in this evening luxury.</p> + +<p>Planting herself luxuriously in this chair, the little lady began her +narrative.</p> + +<p>"Now, Joseph, I will tell you my story. Do you remember that +outlandish-looking governess who came up here for a week to try to +keep Frankie in order before we sent him to school? Oh, what a +blessing it is to have that boy at school! Do you remember Miss +Martineau, Joseph?"</p> + +<p>"There was an authoress of the name, my love; but surely she died +before we came to Shortlands?"</p> + +<p>"Joseph, how stupid you are! I mean a dear, obsolete creature in the +village. However, it is not the slightest matter whether you remember +her or not. She came here again this morning, and begged of me to +interest myself in the cause of three destitute orphans who lived in a +little house in the village. She spoke most kindly about them, but +said they were a little unfinished, and not, in her opinion, very +capable; but she described them as pretty and young, and, oh, so +appallingly poor! And somehow the good old creature touched my heart, +and I said I would certainly help them. I ordered the carriage and +drove into the village. I expected to see—well, you know, the sort of +girl who is likely to be found in a little village like Rosebury, +Joseph—the awkward and shy young miss. I imagined them as being so +grateful for my notice; indeed, a little overpowered; for, you know, I +don't know the Rosebury folk. Well, my dear, what do you think I +found?"</p> + +<p>"It is really difficult to tell, Kate. I should judge, however, from +your excited manner and your unusual enthusiasm, that you found young +ladies."</p> + +<p>"Joseph, you are a genius. I did. In the funniest, pokiest, queerest +little house that you can possibly imagine; I discovered three +charming, well-bred girls. The two youngest made friends with me in +their shabby little garden. They greeted me, I assure you, with the +most delightful frankness and ease. I told them who I was, and they +were not the least impressed; on the contrary, the one they called +Jasmine—oh! she is a pretty creature—fancied I was dying for some +carnations like hers, and the little one holds out hopes that some day +I may possess a kitten similar to the one she thrust into my arms. +They were as shabbily dressed as possible, but who could look at them, +dear pets, and think twice about their dresses? We got on most +pleasantly, and found we had many interests in common, for the little +one shared my love for animals, and the elder my passion for flowers. +On this scene the eldest sister made her appearance. I assure you, +Joseph, it is almost too absurd, but it is a fact; she actually +contrived to snub me. I read as plainly as possible in those pretty, +serene eyes of hers the question, 'How is it that you, who never +condescended to know my mother, intrude upon us now, in our loss?' She +was most gentle and most dignified, but I could as soon take liberties +with her as with—with—you, Joseph, when you choose to exert your +authority. After Miss Mainwaring came, I thought it best to run away; +but before I went I extracted a promise from the three darlings to +come and spend the day here to-morrow. Really, Joseph, I have had a +surprising day; but I remember now that Miss Martineau did say +something about these children being well born."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ellsworthy again raised his eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"I had an acquaintance once of the name," he said, "but I lost sight +of him years ago. It is a good name. Well, Kate, you will do what you +can for your <i>protegées</i>. I am glad you have found some objects of +interest close to your own gates."</p> + +<p>Here Mrs. Ellsworthy dropped her slightly frivolous tone, and rising +from her seat, went up to her husband.</p> + +<p>"Joseph," she said, "I want you to contrive to be at home for lunch +to-morrow. I want you to see my girls, and to advise me how best to +help them. Primrose is so proud and so inexperienced; the two younger +ones, of course, know nothing of either poverty or riches; they live +as the flowers live, and are happy for the same reason. Do you know, +Joseph, that the eldest of these sisters is not seventeen, and the +youngest only ten; that they seem to be absolutely without relations, +almost without friends, and that between them they have only a +Government grant of thirty pounds a year."</p> + +<p>Here Mrs. Ellsworthy's pretty bright blue eyes filled with tears, and +her husband, stooping down, kissed her.</p> + +<p>"I will make a point of seeing those girls to-morrow Kate," he said. +"I am glad you have come across them."</p> + +<p>Then he went off to his library, where he sat, and read, and lost +himself in great thoughts far into the night. It is to be feared that +during these hours he forgot the Mainwarings and their troubles.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy had appointed noon the next day to receive her young +guests, and punctual to the moment the three walked into her +drawing-room.</p> + +<p>Daisy instantly commented on this fact. "There's the last stroke of +twelve striking from the church clock," she exclaimed. "Oh, please! +where's the Persian kitten?"</p> + +<p>"I have brought you all the carnations that were in flower," said +Jasmine. "Smell them; aren't they delicious? Mamma used to love them +so—I would not give them to any one but you."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy stooped and kissed Jasmine, and taking her hand, gave +it a little squeeze. "Thank you, my love," she said—"I value your +beautiful flowers—you shall arrange them yourself in this amber +vase."</p> + +<p>"They are such a vivid crimson, they would look best against white," +answered Jasmine, raising her eyes a little anxiously. "I like to +arrange flowers to look like a picture. Mamma always allowed me to +arrange the flowers, and Primrose will in the future." Here Jasmine +went up to Primrose, and took her hand, and the elder sister smiled at +her with great affection, and said, looking at Mrs. Ellsworthy, "We +call Jasmine our artist at home."</p> + +<p>"And our poet—she makes poetry about the Pink at home," said Daisy. +"Oh, dear!" she continued, giving a deep sigh, "I can't see the +Persian kitten anywhere. I do hope what Miss Martineau said is not +true."</p> + +<p>"What did she say, my dear?" asked the lady of Shortlands.</p> + +<p>"Oh, a lot of nonsense—that this was a great house, and we were to +sit on chairs, and not speak unless you spoke to us, and we were not +to play with the Persian kitten, nor see the dogs. She said you were +a very grand lady, and that was the proper way to go on—we didn't +agree with her, did we, Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"No, of course we didn't," said Jasmine; "we knew better."</p> + +<p>"We said you were a romp," continued Daisy. "You seemed like it in our +garden. I wouldn't have come if I thought you were one of those ladies +who wanted little girls to sit on chairs. Oh! do say you are a romp."</p> + +<p>Here there was a laugh heard behind them, and Mr. Ellsworthy came up +and joined the group. He greeted the girls kindly, and very soon +discovered that their father had been the old acquaintance whom he had +known of the name. Then he and Primrose went off together, and Mrs. +Ellsworthy took the two young girls' hands.</p> + +<p>"My darling," she said, "with the single exception of my only son, +Frankie, who is at present at school, I am the greatest romp in +existence. Now let us come out into the sunshine and enjoy ourselves."</p> + +<p>The few hours the girls spent at Shortlands passed only too quickly +for Jasmine and Daisy. Mrs. Ellsworthy laid herself out to be +charming, and no one could be more charming than she when she chose. +She had naturally a good deal of sympathy, and taking her cue from the +little ones, she entered into their lives, and became one with them. +Jasmine and Daisy became quite merry. An indiscriminating observer +would have said: "How shocking to hear such merry laughter—their +mother has only been dead a month." But Mrs. Ellsworthy had far too +kind a heart to do these children such an injustice. She knew that the +dark lines under Jasmine's bright eyes were caused by the passion of a +great grief; but she also knew that with such a nature sunshine must +follow storm. Daisy in the midst of her play, too, began suddenly to +cry.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, my little one?" asked the lady of the house. The +child put her arms round her neck, and whispered through sobs: "I am +so happy now; but I know I'll be miserable bye-and-bye. I'll want so +badly to tell mamma about you, and mamma won't be there."</p> + +<p>Primrose was also serenely happy—she was glad to hear her sisters' +laughter, and she liked to walk about the beautiful place, and to feel +the soft summer air on her cheeks.</p> + +<p>The village of Rosebury lay low; but Shortlands stood on rising +ground, and the more bracing air did Primrose good. When she saw how +happy Mrs. Ellsworthy made her sisters she forgave her for not calling +on her mother.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ellsworthy took a good deal of notice of Primrose, and showed her +some of his pet books, and talked to her in a sensible grown-up way. +Jasmine and Daisy were young for their years, but Primrose was old, +and she liked to ask practical questions. Had she known Mr. Ellsworthy +a little better she might have even consulted him as to the best way +of laying out thirty pounds per annum, so as to cover all the expenses +of three girls who wished to live as ladies; but she was both shy and +reserved; and when Mr. Ellsworthy, goaded on by certain looks from his +wife, referred to the subject of money, Primrose started aside from it +like any frightened young fawn.</p> + +<p>The day, the happy day for all three, passed only too quickly, and it +was Mrs. Ellsworthy at last who determined to plunge boldly into the +heart of the subject which was uppermost in her thoughts.</p> + +<p>"Primrose," she said, taking the elder sister aside, "you must forgive +me for speaking plainly to you, dear. I call you Primrose, because you +do not seem to me altogether a stranger, and my husband knew your +father. I may call you Primrose, may I not, love?"</p> + +<p>"Please, do," said Primrose, with that sweet smile which came only +rarely to her quiet face; "I like it—it is my name. When people say +Miss Mainwaring I feel—lonely."</p> + +<p>"You are Primrose, then, to me, dear. Now, Primrose, take my hand, +and sit quietly in this chair. I am going to confess something to you. +I called to see you and your sisters yesterday morning, intending to +patronize you."</p> + +<p>"To patronize us—why?" asked Primrose.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy laughed in a slightly nervous manner.</p> + +<p>"My dear child, we won't go into the whys and the wherefores. I found +I could not do it, that is all. I have not, however, half finished my +confession. I called to see you because Miss Martineau asked me to."</p> + +<p>Here Primrose flushed a very rosy pink, and Mrs. Ellsworthy saw a +displeased look fill her eyes.</p> + +<p>"You must not be angry with Miss Martineau, Primrose. She loves you +three girls very much. She is most anxious about you. She—my dear, +she told me of your poverty."</p> + +<p>Here Primrose rose from her seat and said, in the quietest tone—</p> + +<p>"We are certainly poor, but I don't think that is anybody's concern. +We don't mind it ourselves—at least, not much. You see, we have never +known riches, and we cannot miss what we have never had. It would be a +great pity for people to try to make us discontented. I think it was +ill-bred of Miss Martineau to mention our private affairs to you; but +still, as we have got to know you through these means, I forgive her. +You are a very delightful friend. Mrs. Ellsworthy, I think you must +let us go home now—Daisy is not accustomed to being up so late."</p> + +<p>"Of all the tiresome, hard-to-be-understood young people I ever came +across, Primrose Mainwaring beats them," thought Mrs. Ellsworthy to +herself; but aloud she said very sweetly—</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear—and you shall drive home in the carriage I could not hear +of your walking."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>THIRTY POUNDS A YEAR.</h3> + + +<p>Miss Ellsworthy thought Primrose both tiresome and obtuse, but here +she was mistaken.</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau's solemn looks, Mr. Danesfield's emphatic injunctions +to make the most of their visit to Shortlands, and, above all, the +expression of deep distress on Mrs. Ellsworthy's charming face when +she spoke of their poverty, were by no means thrown away on her.</p> + +<p>She felt very grave as the three sisters were driven home in the +Ellsworthys' luxurious carriage. She scarcely joined at all in +Jasmine's chatter, nor did she notice Daisy's raptures over a tiny +white pup—Mrs. Ellsworthy's parting gift.</p> + +<p>On their arrival at home the Pink greeted this unlooked-for addition +to the family with a furious assault; and Jasmine, Daisy, and Hannah +were all intensely excited over the task of dividing the combatants; +but Primrose felt but small interest, and owned that she had a slight +headache.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, when the younger girls retired to bed she sat up, and, +taking out an account-book, began an impossible task. Even all the +resources of this young and vigorous brain could not make thirty +pounds cover a year's expenses. Again and again Primrose tried. The +rent of the cottage was twelve pounds a year. She pronounced this +extravagant, and wondered if they could possibly get a cheaper +dwelling.</p> + +<p>Then there were Hannah's wages. Well, of course, they could do without +Hannah—it would be very painful to part with her, but anything would +be better than the humiliating conclusion that Mrs. Ellsworthy and +Miss Martineau considered them too poor to live. Then, of course, they +could do without meat—what did healthy girls want with meat? +Only—and here Primrose sighed deeply—Daisy was not <i>very</i> strong. +Eggs were cheap enough in Rosebury, and so was butter, and they could +bake their own bread; and as to clothes, they would not want any more +for a long time. Here Primrose again felt herself pulled up short, for +Jasmine's walking-shoes were nearly worn through.</p> + +<p>She went to bed at last, feeling very depressed and anxious. Thirty +pounds was really a much smaller sum of money than she had given it +credit for being. Try as she might, it would not stretch itself over +the expenses of even the humblest establishment of three. She was much +comforted, however, by the reflection that there remained a large sum +to their credit in the bank. Primrose found her faith shaken in the +capacities of an income of thirty pounds a year; but a sum total of +two hundred pounds she still believed to be almost inexhaustible. She +resolved to go and consult Mr. Danesfield on the morrow.</p> + +<p>Mr. Danesfield was generally to be found in his private room at the +bank by ten o'clock in the morning. Very soon after that hour on the +following day a clerk came to say that one of the young ladies from +Woodbine Cottage wanted to see him. "The eldest young lady, and she +says her business is very pressing," continued the man.</p> + +<p>The bank at Rosebury was only a branch office of a large establishment +in the nearest town. It happened that that morning Mr. Danesfield was +particularly busy, and anxious to get away to the large bank at an +early hour. For more reasons than one, therefore he felt annoyed at +Primrose's visit.</p> + +<p>"Poor child," he said to himself, "I have certainly nothing very good +to tell her; and I have undoubtedly no time to waste over her this +morning."</p> + +<p>Aloud, however, he said to his clerk—</p> + +<p>"Ask Miss Mainwaring to step this way—and, Dawson, order my trap to +be at the door in ten minutes."</p> + +<p>"I won't keep you very long, Mr. Danesfield," began Primrose, in a +quick and rather nervous manner for her.</p> + +<p>Mr. Danesfield was always the soul of politeness, however irritable he +might feel.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, my dear young lady," he said; "I am delighted to see you, +and I can give you exactly five minutes."</p> + +<p>"I want to ask you two questions," began Primrose. "The questions are +short. They are about money; and you understand all about that."</p> + +<p>"Not all, my dear girl—money is far too great a theme to be wholly +comprehended by one single individual."</p> + +<p>Primrose tapped her foot impatiently—then, after a brief pause, she +raised her clear brown eyes, and looked full at the banker.</p> + +<p>"How much money have we in the bank, Mr. Danesfield?"</p> + +<p>"My dear child, not much—very little, scarcely anything. 'Pon my +word, I am sorry for you, but your entire capital does not amount to +quite two hundred pounds."</p> + +<p>Primrose received this information calmly.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she said—"I just wanted to know from yourself. Now, I +have one other question to ask you, and then I will go. My sisters and +I have thirty pounds a year to live on. By drawing a little on our +capital, say, taking ten or fifteen pounds a year from it, can we +live, Mr. Danesfield?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Danesfield rose from his seat, and coming over to Primrose, laid +his hand on her shoulder—</p> + +<p>"Live! my poor, dear child; you and your sisters would starve. No, +Miss Mainwaring, there is nothing for you three girls to do but to +turn to and earn your living. Your friends, I doubt not, will help, +and you must take their help. I shall be delighted to give advice. +Now, my dear child, my trap is at the door, and I must go. Good +morning—good morning."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>A STRANGE LETTER AND A PROPOSED VISIT TO LONDON.</h3> + + +<p>Primrose was always direct in her movements—she made up her mind +quickly; from her earliest childhood she was in the habit of acting +with decision.</p> + +<p>After her short interview with Mr. Danesfield she went straight home, +and without paying any attention to the clear voice of her pet Daisy, +who called to her from the garden, or to Jasmine's little +impatient—"Sister, I want you to help me to arrange the trimming on +my new black skirt," she ran upstairs, and locked herself into her +mother's room.</p> + +<p>There she once more opened the old davenport, and took from it the +thick packet, which contained a shabby little desk, inside of which +lay a letter directed to herself.</p> + +<p>Now at last she opened the letter, and in her own great perplexity +read the message from the grave.</p> + +<p>The letter was dated about three months back, and was in her mother's +neatest and most easily read writing.</p> + +<p>"My dear daughter," it began, "I have no present reason to suppose +that my life will be cut short, therefore I cannot tell whether this +letter will be read by you now, while you are young, or years hence, +when your youth is over.</p> + +<p>"One thing I have resolved—you shall not know the little secret it +contains during my lifetime. I keep it from you, my darling, because I +could not bear you to speak of it to me, because at the time it gave +me such agony that I have locked it up in my heart, and no one, not +even my own child, must open the doors where my dead secret lies.</p> + +<p>"Primrose, whenever I die, this letter will reach you—you will find +it in the ordinary course of things in my cabinet; but even in this +letter I cannot tell you all the story—you must go to Hannah for +particulars—she has been with me all my married life, and knows as +much as I do.</p> + +<p>"Once, when you were a little child of only six years old, I came into +the room where you slept, and I heard her saying to you, as she tucked +you up for the night—</p> + +<p>"You must be very good to your mamma, Miss Primrose, for she has known +trouble."</p> + +<p>"Neither you nor she saw me, and you raised your dear eyes to her +face, and I heard you say—</p> + +<p>"'What is trouble, nursey Hannah?'</p> + +<p>"'Trouble is a burden too heavy to be borne,' Hannah answered, 'but +when you came, Missy, it went away—you were like the spring to my +missus, and that is why she called you Primrose.'</p> + +<p>"That night I called Hannah aside, and I made the faithful creature +promise that she would never again allude to my trouble to any of my +children. She promised, and kept her word.</p> + +<p>"Now, darling, you shall learn what nearly broke my heart; what would +have quite broken it had God not sent me my three girls.</p> + +<p>"Primrose, something more bitter than death came to your mother. Your +father is dead—I know where his bones lie—I know that I shall meet +him again, and I don't rebel. My other trouble was far, far worse than +that—</p> + +<p>"Darling, you are not my eldest child—you are not the first bonny +baby who lay in my arms. Years before you were born I had a son. Oh! +how can I speak of him?—he seemed to be more beautiful than any other +child—he had ways—he had looks—Primrose, I can't go on, you must +ask Hannah to tell you what my boy was like. I had him for five years, +then I lost him; he did not die—he was stolen from me. Can you wonder +now that your mother sometimes looks sad, and that even you and +Jasmine and Daisy fail now and then to make me smile?</p> + +<p>"My bonny boy was stolen. I never saw him dead; I never could go to +his grave to put flowers there—twenty years ago now he was taken from +me, and I have had neither trace nor tidings of him.</p> + +<p>"Hannah will tell you particulars, Primrose, for I cannot. My trouble +far surpassed the bitterness of death. Only for you three, I could not +have lived—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Your mother,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Constance Mainwaring."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Primrose had scarcely finished reading this letter, and had by no +means taken in the full meaning of its contents, when light, soft +footsteps paused outside the room, and she heard the handle of the +door being very softly turned.</p> + +<p>Cramming the letter into her pocket, and shutting the lid of the +little cabinet, she ran and unlocked the door. Jasmine was standing +without.</p> + +<p>"I looked for you everywhere, Primrose, and I did not mean really to +disturb you here; I thought you might be here, and I tried the handle +very softly, meaning to steal away again. Are you very busy, +Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"I can come with you if you want me for anything, Jasmine," answered +Primrose, putting her hand to her head in a dazed sort of way.</p> + +<p>Jasmine's brow cleared, and her face grew bright instantly.</p> + +<p>"It's rather exciting," she said; "I'm so glad you can come. It is +about Poppy Jenkins—Poppy is downstairs—she is going away—she has +come to say good-bye. Do you know, Primrose, that she is actually +going to London?"</p> + +<p>Jasmine looked so delighted and eager that Primrose could not help +smiling, and taking her sister's hand, they ran downstairs together.</p> + +<p>Poppy, who had very black eyes, cheeks with a brilliant color, and +hair like a raven's wing, was standing in the drawing-room twisting +her apron strings and chatting volubly to Daisy. She had known the +girls all her life, and not only loved them dearly, but respected them +much. To Poppy Jenkins there never were three such beautiful and +altogether charming young ladies as the Misses Mainwaring.</p> + +<p>When Primrose appeared she dropped her a curtsey—perhaps she +respected Primrose the most, and loved her the least.</p> + +<p>"It's to say good-bye, miss," she began, "I called in, hoping for last +words with you three dear young ladies. I is summoned to London, Miss +Primrose."</p> + +<p>Nothing could exceed the air of modest pride with which Poppy made +this declaration; she quite expected Primrose to be both startled and +dazzled, and said afterwards that it was rather like a little stream +of cold water trickling down her back when Miss Mainwaring replied +quietly—</p> + +<p>"London is a long way off, Poppy—why are you going there?"</p> + +<p>"I has an aunt in the boarding-house way, Miss Primrose—she keeps a +very select establishment; and most particular; don't admit no +gentlemen. It's for ladies only, aunt's boarding-house is, miss, and +she wrote to mother that it's a flourishing concern, and she wants a +girl who will be honest, and handy, and country-bred, to help wait on +the ladies. She has offered the situation to me, miss, as in duty +bound, I being her own niece, and mother is pleased to accept. I calls +it a dazzling prospect, Miss Primrose."</p> + +<p>"I am delighted," began Primrose; but Jasmine interrupted her. +"Dazzling," she repeated, "of course it is dazzling, Poppy. I am so +very glad you are going. I only wish I were going. If there is a +wonderful, delightful, charming place, it is London. I have read about +it, and I have dreamed about it, and I have pictured it. What fun you +will have! Of course your aunt will take you to see all the sights. +Oh, do sit down. Primrose, we ought to tell her about the places she +should see, ought we not?"</p> + +<p>Primrose nodded, and Poppy dropped on to the edge of the nearest +chair, and, clasping her red and hard-worked hands in front of her, +prepared herself to listen.</p> + +<p>"First of all, Poppy," began Jasmine, after waiting for her sister to +speak; but Primrose was strangely silent.</p> + +<p>"First of all, Poppy, you must go to the places which improve your +mind; now, I do hope you are not going to be giddy, running just after +pretty things; but I suppose your aunt, who is so wise, and who keeps +the boarding-house, will see to that. Well, first of all you had +better go to Westminster Abbey. Oh, Poppy! I have read such glorious +descriptions of it—the lights from the painted windows—the +wonderfully ancient look of the old pillars, and then the music; it +peals down the aisles and echoes through the fretted roofs; you will +be greatly overpowered at Westminster Abbey, Poppy; but you must +remember that you are a very privileged person, and be thankful for +being permitted to see with your own eyes such a lovely, lovely, +glorious place!"</p> + +<p>"It do sound, from your description, very awe-inspiring, Miss +Jasmine," answered Poppy. "Is there no other place where one might get +more, so to speak, into the festive mood, miss?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, you silly Poppy, lots and lots; but we'll come to those +presently. You'll have to see the Houses of Parliament, where our laws +are made—if you don't feel grave there, you ought. Then you must +visit the Tower, where people's heads were cut off—it's very solemn +indeed at the Tower; and, of course, you will pay a visit to the Zoo, +and you can see the lions fed, and you can look at the monkey-house."</p> + +<p>"I likes monkeys," said Poppy, whose face had been growing graver and +graver while Jasmine was talking; "and if you'll throw in a little bit +of gazing into shop windows, Miss Jasmine, and learning the newest +cuts of a bonnet, and the most genteel fit of a mantle, why, then, +I'll do even that dreadful Tower, as in duty bound. My mother calls +London a vast sea and a world of temptation, and nothing but vanity +from end to end; but when I thinks of the beautiful ladies in aunt's +boarding-house, and of the shop windows I feels that it is dazzling."</p> + +<p>"I wish that I were going," repeated Jasmine, whose cheeks were +flushed, and her starry eyes brighter than usual; "I wish I were +going. Oh, Primrose, think of you, and Daisy, and me saying our +prayers in the Abbey!"</p> + +<p>"We must not think of it," said Primrose; "God hears our prayers +wherever we say them, Jasmine, darling."</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Jasmine; "and I am not going to complain. Well, Poppy, +you are a very lucky girl, and I hope you'll be as good as gold, and +as happy as the day is long."</p> + +<p>"And if ever you does come to London, Miss Jasmine," said Poppy, rising +to her feet, "you'll remember aunt's boarding-house, for ladies only; +and proud I'll be to wait on you, miss."</p> + +<p>"But we can't come, Poppy dear—we are very poor now—we have only got +thirty pounds a year to live on."</p> + +<p>To Poppy, who had never been known in her life to possess thirty +pence, this sum sounded by no means modest.</p> + +<p>"Might I make bold to inquire, miss," she asked, "if the thirty pounds +is once for all, or if it's a yearly recurrence?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's an income, Poppy—how stupid you are!"</p> + +<p>"Then I'll consult my aunt in town, miss, and try to find out if you +three dear young ladies couldn't contrive a London visit out of part +of the savings."</p> + +<p>After this sapient speech Poppy bade the Mainwarings good-bye. They +looked after her retreating form down the street with many regrets, +for they were very fond of her, and Jasmine at least envied her.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>WAYS OF EARNING A LIVING.</h3> + + +<p>That night, after her sisters were in bed, Primrose again sat up +late—once again she read her mother's letter; then burying her face +in her hands, she sat for a long, long time lost in thought.</p> + +<p>Jasmine and Daisy, all unconcerned and unconscious, slept overhead, +but Hannah was anxious about her young mistress, and stepped into the +drawing-room, and said in her kind voice—</p> + +<p>"Hadn't you better be getting your beauty sleep, missie?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Hannah! I am so anxious," said Primrose.</p> + +<p>"Now, deary, whatever for?" asked the old servant.</p> + +<p>Primrose hesitated. She wanted to talk to Hannah about her mother's +letter; she half took it out of her pocket, then she restrained +herself.</p> + +<p>"Another time," she whispered to herself. Aloud she said—</p> + +<p>"Hannah, Mrs. Ellsworthy and Miss Martineau hinted to me what Mr. +Danesfield said plainly to-day—we three girls have not got money +enough to live on."</p> + +<p>"Eh, dear!" answered Hannah, dropping on to the nearest chair, "and +are you putting yourself out about that, my pretty? Why, tisn't likely +that you three young ladies could support yourselves. Don't you fret +about that, Miss Primrose; why, you'll get quite old with fretting, +and lose all your nice looks. You go to bed, my darling—there's a +Providence over us, and he'll find ways and means to help you."</p> + +<p>Primrose rose to her feet, some tears came to her eyes, and taking +Hannah's hard old hand, she stooped and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"I won't fret, Hannah," she said, "and I'll go to bed instantly. Thank +you for reminding me about God." Then she lit her bedroom candle and +went very gently up the stairs to her bedroom, but as she laid her +head on the pillow she said to herself—"Even Hannah sees that we +can't live on our income."</p> + +<p>The next morning early Primrose said rather abruptly to her two +sisters—</p> + +<p>"I have found out the meaning of Miss Martineau's fussiness and Mrs. +Ellsworthy's kindness. They are both sorry for us girls, for they know +we can't live on thirty pounds a year."</p> + +<p>"Oh, what nonsense!" said Jasmine; "any one can live on thirty pounds +a year. Didn't you see how Poppy opened her eyes when we mentioned +it;—she thought it quite a lot of money, and said we could come to +London out of the savings. I am sure, Primrose, if any one ought to +know, it is Poppy, for her mother is really very poor."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Danesfield, too, says we can't live on it," continued Primrose; +"and when I asked Hannah last night, she said 'Of course not'—that no +one expected us to. Now look here, Jasmine, this is all quite fresh to +you and Daisy, but I'm accustomed to it, for I have known it for +twenty-four hours, and what I say is this, if we can't live on our +income we have got to make some more income to live on. If thirty +pounds a year is not enough for us at the end, neither is it enough +for us at the beginning, so we had better see about earning an income +at once, or we'll get into debt, which will be quite awful. Jasmine, I +am afraid the days of our merry childhood are over, and I am so sorry +for you and Daisy, for you are both very young."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't mind," said Jasmine—"I—I—I'd do anything—I fancy I +could make dresses best, or—Oh, suppose I wrote poetry, and sold it? +You know you and Daisy do like my poems. Do you remember how you cried +over the one I called 'An Ode to the Swallow?'"</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't cry over that one," interrupted Daisy. "I thought that +one rather stupid—I cried over the one in which you spoke about my +darling Pink being caught in a trap, and having her leg broken."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that one," repeated Jasmine—"I thought that one a little vulgar. +I only made it up to please you, Daisy. Primrose, don't you notice +what a lot of poems there are in all the magazines, and of course, +somebody must write them. I should not be a bit surprised if I could +add to our income by writing poetry, Primrose. All the books, nearly +all the magazines and newspapers, come from London. Poppy will not be +going to London until to-morrow—I'll run round this morning and ask +her to try and find out for me which of the publishers want poems like +my 'Ode to the Swallow.' Perhaps they'd like it in the —— <i>Review</i>; +only the —— <i>Review</i> is so horribly deep. My ode is deep too, for +Daisy cannot understand it. Perhaps I could send my poem about Pink to +one of the other magazines. Oh, Primrose! may I run round to Poppy, +and see if she can help us?"</p> + +<p>Primrose smiled very faintly, and it dawned across her again in rather +a painful manner what a mere child her little sister was.</p> + +<p>"I think I wouldn't, darling," she said. "Poppy could not really help +you about publishers. Look here, Jasmine and Daisy; here is a letter I +found in mamma's cabinet yesterday—it is directed to me, but the news +it contains is for us all; will you and Daisy go out into the garden +and read it together. You will be very much astonished when you read +the letter—poor mamma, what she must have suffered! While you are +reading I will go out. Mr. Danesfield says I may consult him, and as I +know he is a wise man, I will do so."</p> + +<p>"Would you like to take my ode with you?" inquired Jasmine.</p> + +<p>"No, not to-day, dear—if I am not in to dinner, don't wait for me."</p> + +<p>"I know one thing; we'll be very saving about that dinner," remarked +Jasmine, shaking back her curly locks. "If you are not in, Primrose, +Daisy and I will divide an egg between us—I read somewhere that eggs +were very nourishing, and half a one each will do fine. Come into the +garden now, Eyebright. Oh, Primrose! I don't feel a bit low about +adding to our income. If we choose we can eat so very little, and +then if the —— <i>Review</i> likes my poetry, I can spin it off by the +yard."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>BREAD AND BUTTER.</h3> + + +<p>Primrose, her head a little more erect than usual, her step firm, and +a proud bright light in her eyes, went quickly down the little +rambling village street. The plain black dress she wore set off her +yellow hair and extremely fair complexion to the best advantage. She +had never looked sweeter or more independent than at this moment, +when, for the first time in her young life, she was about to ask for +help.</p> + +<p>Mr. Danesfield was not so busy this morning, and he saw his young +visitor without delay.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, my dear," he said; "I am very pleased to see you. You want +to ask for my advice? I will give it with the greatest pleasure."</p> + +<p>Primrose raised her head slowly. "I have been thinking over what you +said yesterday," she began. "As it is quite impossible for my sisters +and me to live on our little income, even with the help of what you +have in the bank, we must try to help ourselves, must we not?"</p> + +<p>"This is a brave thought, my dear—of course you must help +yourselves, and you will be none the worse for doing so."</p> + +<p>"We must earn money," continued Primrose. "How can girls like us, who +are not educated—for I know we are not <i>really</i> educated—add to our +incomes?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Danesfield knit his brows. "Child," he said, "you ask me a +puzzler. I have no children of my own, and I know very little about +young folk. Of one thing, however, I am quite certain; Daisy can earn +no money, nor can Jasmine. You, Primrose, might with some difficulty +get a little place as a nursery governess; you are a nice, +presentable-looking girl, my dear."</p> + +<p>Primrose flushed, and the tears, wrung from great pain, came into her +eyes.</p> + +<p>"There is just one thing," she said, in a tremulous voice; "whatever +happens, we three girls won't be parted. On that point I have quite +firmly made up my mind."</p> + +<p>Mr. Danesfield again knit his brows, and this time he fidgeted +uneasily on his chair.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Primrose," he said: "I am an old bachelor, and I don't +know half nor a quarter the ways in which a woman may earn her living. +I have always been told that a woman is a creature of resources. Now +it is a well-known fact that an old bachelor has no resources. You go +and put your question to Miss Martineau, my dear. Miss Martineau is a +kind soul—'pon my word, now, a very kind soul—and she has managed +wonderfully to exist herself on absolutely nothing. You go to Miss +Martineau, Primrose, and get some secrets from her. Everything in my +power you may depend on my doing. I will exert my interest, and my +purse is at your service."</p> + +<p>Here Primrose got up.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, Mr. Danesfield," she said. "I know you mean to be very +kind, but we three must keep together, and we must be independent." +Then she left the office, and went again down the street.</p> + +<p>Mr. Danesfield looked after her as she walked away.</p> + +<p>"Poor, proud young thing!" he said to himself. "Life will be a +tussle for her, or I am much mistaken. She is really growing +wonderfully nice-looking, too. How she flushed up when I said she +was presentable—poor child! poor child! That mother of theirs +might have done something to provide for those girls—lady-like +girls—distinguished-looking. I expect the mother was a weak, poor +soul. Well, I hope Miss Martineau will think of something. I must call +and see Miss Martineau; 'pon my word I don't know what to suggest for +the children to do."</p> + +<p>When Primrose arrived at Miss Martineau's, that lady was just +dismissing the last of her morning pupils. She was standing on her +steps in her neat brown alpaca dress, over which she wore a large +black apron of the same material with a bib to it. This apron had +capacious pockets, which at the present moment were stuffed with her +pupils' French exercises. On her head she had an antique-looking cap, +made of black lace and rusty black velvet, and ornamented with queer +little devices of colored beads.</p> + +<p>She was delighted to see Primrose, and took her at once into her +little sitting-room. "Now my dear, you will stay and have dinner with +me. You don't mind having no meat, dear. My middle-day meal to-day +consists of a salad and a rice soufflée. You are welcome to share it +with me, Primrose."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Primrose, "but I am not at all hungry. If you do not +mind, I will talk to you while you dine. Miss Martineau, I have come +to ask your advice."</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau came up instantly and kissed the young girl on both +cheeks.</p> + +<p>"My love, I am delighted. It gives me the sincerest pleasure to give +counsel to the young and inexperienced. Have you come from Mrs. +Ellsworthy, dearest?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," answered Primrose. "Mrs. Ellsworthy has nothing to say +to me. She is only a friend, nothing more. Miss Martineau, we have +discovered that we cannot live on our little income. Please will you +tell me how we can add to it, so that we three can keep together?"</p> + +<p>"Keep together—impossible!" replied Miss Martineau. "There is nothing +whatever before you, Primrose, but to face the inevitable. The +inevitable means that you must break up your home—that you obtain, +through the kind patronage of the Ellsworthys, a situation as +governess, or companion, or something of that sort—and that the +little girls, Jasmine and Daisy, are put into a good school for the +orphan daughters of military men. The Ellsworthys will use their +influence toward this end. They are very kind—they have taken up your +cause warmly. Primrose, my dear, it sounds hard, but plain speaking is +best. You must be parted from your sisters. This is inevitable. You +have got to face it."</p> + +<p>"It is not inevitable," answered Primrose—then she paused, and her +face turned very white.</p> + +<p>"It is not inevitable," she repeated, "for this reason because neither +you nor Mrs. Ellsworthy have the smallest control over my sisters or +myself. I asked for your advice, but if this is the best you can give, +it is useless. Mrs. Ellsworthy never cared to know my mother, and she +is not going to part my mother's children now. Good-bye, Miss +Martineau—no, I am not hungry, I have a headache. Oh, I am not +offended—people mean to be kind, but there are things which one +cannot bear. No, Miss Martineau, the inevitable course you and Mrs. +Ellsworthy have been kind enough to sketch out, my sisters and I will +certainly not adopt."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>THEY WOULD NOT BE PARTED.</h3> + + +<p>Primrose walked down the street, passing by the little cottage which +for so many years had been her home. Her sisters did not expect her to +return to dinner, and her heart was too full to allow her to go in +just then.</p> + +<p>So they were to be parted—this was the advice of those who called +themselves their friends. Primrose, Jasmine, and Daisy, her three +flowers, as mother had called them, were no longer to grow sweetly in +one garden together. They were to be parted—Primrose was to go one +way, and the little ones another. Impulsive Jasmine would no longer +cry out her griefs on Primrose's neck, or tell her joys and griefs, +her hopes and aspirations, to the calm and elder sister. Daisy—their +baby, as Primrose called her—might be ill or sad, or lonely, and she, +Primrose, would no longer be there to comfort her.</p> + +<p>Parted! No, they should not be parted—all their young lives they had +lived together, and whether they starved, or whether they feasted, +they would live together still. Thank God, no one had any real +control over them—their very loneliness would now, therefore, be +their safety—they might sketch out their own career, and no one could +prevent them.</p> + +<p>Primrose said to herself—</p> + +<p>"After all, I am glad I know the very worst. People mean to be kind; +but, oh! how can they understand what we three girls are to one +another?"</p> + +<p>She walked quickly in her agitation, and passing the village green, +came suddenly upon Poppy Jenkins, who was hurrying home to her +mother's cottage.</p> + +<p>"Well, Miss Primrose, I'm off to-morrow," said Poppy, dropping one of +her quick curtseys, and a more vivid red than usual coming into her +bright cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Poppy," answered Primrose; "I hope you will be very happy in +London"—then a sudden thought occurring to her, she ran after the +young girl and laid her hand on her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Poppy, give me your London address—I may want it."</p> + +<p>"Oh law! Miss Primrose, do you think you'd be saving out of the thirty +pounds regular income and coming up to London on a visit?"</p> + +<p>"We may come to London, Poppy—I can't say," answered Primrose in a +sad voice—"anyhow, I should like to have your address—may I have +it?"</p> + +<p>"Surely, miss—aunt lives in a part they call central—she says the +rents are very high, but it's all done for the convenience of the +beautiful ladies who boards with her. Aunt's address is Penelope +Mansion—Wright Street, off the Edgware Road. It's a beautiful +sounding address, isn't it, Miss Primrose?"</p> + +<p>Primrose smiled again—a smile, however, which made poor little Poppy +feel rather down-hearted, and then she continued her walk.</p> + +<p>"It is very difficult to know what to do," she said to herself—"it +makes one feel quite old and careworn. If only that brother who was +lost long ago was now living, how nice it would be for us girls. I +wonder if he is really dead—I suppose he is, or mamma would have +heard something about him. Twenty years ago since it happened—longer +than my whole life. Poor mother! poor, dear mother! what she must have +suffered! I understand now why her pretty sweet face looked so sad, +and why her hair was grey before her time. What a pity my brother has +not lived—he certainly would not wish us girls to be parted."</p> + +<p>Primrose walked on a little farther, then she retraced her steps and +went home. She found Jasmine and Daisy in a state of the greatest +excitement. Mrs. Ellsworthy had called, and had been nicer and sweeter +and more charming than ever—she had brought Daisy a doll of the most +perfect description, and had presented the flower-loving Jasmine with +a great bouquet of exotics, which looked almost out of place in the +humble little cottage.</p> + +<p>"And there is a long letter for you, Primrose," continued Jasmine; +"and she says she hopes you will read it very quickly, and that she +may come down to-morrow morning to talk it over with you. She says +there is a plan in the letter, and that it is a delightful plan—I +wonder what it can be? Will you read the letter now, Primrose?—shall +I break the seal and read it aloud to you?"</p> + +<p>"No," answered Primrose, almost shortly for her—"Mrs. Ellsworthy's +letter can keep," and then she slipped the thick white envelope into +her pocket.</p> + +<p>"Why sister darling, how pale you look!—are you tired?"</p> + +<p>"A little," said Primrose—"I had no dinner—I should like a cup of +tea."</p> + +<p>Jasmine flew out of the room to get it for her, and Daisy nestled up +to her elder sister's side.</p> + +<p>"Primrose," she whispered, "Jasmine and I read that letter in the +garden together. Oh! we were so surprised to know we had a little baby +brother long ago. We went to Hannah and asked her about him, and +Hannah cried—I never saw Hannah cry so long and so hard. She said he +was the sweetest baby. Oh, how I wish we had him now!—he would be +much, much nicer than my new doll."</p> + +<p>"But if he were with us now he would be a man, Eyebright—a big, brave +man, able to help us poor girls."</p> + +<p>Daisy considered—</p> + +<p>"I can only think of him as a baby," she said. "Hannah said he was +lost in London. How I wish we could go to London and find our +brother!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>MRS. ELLSWORTHY'S LETTER.</h3> + + +<p>The girls had finished tea, and Hannah had removed all traces of the +evening meal before Primrose would even glance at the thick letter +which was addressed to her. She did so at last, at the earnest +entreaties of her two sisters—for Daisy climbed on the sofa beside +her, and put her arms round her neck, and coaxed her to read what dear +Mrs. Ellsworthy had written, and Jasmine took the letter and placed it +in her lap, and seated herself on a footstool at her feet, and the two +young girls looked interested and excited, and their eyes were bright +with anticipation, and even some impatience.</p> + +<p>Primrose, on the contrary, appeared indifferent. She broke the seal of +the thick letter languidly, and began to read its contents aloud, in +an almost apathetic voice.</p> + +<p>This was what Mrs. Ellsworthy had written:</p> + + +<p>"MY DEAR PRIMROSE,</p> + +<p>"(You remember our compact that I was to call you Primrose.) I had not +courage to say to you the other day all that was in my heart. My dear +child, it seems rather absurd to say it, but I felt afraid of you. In +the eyes of the world I am considered a great lady—for I have riches, +and my husband holds a good position—whereas you, Primrose, would be +considered by that same world nothing but a simple village maid. +Nevertheless, the innocent and unsophisticated girl contrived to keep +the woman of the world at a distance, and to let her see very plainly +that she thought her curious questions impertinent. When I read this +expression of opinion so plainly in your eyes, Primrose, I felt +afraid, and questioned no further. My dear, it is a fact that cowards +always resort to pen and ink when they want to express a frank +opinion. I am now going to say on paper what I feared to put into so +many words the other night. First of all, you are mistaken about me. I +am not what you think me.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! I know very well what that proud little heart of yours tells +you about me. It says, 'She is great and rich, and she is curious +about us girls, and she wants to patronize us—'"</p> + +<p>Here Primrose had to put down her letter, for she was interrupted by +an exclamation from Daisy—</p> + +<p>"But we <i>don't</i> think like that of our darling, pretty Mrs. +Ellsworthy—do we, Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"Go on reading, Primrose," said Jasmine.</p> + +<p>Primrose continued—</p> + +<p>"You are all wrong about me, my dear, dear girls, and yet, after a +measure, you are right; for in a certain sense I <i>am</i> curious about +you; and most undoubtedly I want to help you. I know already a certain +portion of your story, and already I can partly read your characters. +The part of your story I know is this: You are ladies by birth—you +are very ignorant of the world—and you have not at all sufficient +money to live on. Your characters are as follows:</p> + +<p>"Primrose, I am not at all afraid of you on paper. You, Primrose, are +proud and independent. You are also sadly obstinate, and it is +extremely probable that you will take your own way, which I can see +beforehand will not be a wise one."</p> + +<p>"Oh! oh! oh!" came interruption No. 2 to the reading of the letter, +and Jasmine's arms were flung tightly round Primrose's neck.</p> + +<p>"How can she talk of you like that? How little she knows you, my +'queen of roses.'"</p> + +<p>Primrose smiled, kissed Jasmine between her eyebrows and went on +reading.</p> + +<p>"Jasmine's character," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy in her letter, "is as +yet unformed. She has high aspirations and generous impulses—if she +is well managed, and if you don't spoil her, Primrose, she will +probably develop into a very noble woman. I love Jasmine very dearly +already.</p> + +<p>"As to your little sister, she is as fresh, and innocent, and dainty +as her name; but take warning, Primrose, she is not over strong—there +is a look about the little one which makes me dread the thought of her +encountering any of the roughnesses of life.</p> + +<p>"Now, my dear girl, I have read my little bit of a lecture; you are +probably extremely angry with me, but I don't care. I now come to the +practical part of my letter; I am desirous to help you three, and I +want to help you in the way most suited to your individual characters. +The sad fact cannot be gain-said—you must give up your home—you must +earn your livings. May I help you to find a way to put bread into your +mouths? I have thought it all out, and I think I know a plan. If you +will agree to it, you may keep your independence, Primrose; Jasmine +may be developed into the kind of woman God meant her to become; and +little Daisy need not fear the rude blasts of adverse fate."</p> + +<p>Here Daisy, who only partly understood the letter, burst into tears, +and Primrose, taking her in her arms, allowed the closely written +sheets to fall on the floor.</p> + +<p>"I know what it means," she exclaimed, speaking with sudden fire and +passion; "the same thing has been said to me by two different people +already to-day. Mr. Danesfield said it after his fashion, Miss +Martineau after hers, and now Mrs. Ellsworthy repeats the words. Oh, +yes, I know what it means—separation—I will <i>never</i> consent to it!"</p> + +<p>Jasmine had been kneeling on the floor and picking up the scattered +sheets of Mrs. Ellsworthy's letter; she now raised her eyes in utter +astonishment to her elder sister's face. Primrose was not accustomed +to giving utterance to strong feelings. Primrose's words were wont to +be calm and somewhat measured. Jasmine knew that she herself flew into +tempests of grief, or anger, or excitement—she was always being +chided for not restraining her feelings—she was always being gently +lectured for using too strong expressions. What did Primrose mean by +throwing down this kind though somewhat mysterious, letter, and by +making use of so ghastly a word as "separation?" Who was going to +divide them? Certainly not kind Mrs. Ellsworthy.</p> + +<p>"Had we not better hear what she says, even though you don't seem +quite to like her, Primrose?" asked Jasmine, holding up the sheets.</p> + +<p>"There are two sheets more, quite full of writing—shall I read them +aloud to you and Daisy?"</p> + +<p>But Primrose had not got over the excitement which was growing within +her all day; she took the letter out of Jasmine's hands, folded it, +and returned it to its envelope.</p> + +<p>"I must speak," she said; "we can finish that letter afterwards—the +letter does not greatly matter, after all. Do you know, Jasmine, and +do you know, Daisy, that these people who all mean to be so kind, and +who, I suppose, really feel good-natured towards us, are trying to +take our lives into their own hands? They are not our guardians, but +they want to rule us—they say we cannot live on our income, and they +will show us how we are to live. Mr. Danesfield will give money, if +needed; Miss Martineau will give us heaps and oceans of advice; and +Mrs. Ellsworthy will give patronage, and perhaps money too. They mean +to be kind, as I said, and they think they ought to guide our lives. +Of course, they consider us very young and very ignorant, and so they +say they will provide for me in one way, and Jasmine in another, and +Daisy in another. Now what I say is this; let us choose our own lives, +Jasmine and Daisy; don't let us do anything rude to our friends, for I +know they are our friends, but let us be firm and keep together. These +people want to divide us; I say, let us keep together."</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Jasmine; "is that really what the letter +means—separation? Here, give it to me—" She snatched it from her +sister, and flung it with energy to the other end of the apartment. +Daisy nestled her soft little face up close to her eldest +sister's—Daisy was still feeling things incomprehensible, and was +also a little frightened.</p> + +<p>"Go on," continued Jasmine, "go on talking, Primrose—we are quite +with you, Daisy and I—what nonsense the people must have in their +heads if they think we three are going to part!"</p> + +<p>"But we are in a very painful and difficult position," continued +Primrose. "We have certainly got to earn our bread, and we don't at +all know how to earn it. We are not educated enough to go anywhere as +governesses, although Miss Martineau did say that I might perhaps get +a little place in the nursery; but in any case people would not want +three governesses in one family, and, of course, Daisy is too young to +earn anything for many a long day. Jasmine, I have been thinking over +all this most seriously—I have been thinking over it for some hours, +and it seems to me there is nothing at all for us to do but to go to +London."</p> + +<p>"Where Poppy is going?" interrupted Jasmine; "delicious—lovely—my +dream of dreams! Go on, Primrose darling; I could listen to you all +night."</p> + +<p>"But we mustn't go only for pleasure," continued Primrose; "indeed, we +must not go at all for pleasure. We must go to work hard, and to +learn, so that bye-and-bye we may be really able to support +ourselves. Now, there is only one way in which we can do that. We must +take that two hundred pounds which Mr. Danesfield has in the bank, and +we must live on it while we are being educated. We can go to a cheap +part of London, and find poor lodgings—we won't mind how poor they +are, if only they are very clean, with white curtains, and dimity +round the beds. We'll be quite happy there, and we'll make our two +hundred pounds go very far. With great care, and with our thirty +pounds a year, it might last for four or five years, and by that time +Daisy will have grown big, and you, Jasmine, will have grown up, +and—and—perhaps you will have found a magazine to take your poems."</p> + +<p>"Oh! oh! I never heard of anything so delicious!" exclaimed Jasmine. +"Long before the five years are out I'll be on the pinnacle of fame. +London will inspire me; oh, it is the home of beauty and delight! +Where is Mrs. Ellsworthy's letter?—we will never finish it? I am +going to burn it on the spot rather than allow any other idea to be +put into your head, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>Primrose smiled again, and before she could prevent her, her impetuous +sister had torn Mrs. Ellsworthy's letter into ribbons, and had set +fire to it in the empty grate.</p> + +<p>"We must not be too sanguine about London," she said; "only it does +seem the only independent thing to do. Then, too, there is that letter +of dear mamma's and all that sad account of the little baby brother +who was lost so long ago. Hannah says that he was lost in London—he +must be a man now; perhaps we shall meet him in London. It certainly +does seem as if it were right for us to go."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>QUITE CONTRARY.</h3> + + +<p>"I have done it, my dear Joseph," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "I went to see +the children, and I wrote to that little proud princess Primrose. It +will be really very nice if they all come here. We have such heaps and +heaps of money, more than we know what to do with; money becomes +uninteresting when you have so much. I think I have tried most of the +pleasures that money can buy. I have heaps of dresses, and quantities +of jewels, and my lovely country home, and my season in town, but what +I have never yet had, and what I have earnestly longed for, was a +daughter. A boy, after all, has to go to school, and to fight his way +in the world—our boy is at school, and a very good place for him—but +a woman wants a girl of her own to quite satisfy her heart.</p> + +<p>"Now it seems to me that I may have three girls. We must keep up the +fiction of Primrose being useful to you in your library, Joseph—you +must give her letters to write, and you must be very patient with her +when she makes mistakes, for the dear child has not been educated, +and will probably make the worst of secretaries. Never mind, you must +try to appear delighted, and to seem as if you never could have got on +until Primrose Mainwaring came to help you.</p> + +<p>"Then the little ones—of course they are coming under the supposition +that they are only to stay until I have found them berths in one of +those horrid charity schools for the orphan daughters of military +men—but I promise you those berths shall be hard to find. The three +will insensibly consider themselves our adopted children. Oh, what a +delightful plan it is! and how picturesque I shall feel with my girls! +Joseph, did you ever see a brighter or more bewitching little soul +than our Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"Our Jasmine?" repeated Mr. Ellsworthy; "she is by no means ours yet, +my love. Well, I trust your plan will succeed—they are nice girls, +and I like to feel I am doing a kindness to poor Mainwaring's +daughters. I shall be very pleased indeed if they make your life any +happier, Kate."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy stooped down and kissed her husband's brow—she was +all impatience for the morning to arrive, for surely early then would +come an answer to the letter she had written.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Ellsworthy was doomed to disappointment. The next day brought +no answer from the Mainwaring girls. The good little lady bore her +suspense as best she could until noon, then she ordered her carriage +and drove into the village.</p> + +<p>Jasmine herself opened the cottage door for her. Jasmine was looking +excited, and there were red rings round her eyes as if she had been +crying, and yet at the same time those bright eyes of hers were +shining, and her lips were quivering between smiles and tears.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you have come!" she exclaimed; "Primrose is in the village—she +has gone to Mr. Danesfield about our money. Please come into the +drawing-room. We are rather upset, for we are beginning to pack, and +Hannah is washing out the anti-macassars and the white muslin +curtains, for we think the muslin curtains will look so nice in our +cheap lodgings. We are very busy, awfully busy, but do come in and sit +down. Eyebright, here is Mrs. Ellsworthy. Mrs. Ellsworthy, isn't +Eyebright a silly?—she is quite fretting because she won't see those +last seeds of hers come up in the garden. Now, if she was asked to +leave the Pink I would say nothing, but of course the Pink comes too."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, and Daisy shall have plenty of garden ground for fresh +seeds. Oh! my dear children," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy, "I shall be +so delighted to welcome you all to Shortlands, only I think you might +have replied to my letter."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy was by this time seated in a low arm-chair by the +window, and Jasmine was standing before her, while Daisy sat demurely +on the floor, and folded up the anti-macassars.</p> + +<p>"We might have answered your letter?" repeated Jasmine. "Well now, do +you know, to be quite frank and open, your letter was a little bit of +a lecture. You did give it to darling old Primrose, and somehow or +other you made Daisy cry. You spoke about a plan, and you said it was +a delightful plan, but—but before we read that part of your letter +Primrose thought of another plan of her own, and <i>it</i> was so +exquisite, so perfect, that we tore up your plan for fear we should be +tempted by it. We don't know your plan, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and we don't +want it, for we have made our own, and ours is—yes, ours is lovely!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy had an expressive face, and while Jasmine was talking +it changed and grew anxious; her husband's words, "She is not our +Jasmine yet," returned to her. Like many rich and pretty women, she +was unaccustomed to opposition, and when it came it but whetted her +desire, and made her also feel irritable.</p> + +<p>"It is rude to tear up the letters of kind friends," she said. "I made +a proposal which would have been in every way suitable to you girls, +and you did not even trouble yourselves to read it. No, my loves, I am +not angry. Daisy, come and give me a kiss; Jasmine, hold my hand. Now +shall I tell you the little plan which you would not read about last +night?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, we would not be rude to you for the world," said Jasmine. "Daisy, +come here, and give Mrs. Ellsworthy one of your sweetest kisses. Of +course I will hold your hand—I love you, and so does Daisy, and so +does—"</p> + +<p>"No, so does <i>not</i> Primrose," answered Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose is +the opposing element—still I trust I may conquer her. Now, my +children, may I tell the plan?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, do tell us," they both answered; but Jasmine added, "It will +not be of the slightest use, for we have made our own."</p> + +<p>"Well, dear, plans of girls as young as you are made to be altered. +Now listen to my scheme.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ellsworthy writes for the papers and for one or two magazines. He +has scientific tastes, and writing in this way gives interest to his +life; but his eyes are not very strong, and he has for some time been +wishing for some nice girl to whom he can dictate his thoughts. It +seems to him, and to me too, that Primrose is just the sort of girl he +wants, and if she will come and live with us at Shortlands, he will +pay her something for giving him a couple of her hours daily—thus, +you see, she will be earning her living and will be quite independent. +You and Daisy, Jasmine, are to come to us on a visit, until we can +find a school where, for your father's sake, your education may be +finished."</p> + +<p>"You mean a school for the orphan daughters of army men," said +Jasmine, "I know. Well, thank you very much, but I'm afraid your plan +won't answer. Neither Daisy nor I would at all like to go to a school +for orphans. We don't fancy the idea of school, and dear mamma once +said that she would never allow her girls to be taught at school, so, +of course, that point is settled. Then you know we could not always +remain with you on a visit, for we are no relations of yours—you +never heard of us at all until a few days ago, although we have lived +here most of our lives. Of course you don't mean to keep us always on +a visit, so it would be very silly to begin a thing which could not go +on. Then about Primrose—may I be quite honest with you about +Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, my dear."</p> + +<p>"Well now, she doesn't write well—not really—her hand moves so +slowly, and I have seen some spelling mistakes now and then in her +letters—I fly over the page myself, but then I only can read my own +writing. I am greatly afraid that poor Mr. Ellsworthy would find +Primrose a bad secretary. No, no, no; ours is a much, much better +plan. You see, Mrs. Ellsworthy, you must not be angry with us—we love +you very much—we are greatly obliged to you, but we have quite made +up our minds—we will not be separated. Ah! here comes Primrose. +Primrose, darling, here is Mrs. Ellsworthy—she is just going to +listen to our plan—she has told us hers, and I have been explaining +to her that it will not answer, for Daisy and I are determined not to +go to school, and you know, Primrose, you are really stupid with your +pen."</p> + +<p>"How do you do, Mrs. Ellsworthy?" said Primrose—she came in looking +fagged and tired, and with a worried expression between her eyebrows. +"Mrs. Ellsworthy," she said, "I am most grateful to you for being so +kind to us. I know you won't approve at all of our plan—you will +agree with Mr. Danesfield, who said he thought we had taken leave of +our senses, but I think we have made up our minds, and as we have no +guardian, there is no one to prevent us doing as we please."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Primrose, how sad you look!" said Jasmine. "Has Mr. Danesfield +been disagreeable to you? Well, I know our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy +won't. Tell her our plan quickly. Primrose, she says you don't love +her—tell her you do love her. Oh, she is sweet and dear and +kind—tell her our plan—she won't throw cold water on what we wish to +do—she won't think it wrong that we three girls should wish to keep +together."</p> + +<p>"Our plan is this," said Primrose, "I have asked Mr. Danesfield to +give us what money he has of ours, and then we three are going to sell +our furniture here, and to give up the cottage, and say good-bye to +dear Hannah, and we are going to London. In London we shall learn. I +am going to have lessons in painting, and Jasmine shall study English +composition, and she shall be taught how to write properly; and Daisy, +too, must be taught, and we will do that with our money which is now +in the bank, and when it is spent we shall be able to support +ourselves. After all, it is a very simple plan, and the best thing +about it is that it will keep us together."</p> + +<p>When Primrose began to talk Mrs. Ellsworthy threw down her hands in +her lap with a gesture of great impatience. Now she asked in a short +dry voice, "May I ask what money you have in the bank?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly—we have two hundred pounds—a little of that must be +spent in paying one or two small accounts, but then we shall have the +money as well from the sale of our furniture. Yes, I think we shall +have quite two hundred pounds to take to London."</p> + +<p>"And we are going to be very economical," interposed Jasmine. "We are +going at first for a couple of nights to a boarding-house for ladies +only. It is called Penelope Mansion, and is in a street off the +Edgware Road—we have a friend, she is only a village girl, but we +call her our friend—her name is Poppy Jenkins, who has just gone to +Penelope Mansion to help her aunt, who is the owner of the +boarding-house. While we are there we will see the sights, for of +course that must be part of our education. We will go to Westminster +Abbey to be solemnized, and we will go to the Tower to perfect our +knowledge of the tragical part of English history, and we must take +Daisy to the Zoo, for she has always longed to see a lot of monkeys +all together. I don't think we'll have any time for looking in at the +shop windows, for we shall be very busy, and very, very earnest, but +these places we must see. I daresay Poppy and her aunt, and some of +the nice ladies in the boarding-house, will go with us. When Poppy has +dusted up and put things straight in the morning, of course she'll +have lots and lots of time. Oh, it does seem such an easy, sensible +plan."</p> + +<p>"My poor, poor children!" exclaimed Mrs. Ellsworthy, "my poor, +deluded, silly, obstinate children!" and then the good little woman +burst into tears.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>IN SPITE OF OPPOSITION.</h3> + + +<p>But although Mrs. Ellsworthy wept and lamented, although she tried +both persuasions and scoldings, and finally left the cottage in a +state of deep offence, vowing within herself that she would never +trouble her head again over the affairs of such silly and obstinate +girls, she could not in the least shake Primrose's quiet resolve.</p> + +<p>Primrose said over and over again: "Two things are absolutely +indispensable—we must be independent, and we must keep together. I +can think of no better plan than this—it may fail, but we can but try +it—we are certainly going to try it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy kept up her offence for twenty-four hours, then she +began to soften, and to agree with her husband, whose solitary remark +was, "My dear, you cannot coerce the children, and upon my word it's a +plucky notion, and if those girls are brave enough to carry it out +they must have real stuff in them."</p> + +<p>"They may have plenty of stuff, and the plan may be as plucky as you +like, Joseph," replied his excitable little wife. "I am quite willing +to admire it in the abstract, but I am quite determined, if I have any +influence whatever, to prevent them carrying it through."</p> + +<p>Then she went off to Miss Martineau, invading the schoolmistress in +the sacred hour when she was engaged with her pupils. Mrs. Ellsworthy +carried Miss Martineau away from her school, and shutting the door of +that lady's little parlor, clasped the governess's thin hands, and +poured her troubles into her ears.</p> + +<p>"Joseph calls it plucky," said Mrs. Ellsworthy at the end of her +narrative.</p> + +<p>But Miss Martineau's face was perfectly aghast.</p> + +<p>"Plucky!" she ejaculated. "Dear Mrs. Ellsworthy, pardon me, but your +husband is a man—what can a man know about the intricate workings +which go on within the breast of a perverse girl? Plucky!—I call it +wicked—I call it wanting in all decorum, in all right sense. Primrose +Mainwaring has disappointed me deeply; she showed undue temper when I +spoke to her here the other day—oh yes, this thing must be prevented +by main force, if necessary."</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau's pupils could not imagine what was the matter with her +that morning. She was known to be a most strict disciplinarian, she +was reported to have the sharpest eyes, and the quickest ears; her +pupils believed that nothing ever could pass Miss Martineau's +observation; nevertheless, after Mrs. Ellsworthy's visit she was +<i>distrait</i>, she was indifferent to mistakes, and she allowed her +naughtiest and most troublesome scholar to gabble through her French +translation without once correcting her. School over, Miss Martineau +discovered that she had no appetite for her dinner; she left quite a +nice little repast, cooked in French style, untasted on the table, and +hurrying up to her bedroom, put on her mantle and poke bonnet and went +out. She had made up her mind to visit the Mainwarings, and to +expostulate with these headstrong and naughty girls on their daring +scheme. "Wicked, I call it," she ejaculated many times under her +breath!—"a wicked scheme, wicked, and a tempting of Providence. Oh, +my poor orphan children, I must do my utmost to prevent your having +your own perverse way in this matter!"</p> + +<p>She arrived at Woodbine Cottage to find the neat little house already +in sad confusion. Hannah favored her with an expressive look, and a +grave shaking of her head.</p> + +<p>"I don't know if they'll see you," she said—"they won't see you if it +is on a lecturing errand you've come, ma'am. Their minds is made up, +ma'am, and obstinate is no word for them. Dear Miss Martineau, you +means well, and you has known them most of their lives, poor darlings, +so sit you down in the hall, and I'll see if I can get them to have a +word with you."</p> + +<p>Jasmine, however, had heard her old governess's voice, and now running +out, looking extremely untidy but very pretty, she exclaimed in her +eager tones—</p> + +<p>"Now, you dear Miss Martineau, say you're not—do say you're not!"</p> + +<p>"Not what, my dear?" asked the governess, who really felt quite angry +with Jasmine at this moment. "If you mean that I am not displeased—I +am displeased; and if you mean that I am not to oppose you, my dear, I +should not be doing my solemn duty, the duty which I owe to your poor +dead mother, if I did not oppose you to the very uttermost. My dear, +Mrs. Ellsworthy has told me all about your mad scheme; my poor child, +it cannot be allowed for a moment."</p> + +<p>"Come into the drawing-room and hear what Primrose has to say," +answered Jasmine, in quite a meek and unruffled voice. "Primrose is +very busy, for she is dusting and packing all our books and little +knick-knacks. Do you know, Miss Martineau, that just when I heard your +ring at the hall-door I came across a pincushion which you gave me +ages and ages ago. You gave it to me when I could say, <i>Le thé est +chaud</i> with a Parisian accent. It was such a pretty pincushion made +of pink silk, and dotted over with steel beads to look like pins. Just +when you were ringing the bell I had it in my hand, and I felt so soft +and loving towards you, and of course I had to run out to see you, +and—; Primrose, dearest, here is Miss Martineau. She is dreadfully +opposed, and she says she won't let us go."</p> + +<p>Primrose was bending over a battered old trunk which had been hauled +down from the lumber-room. She was filling it with books, and her fair +face was slightly flushed, and her eyes were brighter than usual.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, Miss Martineau?" she said, rising to her feet. "It is +very kind of you to call. I feel sure you are annoyed, and think us +girls rather silly, but I'm afraid we must do what we think right +ourselves in this matter. We have taken our first steps, and now that +we have quite and absolutely made up our minds, mean to leave Rosebury +as quickly as possible. It is very kind of you to be interested in us, +and I am sorry that I spoke bitterly the other day, but the plan which +was to divide us girls was of course impossible, and we could not +listen to it for a moment. We have made our own little scheme, and +perhaps we shall not fail. Daisy, darling, hand me dear old 'Sandford +and Merton,' I have just got a nice corner for it here."</p> + +<p>Primrose went down again on her knees, and serenely continued her +packing, while Miss Martineau, standing over her, then and there gave +way to a burst of passion.</p> + +<p>She was well aware that she lost ground with her pupils by not +controlling her temper, but as she said afterwards, she really could +not help herself. Such coolness, such perversity, such a headstrong +flying in the face of their elders, she had never encountered in three +young girls before.</p> + +<p>Poor Daisy quite sobbed, and even Jasmine felt a little frightened at +Miss Martineau's bitter and angry words; but no language she could +use, no threats of the direst failure she could utter, had power to +shake Primrose's resolve.</p> + +<p>"We have no guardian, and we can go if we please, and we have really +made up our minds to go," replied that perverse young lady.</p> + +<p>As a last resource Mr. Danesfield was appealed to, but he, being an +old bachelor and not quite at home with girls, although in his heart +he was very fond of them, declined to interfere.</p> + +<p>"I gave Primrose Mainwaring some uncalled-for advice when she came to +see me the other morning," he said. "She is perfectly at liberty to +choose her own life, and I, for one, am not going to add to her +troubles by needlessly opposing her. Very likely the girls will get on +in London—they are spirited girls, and they may do better for +themselves by struggling for independence than by living with the +Ellsworthys. I always did maintain that work hurts no one."</p> + +<p>So Primrose carried out her little plans, and made all arrangements, +and her friends, when they found she would not yield, came round her, +and began to counsel her as to the best place to go to.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy was, after all, the first to forgive the girls. She +felt very indignant, and stayed away for more than a week; but one +evening, when the day's packing was over, and the three, rather tired +but quite cheerful and full of hope, were sitting down to their tea, +her carriage was seen to draw up to the door, and the little lady, +bustling and good-natured as ever, entered the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"My dears," she said, holding out a hand each to Primrose and Daisy, +but imprinting a kiss on her favorite Jasmine's brow, "my dears—Oh, +of course, I am still very angry! I see, too, that you are at that +horrid packing; but if you must go, there is a Mrs. Moore—such a good +soul, a widow, and quite a lady—indeed, I may say highly connected. +She lives in Kensington, and I have written to her. My dears, she +would be charmed to take you all into her family. She would give you +comforts—oh! I don't mean luxuries, but the necessary comforts that +young girls who are using their brains require. She would feed you +well, and chaperone you when you went out, and, in short, see to you +all round. I know her house so well. It is very pretty—indeed, +charming—and she would take you in for a pound a week between you. +She would give you board and lodging, and all you require, for a pound +a week. I hope, my dear Primrose, you don't consider that too dear. It +is, I believe"—here Mrs. Ellsworthy coughed slightly—"considered +cheap for Kensington."</p> + +<p>This torrent of words, poured forth with rapidity and yet with +distinctness, rather astonished the girls. They were afraid they had +lost Mrs. Ellsworthy for their friend, and they, every one of them, +hailed this overture of kindness with delight. Innocent Primrose never +even suspected that a pound a week for the lodging and maintenance of +three girls was at all unusually cheap. She little guessed that Mrs. +Ellsworthy had written to her special friend, Mrs. Moore, telling her +the girls' story, begging of her to give them a home, to provide them +with every comfort, and even luxury, and asking her to look to her, +Mrs. Ellsworthy, for the necessary payment.</p> + +<p>Jasmine began to dance about, and to say, softly—</p> + +<p>"Oh! this is too delightful! You darling Mrs. Ellsworthy, you are +beginning to approve of our scheme. Oh, yes; I know you are, although +you were too proud to say so. Now, is it not a little bit wrong of you +to be proud after the way you lectured Primrose? Well, Primrose, shall +we go to Mrs. Moore? I don't know anything about Kensington, but I +suppose it is as good as any other place. I don't suppose, either, a +pound a week is too much for the three of us. Shall we go to Mrs. +Moore, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>Daisy also joined her voice in favor of going to Mrs. Ellsworthy's +friend, and after all, but for that obstinate young person Primrose, +the good little lady might have had her way, but Primrose, although +she was quite ignorant of fashionable localities or of any London +expenses, was very firm, very firm indeed, when she made up her mind.</p> + +<p>"It is most kind of you to call and say all this to us," she answered. +"Oh, yes, we would come if we had not quite decided on an altogether +different plan. That being the case we cannot go to Mrs. Moore—thank +you so much."</p> + +<p>When Jasmine heard her sister speak her face first fell and then +brightened up considerably. "How stupid of me to forget!" she said. +"Oh, yes, we have made a lovely plan, and of course we could not go to +anybody whom anybody knew. Oh, no, of course not. I cannot think how I +came to forget."</p> + +<p>Again Mrs. Ellsworthy tried persuasion and even entreaty, but again +she had to own herself vanquished by that most obstinate girl +Primrose. "I really cannot make out why I care for them all," she said +to herself as she drove away. "I do care for them, poor children! I +would do anything to help them, but I am simply not allowed. Well, +Primrose, no doubt you would be a great trial to me if you were my +daughter; I could never bear obstinate characters, and yet to a +certain extent I admire you."</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau also made up her mind to forgive these naughty girls, +and to give them the benefit of her most sapient counsel. She too +wrote a private letter to a London friend, and arrived at Woodbine +Cottage primed with what she considered valuable information. "Now, my +dears, you must go to Shepherd's Bush—that is the place, and the only +place where you can live within your means. My friend Constantia +Warren has rooms there, and she says—I have written to her, my +loves—she says if you will let her accompany you in your search she +may be able to secure you a clean, respectable bedroom in a fairly +good locality. Constantia is an excellent woman; she is fifty, and +plain in her tastes, and has no nonsense about her. She has promised +me, for my sake, to accompany you to church in the evenings, and to +see that you wear your veils down when you go out, and that you are +back in your bedroom—you can't afford a sitting-room, so don't think +of it—that you are back in your bedroom by five o'clock in the +evening, as all girls who have any idea of what is correct and proper +are of course in by that hour in London. Now, my dears, Constantia +will be a sort of protectress to you three, and I had better write to +her at once. My dears, it is a relief to me to know you will be near +Constantia, for London is a pit—a pit, and a snare."</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau had talked herself quite out of breath, and looked +quite pleading, but the same obstacle which had prevented the girls' +acceding to Mrs. Ellsworthy's request now debarred their taking up +their quarters near Constantia Warren.</p> + +<p>They spoke of their plans, but would not tell what they were, and Miss +Martineau again went away offended.</p> + +<p>"There is no secret in the matter," she said, when talking over the +affair with Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose tries to make a mystery, and +Jasmine likes to look mysterious, but there is not the smallest doubt +that all the girls really want is to have their own way, and to be +beholden to none of us."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, I love them, and shall always love them," answered Mrs. +Ellsworthy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, for the matter of that, so will I always love them, Mrs. +Ellsworthy. It seems to me they want a lot of pity, poor misguided +young things!"</p> + +<p>Primrose, Jasmine and Daisy all this time felt wonderfully serene. +They were very sorry to hurt their friends, but it is quite true that +they did want to have their own way. They had made distinct plans, but +they must go to London to carry them out. They thought their wisest +course was to go up to Penelope Mansion for a few days, and make their +final arrangements from there.</p> + +<p>"I'd be very lonely in London if I wasn't near Poppy," said Jasmine; +and Primrose too said that she thought their wisest course was to go +up to Penelope Mansion, and make their plans from there.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, one afternoon, when Poppy Jenkins had been three weeks in +her new place, she received a letter from Primrose Mainwaring, to +which she sent the following reply. Poppy's spelling need not be +copied, but her language ran as follows:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Penelope Mansion,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Wright street, off the Edgware Road,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;"><i>July 22.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>HONORED Miss,—</p> + +<p>"Your letter was that gratifying. I am so glad you have put by your +savings, and are coming to visit this vast Babylon. Miss Primrose, it +will do me a sight of good to see your face, and the face of Miss +Jasmine, and the face of Miss Daisy. The ladies here, miss—for I must +own to the truth—are not as beautiful as was to be expected. Neither +in their visages nor in their manners are they beautiful. Sharp's the +word from morn till night here, and many a time I cry. I hasn't had no +moment yet to visit the sights, for aunt's hands are very full, and +she looks most natural to me to assist her, which I do, as in duty +bound. I'm told that there isn't much of the real London to be seen +from Penelope Mansion, so I live in hopes that it is as beautiful as +we pictured it beyond these dull walls. Miss, I has spoken to my aunt, +and she will be very pleased to receive you three, and will put you in +a bedroom to the front of the house. You'll be fretted by the roar +from the continuous multitude which passes these windows all day and +all night, but otherwise the room is cheerful, although somewhat hot. +Miss Primrose, I'll give you all such a welcome.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Your humble and most devoted friend,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"POPPY JENKINS."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>This letter was received by the girls while they were eating their +breakfast. Primrose read it aloud to her sisters, and the effect of +Poppy's words was certainly not enlivening. Jasmine was the first to +recover her spirits.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," she said; "Poppy feels a little dull and it is more than +ever our duty to go up to London, and try and cheer her. Poor Poppy! +it is very wrong of her aunt not to let her go out to see the sights, +and you see, Primrose, she really knows no part of London yet, except +Penelope Mansion. Poor Poppy! how she did long to go to see the +wonderful city; but she was a little frivolous, and seemed only to +want to look at the shop windows and to examine the newest fashions. +<i>We</i> go to this grand, great London in a different spirit—we go +determined to conquer, don't we, Queen Rose?"</p> + +<p>"We go to do what seems to be our duty," answered Primrose, solemnly. +"Oh, Jasmine! I hope we are doing right—I hope, I pray that God may +help us."</p> + +<p>Then a letter was written to Poppy, in which the noisy room was +secured for the following Thursday, and as this was Monday, the girls +were too busy packing to give many mere thoughts to poor Poppy's +somewhat melancholy epistle.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>PENELOPE MANSION.</h3> + + +<p>The last time in the funny little old-fashioned garden, the last +loving look at Jasmine's carnations, the last eager chase of the Pink +across the little grass-plot, the last farewell said to the room where +mother had died, to the cottage where Daisy was born, the final hug +from all three to dear old Hannah who vowed and declared that follow +them to London she would, and stay in Devonshire any longer she would +not, and the girls had left Woodbine Cottage.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all their obstinacy, and their determination to have +their own way, quite a bevy of friends accompanied them to the railway +station—Miss Martineau was there, looking prim and starched, but with +red rims round her eyes, and her lips only stern because they were so +firmly shut, and because she was so determined not to show any +emotion—Mrs. Jenkins, Poppy's mother, was also present; she was +sending up a great bouquet of wild flowers and some eggs and butter to +Poppy; and a lame boy, whom Jasmine had always been kind to, came +hobbling on to the platform to bid the young ladies good-bye; and Mr. +Danesfield drove up on his trap at the last moment in a violent hurry, +and pushed an envelope, which he said contained a business +communication, into Primrose's hand. Last of all, just at the very +end, Mrs. Ellsworthy arrived panting on the scene; a footman followed +her, also hurrying and panting, and he put into the railway carriage a +great basket containing hot-house flowers, and grapes, and peaches, +and then Mrs. Ellsworthy kissed the girls, giving Primrose and Daisy a +hurried salute, but letting her lips linger for a moment on Jasmine's +round cheek. During that brief moment two tears dropped from the kind +little lady's eyes.</p> + +<p>It was in this manner that the girls went away.</p> + +<p>They arrived in London in the evening, and after a surprisingly +successful search for their luggage at Waterloo, managing not to lose +anything, got into a cab, and drove to Penelope Mansion.</p> + +<p>Poppy's aunt boasted of the pleasing name of Flint, and when the girls +drove up with their cab piled with luggage to the door of the mansion, +Mrs. Flint herself came out to welcome them.</p> + +<p>Jasmine, whose excitable temperament had been going through many +changes during the journey to town, had now worked herself up into an +ardent desire to see Poppy—she jumped out of the cab first of all, +and, running up the steps of Penelope Mansion, said eagerly—</p> + +<p>"Oh, if you please, Mrs. Flint—I know, of course, you are Mrs. +Flint—may I run down to the kitchen, and find Poppy?"</p> + +<p>"My niece will come to you presently, Miss Mainwaring," answered Mrs. +Flint.</p> + +<p>Somehow Mrs. Flint's calm and carefully modulated voice had an instant +effect in subduing Jasmine. The mistress of Penelope Mansion resembled +perhaps more a cushion than a flint—she was fat, round, and short, +had a good-humored and unruffled face, and a voice which was always +pitched in one key.</p> + +<p>"We call my niece Sarah in these premises," she said; "Poppy signifies +nothing whatever but a weed, untidy, straggling, the worry of the +farmers. Sarah will see to your comforts presently, young ladies. At +the present moment tea is on the table. We tea at six o'clock +precisely—we sup at nine. Will you like to go upstairs and wash your +hands, or will you come at once with me, and partake with the other +inmates of the meal which is now going forward?"</p> + +<p>"I don't like her, but she seems to speak very correct English," +whispered Jasmine to her sister: "I wonder, does everybody in the +great city speak like that? I suppose she'll do as a study in style. +I must study style, mustn't I, if I'm to make money by writing?"</p> + +<p>This speech was tumbled into Primrose's ear with wonderful rapidity, +while Mrs. Flint stood gently by, looking most contented and +uninterested.</p> + +<p>"Hush, Jasmine!" whispered Primrose. "Daisy darling, hold my hand. +Thank you very much, Mrs. Flint; we will have some tea now, if you +please, and then go at once to our room."</p> + +<p>"Does Poppy—I mean Sarah—wait at the tea-table?" inquired Jasmine, +as their hostess led the way up a flight of stairs, and down a +passage. "I hope she does—I want to see her so badly."</p> + +<p>"Sarah's duties at the present moment are in the kitchen," responded +Mrs. Flint, with some graciousness. "Now, young ladies, let me precede +you, and introduce you to my guests. Miss Mainwaring, Miss Jasmine and +Miss Daisy Mainwaring—Mrs. Mortlock, Mrs. Dredge, Miss Slowcum. Young +ladies, will you seat yourselves at the table?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Flint moved to her place at the head of the board; the three +girls dropped into seats, and were stared broadly at by Miss Slowcum +and Mrs. Mortlock. Mrs. Dredge, however, did not stare, but stretching +out one rather plump white hand, took Daisy's within her own and gave +it a little squeeze.</p> + +<p>"Tired, pretty little dear!" she said; "tired and cold. Ah, I know all +about it."</p> + +<p>"No, she's not cold, she's hot," responded Jasmine; "this is the +hottest, closest room I've ever been in. You are Mrs. Dredge, are you +not? Please, Mrs. Dredge, can you tell me how near we are to the real +glories of the city from here?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, my dear—I fancy a very long way," answered Mrs. +Dredge, with a sigh—this sigh was instantly taken up by Mrs. Mortlock +and Miss Slowcum, and Miss Slowcum remarked that the situation might +certainly be considered the worst in London.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha!" said Mrs. Mortlock, "you will have to come down in your +prices after that, Mrs. Flint. Ha, ha! your question was a very +leading one, Miss Jasmine Mainwaring."</p> + +<p>Poor Jasmine began to feel quite alarmed, and instantly resolved not +to open her lips again during tea.</p> + +<p>The meal proceeded, and very dull it was; nor was the fare appetizing, +for the tea was weak and the bread was stale. The three young faces, +so fresh from the country and from home, began to reflect the general +dulness. Mrs. Flint always made it a rule never to speak except when +obliged—Daisy was nearly asleep, Primrose felt a dreadful lump in her +throat, and Jasmine's dark curly head was bent low, and her bright +eyes were not seen under their long lashes, for she was very well +aware that they were full of tears.</p> + +<p>She was a most impulsive creature, however, quick and variable in her +moods, unselfish in her character. Suddenly it dawned upon her that it +was not fair to the rest of the party that she should be so dull. She +had always been considered the sunbeam at home; why should she not try +to become the sunbeam of Penelope Mansion?</p> + +<p>"I know what will do it," she exclaimed, jumping from her seat, and +nearly upsetting her own tea and Daisy's. "Of course, how silly of +me!—I know what will alter things directly." Then she flew out of the +room, returning the next moment with Mrs. Ellsworthy's great basket of +fruit and flowers.</p> + +<p>"Primrose," she said, "mightn't we share these with the ladies? They +are all quite fresh from the country. Oh yes, of course we may share +them. Mrs. Flint, which will you have, some flowers, a bunch of +grapes, or a peach?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Flint selected a good-sized bunch of grapes with a placid smile, +and a "Thank you, Miss Jasmine"—Mrs. Mortlock also took grapes, Miss +Slowcum selected flowers, and Mrs. Dredge partook of a peach with +great relish, calling it, as she did so, a "sweet reminiscence of the +blooming country."</p> + +<p>After this little incident the ladies of Penelope Mansion and the +Mainwaring girls became quite friendly; nevertheless the three cried +themselves to sleep that night.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>ESCORTED BY MISS SLOWCUM.</h3> + + +<p>"Within the house at least," remarked Poppy Jenkins, "it ain't what we +dreamt of."</p> + +<p>She was standing the next morning in the room where the three sisters +had slept—it was early, only five o'clock in the morning, but this +was Poppy's London hour for rising. Jasmine was sitting up in bed and +regarding her earnestly, Primrose was also awake, but Daisy slept like +a cherub.</p> + +<p>"It ain't what we dreamt of," continued Poppy—"it's work, and it's +dirt, and it's dust, and it's smuts. Oh, my word! the smuts is enough +to turn one crazy. Nothing is white here, as you calls white in the +country—speckled is more the word. No, no. Penelope Mansion is, +taking it all in all, a biting disappointment."</p> + +<p>"Well Poppy, Penelope Mansion is not the whole of London," said +Jasmine, in a rather quavering, but would-be wise voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but it's the London I has got to do with," answered Poppy +Jenkins—"and oh! the worst of all is, that aunt won't have me called +by my home name—she speaks of it most bitter as a 'weed.' She says +poppies are what are meant in the Scripter by the tares. Don't it +sound real awful?—I trembled all over when she told me that. So Sarah +I am here, and Sarah Ann, and Sarah Jane, and Sarah Mary the ladies +calls me. When they're in a very good humor I'm Sarah Mary, and when +they're a bit put out it's Sarah Jane they calls for, and now and then +I'm Sarah Ann—then I know I'm in for a scolding. Oh yes, Miss +Primrose, London is not what we thought it."</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Primrose sweetly; "you'll always be Poppy to us, +dear, and I know the tares were not poppies, so don't you fret—the +poppy is a sweet flower, and Poppy is a sweet name for a girl. Why we +four are all called after flowers, and we must just be very friendly, +and very brave and loving and sweet in this London, and then, perhaps, +it won't disappoint us."</p> + +<p>"You're real kind, Miss Primrose," said Poppy. "Yes, it's a great ease +to me to know as you three are in the house. I won't be so +lonesome-like now, and I won't be dreaming that I'm a tare. It's awful +to think of yourself as a tare, but I know now that aunt made a +mistake. Oh, ain't Miss Daisy beautiful in her sleep? Now look here, +you're all tired, and I'll bring you up your breakfasts in bed. You +shall have some of mother's fresh eggs and real country butter. I'll +run downstairs, and bring you up some breakfast the very first thing."</p> + +<p>The girls spent that morning in their room. They unpacked a few of +their things, and put their mother's picture on the mantel-piece, and +Primrose opened Mr. Danesfield's letter. It contained an enclosure +within and on this enclosure was written, in a funny little printing +hand, "When you want me, use me; don't return me, and never abuse me."</p> + +<p>Primrose's face grew rather red. She read the funny little motto two +or three times, then put the enclosure unopened into her trunk.</p> + +<p>"I think," she said, looking at Jasmine, "that we will not send this +back. I had a queer dream last night. It seemed to me that mother came +to me and said, 'Are you not foolish to cast away all your kind +friends? Try to remember that true independence is not too proud to +lean on others. Primrose, for my sake do not be over proud.' Mr. +Danesfield was always a friend of mother's," continued Primrose, "so I +will keep his letter until we want it, and will write him a little +note to thank him for it."</p> + +<p>Then the girls sat down by the open window and looked out into the +street. It was a very dull street, and the day was warm and murky, +with no sun shining.</p> + +<p>"This afternoon we will go out," said Primrose. "I shall speak about +it at lunch, and ask Mrs. Flint to allow us to take Poppy with us. I +am so sorry Poppy feels dull. Now, girls, we must just make up our +minds not to do that—we must keep up brave hearts, and not sigh and +look dismal; that would never do. We have elected our own course, and +if we are not courageous we shall be beaten. I for one am determined +not to be beaten."</p> + +<p>"I've always heard," said Jasmine, "that to sigh was very weakening. +What I propose is this—that we give each other a fine whenever we are +heard sighing, and another much more severe fine if we grumble, and +the worst fine of all if we cry. Now, what shall the fines be?"</p> + +<p>After a little consideration the girls decided that the fines might as +well lead in the direction of their education. Accordingly they marked +out for themselves some of the most ponderous passages in "Paradise +Lost" to learn by heart, and as a severe punishment they selected +little bits of a very incomprehensible book, called Butler's +"Analogy." When they had carefully made these selections a rather +feeble bell was heard to tinkle in the mansion, and they went +downstairs to lunch.</p> + +<p>"I hope you are comfortably unpacked now, young ladies?" inquired Mrs. +Flint.</p> + +<p>"And I trust you have recovered from the fatigues of your long +journey?" questioned Mrs. Dredge. "It is a weary way from +Devonshire—a long and weary way."</p> + +<p>"You speak of it as though it were a kind of disappointment to come +from Devonshire to London," remarked Miss Slowcum, "whereas London is +<i>the</i> place for aspiring souls."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so delighted to hear you say that!" said Jasmine—"Poppy—I +mean Sarah—spoke quite dismally this morning, but I knew she must be +wrong."</p> + +<p>"The young country servant," responded Miss Slowcum, "Sarah Jane, I +think her name is—oh, well, her judgment need scarcely be depended +on. Yes, London is the place of places. I have lived here for years, +and I ought to know."</p> + +<p>"We quite believe you," said Jasmine—"don't we, Primrose?—we have +come up here because we quite feel with you; we are going out after +lunch to see the beauties of the city."</p> + +<p>"May I ask, young ladies, if this is your first visit to the +metropolis?" suddenly inquired Mrs. Mortlock.</p> + +<p>Primrose answered her "Yes; we have never been here before."</p> + +<p>"Then, Mrs. Flint, I put it to you, is it safe to allow these young +unfledged birds out into this vast and bewildering place? ought not +some one to chaperon them?"</p> + +<p>"We thought of asking for Poppy," answered Jasmine.</p> + +<p>Here Mrs. Flint frowned at her.</p> + +<p>"Allow me to make one request, Miss Jasmine Mainwaring; the young +person you speak of is not known here by a name which signifies a tare +or a weed. Yes, I shall be pleased to allow Sarah to go out with you +this afternoon for a short time, but she knows as little of London as +you do. I cannot go myself, as Friday is a busy afternoon. I can, +however, give you a map, and if you all keep close together and don't +wander too far, and are careful only to inquire of policemen your +destination you may get back safely. Don't forget, tea at six."</p> + +<p>Here Miss Slowcum, turning her eyes slowly, looked carefully all over +the three girls.</p> + +<p>"I am most particular," she said; "I never wander abroad without +carefully choosing my company, but on the whole I feel satisfied a +kindred spirit to my own lurks in your eyes, Miss Jasmine. Permit me, +young ladies, to escort you forth this afternoon."</p> + +<p>This offer was accepted very gladly, although Jasmine had quickly to +remember her fine, or she would have given a very deep sigh when Miss +Slowcum pointed a comparison between them. In the delight, however, of +going into real London all these minor considerations and discomforts +were forgotten.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.</h3> + + +<p>Miss Slowcum was right in saying that she was very particular with +regard to her company. She prided herself on having select taste. She +thought it well to assume distant airs to the other inmates of +Penelope Mansion—Mrs. Dredge she thought quite beneath her notice, +Mrs. Mortlock was slightly more tolerated, but Miss Slowcum never +really unbent to either of these ladies. As she said to herself, she +could never forget that she came of the Slowcums of ——shire that her +father had been Captain Slowcum of the Royal Navy, and that, all +things considered, her true position in society was with the county +folk. What, therefore, could a lady of such patrician birth have in +common with a Mrs. Mortlock or a Mrs. Dredge? Alas! however, Miss +Slowcum was poor—she was very poor, and she was a great deal too +genteel to work. The terms at Penelope Mansion were by no means high, +and in order to live she was obliged to put up with uncongenial +company. She was a very tall and angular person—her face was long and +thin, her eyes small, her mouth undecided, but in her heart of hearts +she was by no means wanting in good nature; and when, the night +before, Jasmine, with her charming little face, offered her some of +the country flowers, she began to take an interest in the fresh girls +who had come to the rather antiquated house in Wright Street.</p> + +<p>It was really good-natured of Miss Slowcum to offer to accompany the +girls on their first walk in London. She had the greatest horror of +ever appearing remarkable and she felt really alarmed at the thought +of taking four unsophisticated country lasses abroad. It was bad +enough to offer to escort the Mainwarings, who, however <i>gauche</i> they +might appear, were undoubtedly ladies, but to take Poppy, <i>alias</i> +Sarah, as well, was really trying. Without Poppy, however, the girls +refused to stir. There was no help for it, and Miss Slowcum only +trusted that their first walk might be short and uneventful.</p> + +<p>"It is an unpleasant arrangement, but I do not see any help for it," +she said, addressing her little party as they assembled in the hall; +"we must sally forth as though we were a school. You, Miss Jasmine, +will have the goodness to walk in front with me. Miss Mainwaring and +her youngest sister can immediately follow us, and Sarah, you will +please to keep behind."</p> + +<p>"Oh, lor!" ejaculated Poppy, "I thought me and Miss Jasmine was to +stay together—it's what I has been looking forward to through all the +toils of the work, and the smuts and the Sarah Janes, and the Sarah +Marys this morning. It is another biting. Well, London seems to be +made up of them. All right, Miss Slowcum, I'll keep behind. I suppose +there's nobody to forbid me gazing well into the shop windows. I hope +you'll take us into a gay street, miss, where there are lots of new +bonnets and hats to be seen."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to walk with you, Poppy," said Jasmine; "Miss Slowcum is +very kind, but I should not think of walking with any one else. +Please, Miss Slowcum will you go in front, with Primrose and Daisy, +and Poppy and I will promise to behave very well behind."</p> + +<p>In this order the little party did set out, and in an incredibly short +space of time they left the dull region of Penelope Mansion far +behind, and found themselves in Oxford Street, and then in Bond +Street, and finally walking along Piccadilly towards the Park.</p> + +<p>Primrose could always restrain her emotions, but Jasmine and Poppy, +notwithstanding their promise to behave well, were certainly guilty of +many extravagant exclamations. Jasmine became nearly as excited over +the new bonnets as her companion. The picture-shops were marvels of +wonder and delight to her, and poor Miss Slowcum was obliged to draw +up short on many occasions, or she would have lost the little +loiterers, as they stood still to gaze. At last she made a proposition +which nearly took her own breath away with the magnitude of its +generosity. She would treat the entire party to a drive in the omnibus +to St. Paul's Cathedral. Poppy earnestly begged to be allowed to go +with Jasmine on the roof, but this the good lady negatived with +horror. She finally ushered her young charges into the seclusion of an +omnibus going citywards, and then was conscious of breathing a sigh of +relief. Inwardly she made a vow that never again should her +good-nature lead her into such a troublesome adventure.</p> + +<p>"We must be solemn here, Poppy," said Jasmine, as they were entering +the cathedral; "we must forget the beautiful bonnets, and those dear +little tight-fitting jackets, and those muslin dresses. We must forget +the little story we made up of imagining ourselves rich enough to buy +all these things. Perhaps we may think a very little of one or two of +the pictures, but we must forget the vanities now. It has always been +one of my dreams to come in here—oh! oh!—Poppy." Jasmine clasped her +companion's hand, and her excitable little face grew white—the +magnitude of the great cathedral, the solemn hush, and quiet, and +sense of rest after the rushing noise outside, was too much for +her—her eyes filled with tears, and she was very nearly guilty of +committing the offence which would have obliged her to learn some of +Butler's "Analogy" by heart. The rest of the party wandered about the +cathedral, and looked at the monuments, and presently went up into the +Whispering Gallery, but Jasmine felt suddenly tired and disinclined to +move about.</p> + +<p>"Go on with Daisy, Poppy," she said to her companion; "I will rest +here for a little;" then she seated herself on one of the chairs, and +in a moment or two went down on her knees and covered her childish +face with her hands.</p> + +<p>Not at all long was Jasmine's prayer, but somehow it was very fervent, +and it certainly reached a Presence which gives strength and peace. +She was no longer oppressed by St. Paul's—she was comforted and +strengthened.</p> + +<p>"I do hope God will help us," she said to herself. "Oh! was it very, +very rash of us to come up here?—and yet, what else could we do? It +was Primrose's thought, too, and she is always so wise, and so +grown-up."</p> + +<p>Jasmine looked round the cathedral, hoping to see her party—they +were, of course, nowhere within sight, and the little girl began to +walk about by herself, hoping soon to rejoin them. She dropped her +umbrella, and a gentleman who had been watching her for some time with +interest stooped to pick it up. He was a young man of about +six-and-twenty, with a bright and pleasant face.</p> + +<p>"This is your first visit here?" he said, looking kindly at the child.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Jasmine. Then feeling that she had a sympathetic +listener, she continued—"It is so beautiful here!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered her companion; then he added, with a second glance at +the forlorn little figure, "Are you alone, or have you lost your +party?"</p> + +<p>Jasmine half laughed.</p> + +<p>"I cannot find my party at the present moment," she said; "but I am by +no means alone—my two sisters have come here also to-day for the +first time, and a friend is with us, and a lady has very kindly +brought us here."</p> + +<p>"I see," said the stranger. "Well, it is a curious coincidence, but +neither am I alone—I have brought a little lad here to show him the +cathedral—he has gone into the Whispering Gallery, and I am waiting +for him. Perhaps your friends have also gone into the gallery. While +we are both waiting, shall we look round this delightful place? and +may I tell you a little of what I know about it?"</p> + +<p>It was in this manner, and apparently quite by accident, that Jasmine +made the acquaintance of Arthur Noel, who turned out to be one of the +best friends the girls were to make in London. Mr. Noel had taken a +fancy to Jasmine's sweet little face, and Jasmine, when she met with a +sympathetic listener, could be only too communicative. Before Miss +Slowcum and her sisters and Poppy joined them Mr. Noel knew something +of Jasmine's ambitions and of Primrose's modest hopes. Jasmine had +even confided to him the brave resolve the three sisters had made not +to sigh, or grumble, or wear themselves out with useless tears. He was +very kind, although he could not be persuaded to say that he thought +Primrose's scheme a wise one, but this chance encounter might never +have led to anything further but for a little coincidence which shows +what a small place the world is, after all. When Primrose and Daisy, +Poppy and the sedate Miss Slowcum, joined Jasmine, as she stood with +her companion examining Nelson's monument, they were accompanied by a +handsome, bright-faced boy, who ran up to Mr. Noel, and linked his +hand within his arm. This boy turned out to be young Frank Ellsworthy, +and, as the girls all exclaimed on hearing the name, Mr. Noel assured +them that the Ellsworthys were his greatest friends—that he loved +Mrs. Ellsworthy almost as if she were his own mother.</p> + +<p>"I felt that I must speak to you," he said to Jasmine. "I cannot tell +you why nor wherefore, but your face seemed familiar—I did not think +you would turn out to be an absolute stranger."</p> + +<p>Thus the girls made a very valuable acquaintance; nevertheless, owing +to circumstances, it was many a long day before they met Arthur Noel +again.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>A BRIGHT DAY.</h3> + + +<p>Last times are always sad to write about and think about, but first +times are generally pleasant. Notwithstanding a certain sense of +disappointment which certainly did assail the three girls on their +entrance into London, notwithstanding the fact which Jasmine only too +quickly discovered, that the streets were not paved with gold, nor the +air replete with promises, yet there was still something left in that +same London air, a sort of mystery and wonder about it. There was +still something of untold fascination in the busy and crowded streets, +which brought a great sense of delight and exhilaration to the three +young adventurers.</p> + +<p>Jasmine spoke about the stories which met her at every turn; she felt +almost melted to tears at the sight of the sadness in the eyes of some +women, and some little children. But again, beautiful ladies driving +past in carriages made of almost fairy lightness caused her to laugh +with pleasure.</p> + +<p>Primrose was more gravely impressed by London than Jasmine. Her +emotions were not so keen as her younger sister's, her purpose was far +more steadfast; and even in the first few days when the girls gave +themselves up to seeing the wonderful sights of the great metropolis +she could never forget the real object for which they had come.</p> + +<p>Daisy, when she had become reconciled to the smuts and disagreeables, +and the slights to which the Pink was exposed all day long in Penelope +Mansion, began to enjoy life in a serene but unqualified manner. Each +of the girls had her own particular tastes; and these they were by no +means slow to express to one another.</p> + +<p>Primrose, who intended to study china painting—to make it, in short, +a profession—liked to stand opposite some large shop in Oxford +Street, and to study and try to carry away in her mind's eye the shape +and beauty of the many lovely things displayed in the windows.</p> + +<p>Jasmine, who during the first few days had quite made up her mind not +to worry at all about the future, did not much care for these gazing +fits of Primrose's. She wanted to get into the parks. She exclaimed in +ecstasy over the horses, and those picture-galleries which were free +to the public quite enchanted her. Daisy frankly admitted that she +liked toy-shops, and of all toy-shops those which displayed rows of +dolls in their windows the best. Primrose had decided that the three +should have one week's holiday, and it was during this week that they +began to make a certain first acquaintance with London. "It is the +heart of the world," Jasmine was heard to say. "Primrose, it is what +we pictured it; in many ways it is even greater than what we pictured +it. Oh, don't your cheeks glow, and don't you feel that your eyes are +shining when you look down Oxford Street? Yes, it is lovely and grand, +and I think we ought to show poor dear Poppy some more of its +delights."</p> + +<p>Primrose was only too glad to give Poppy all the happiness in her +power, and she and Jasmine arranged that they would take the little +girl out with them on another expedition before they settled down +finally to the great work of their lives.</p> + +<p>"We'll spend five shillings," said Primrose, "we must not on any +account spend more, but we will be extravagant, and give poor Poppy a +real treat with one crown piece."</p> + +<p>"We had better ask her to come to-morrow," said Daisy; "five shillings +seems a lot of money. Do you think there will be enough over, +Primrose, to buy me a tiny, tiny little doll?"</p> + +<p>Primrose kissed Daisy, and said she would try somehow to manage the +doll, and Jasmine was elected to go downstairs and sound Poppy on the +subject of the morrow's treat.</p> + +<p>The little maiden had made herself pretty well at home in the Mansion +by this time, and she soon discovered Poppy in what was called the +back scullery. The ladies had all finished their mid-day meal, and +were out. Even Mrs. Flint had sallied forth to a distant market to +secure some cheap provisions, and Poppy had the back scullery to +herself. She was handling the dinner-plates in a rather clumsy manner, +and, after the fashion of a discontented little girl, was sighing over +her work, and not doing it properly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, let me help you!" said Jasmine, dancing up to her: "I hate +washing china, or delf, or whatever you call it, after people have +eaten, but I like wiping it if the cloths are clean. Poppy, I have +come to you about a most delicious and important scheme."</p> + +<p>"Lor, Miss Jasmine," said Poppy, her fingers trembling violently, and +the large dish which she was washing nearly slipping out of them. +"Lor, miss, you do startle me. I was in the dumps, and you are for all +the world like the sun coming out. Why, deary me, the back scullery +ain't by no means such a bad sort of place when you're in it, Miss +Jasmine."</p> + +<p>"It is very damp and gloomy, all the same," answered Jasmine. "I do +hope you will be quick, Poppy, in washing up those uninteresting +dinner-plates. Now, look here, Primrose and Daisy and I have been +making up such a lovely plan. We want to take you out with us +to-morrow; we are going to spend five shillings, quite lots of money, +you know, and we are going to have dinner out, and perhaps tea out; +and we are going a good long way. Can you come with us to-morrow, +Poppy?"</p> + +<p>"Hold me," said Poppy, suddenly stretching out her hand, "the scullery +is damp and close, and my head a-going round. Let's get out into the +back yard, Miss Jasmine. Now I can breathe. Oh, didn't I say that +London was dazzling, and isn't it you three that has got the hearts of +gold. Say it all over again to me, please, Miss Jasmine. What is it +we're all a-going to do to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a silly, Poppy, you are," said Jasmine; "why even I do not +get as excited as you do. We are going out, and you are coming with +us, and we are going to spend five shillings."</p> + +<p>Poppy's cheeks flushed a vivid crimson, her eyes sparkled, and her +small feet began involuntarily to dance.</p> + +<p>"I has set my heart on something beauteous," she said, "and, oh, dear, +Miss Jasmine, you will do it, won't you? You won't let none of them +biting disappointments with which the air is choke full, as full as it +is of smuts, come in the way. If you three darling ladies spend a +crown piece, and take me abroad, we'll be on pleasure bent, and on +pleasure alone. Say so, do, Miss Jasmine."</p> + +<p>"Why, Poppy, of course we are going for pleasure; what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Only that we won't be going Cathedraling and Towering. I don't say +nothing ag'in them places, but when I wants real pleasure, and a crown +piece spent on me, I don't go in for no Cathedraling."</p> + +<p>Jasmine laughed. "I tell you what," she said, "you shall choose the +pleasure yourself, Poppy. It's your treat, and you shall choose. Now, +do say what hour you will be ready to start to-morrow, for we want to +go early, and have a real long day."</p> + +<p>"Let's think," said Poppy. "To-morrow is, yes, to-morrow is Thursday. +Cold joint to-morrow, and a salad made with stale lettuce which we +gets cheap; potatoes boiled plain and not mashed, and a apple dumpling +to follow. The ladies is very particular that their pastry should be +light. Miss Slowcum says she can't sleep a bit at night if her pastry +is heavy. She called me Sarah Martha Ann the last time I made it, and +she looked most vinegary. Yes, Miss Jasmine, the dinner's plain +to-morrow, and I'll get up with the daybreak, and do my cleaning. I +don't see why Aunt Flint shouldn't let me go with you, miss."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Flint, when properly attacked, proved herself quite vulnerable. +She was anxious to please the Mainwarings who she hoped would take up +their abode with her, for naughty Primrose had by no means divulged +her real plans. Accordingly, Poppy was allowed to get her dinner +beforehand, and a very happy little quartet left the Mansion soon +after eleven o'clock.</p> + +<p>They had gone some little distance from Penelope Mansion, and found +themselves in a far more cheerful and bright-looking street, before +Poppy divulged her plans.</p> + +<p>"I has got to choose," she said, "and as I stated distinct to Miss +Jasmine yesterday, I don't go in for the glooms of the Tower, nor the +solemns of the Cathedral. I'd like to walk from end to end of Oxford +Street first, and then I'd like to take a penny boat on the river."</p> + +<p>"A penny boat!" exclaimed the three sisters in a breath, "that does +sound delightful, and so cheap. Where did you hear of penny boats, +Poppy?"</p> + +<p>Poppy's face became radiant.</p> + +<p>"It was the last charwoman at the Mansion," she answered. "She said +that if you wanted a pleasure, and a pleasure cheap, there was nothing +in all the world like a penny boat. You sit in it, and there you are, +as snug as snug; plenty of room and plenty of company, and plenty of +sights. Mrs. Jones said that if there was a pleasure to rest a +tired charwoman it was to be found in a penny boat."</p> + +<p>"Well, we are not charwomen, but we may as well have a little rest and +fun while we can," answered Jasmine. "I think yours is a lovely treat, +dear Poppy, and we will try and get into the penny boat as fast as +possible."</p> + +<p>"I don't know how we are to reach the boats," said Primrose. "I begin +to know my way a little about Oxford Street, but how are we to find +the river?"</p> + +<p>Poppy, however, had made good use of her acquaintance with Mrs. Jones +the charwoman. She knew the name as well as the color of the omnibus +which would safely convey them near to the pier at Westminster. She +also knew, being instructed by Mrs. Jones, that a policeman was the +right person to give her information as to where this special omnibus +was to be found. She was by no means shy in making her desires known +to one of these useful and worthy members of society, and in a short +time the four found themselves bowling away in the direction of +Westminster, and then, without any insurmountable difficulty, secured +comfortable seats on one of the river steamers.</p> + +<p>The day was perfect, neither too hot nor too cold, and the summer +breezes fanned the young cheeks pleasantly, and raised the youthful +spirits to an exhilarating height. Poppy forgot her troubles in +Penelope Mansion, her difficulties with regard to the name of Sarah. +She forgot the gloom of the back scullery, and the discontented frown +quite vanished from her brow. London was again dazzling in her eyes, +and her own future was replete with hope.</p> + +<p>Primrose also ceased to worry over the anxieties and cares of the +future; she ceased to reflect on the plan which was so soon to be +carried into execution. Her serene face looked sweet and careless as +in the happy days of her mother's lifetime. She leaned back in her +seat, gazed at the beauties of the river, and gave herself up to the +happiness of the hour.</p> + +<p>The two younger girls, being never over anxious and being always more +or less full of hope, were to-day only more hopeful and bright than +usual. Many people turned to look at the pretty sisters, and to laugh +at Poppy's innocent expressions of rapture.</p> + +<p>They landed at Battersea, and wandered about the pretty park, and had +refreshments in a quaint restaurant, where they really managed to +satisfy their hunger at a very moderate charge.</p> + +<p>That evening they returned to the Mansion, having kept within the +limits of the prescribed five shillings, and each of them declaring +that she had never known a happier day.</p> + +<p>"But now," said Primrose, addressing her two sisters solemnly, "we +must remember that after to-night we have done with pleasure. +To-morrow we must seriously set about forming our plans."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3>GETTING LOST.</h3> + + +<p>Primrose's scheme had, of course, been considered most wild and most +foolish by all her friends at Rosebury but even they were not prepared +for her crowning act of folly. She, Jasmine and Daisy had a +consultation together. This consultation was really nothing but a +matter of form, for Primrose, quiet as she appeared could lead her two +sisters as she willed—her slightest word was law to them, and the +most outrageous plan proposed by her would have been delightful in +their eyes. Her suggestion to them was as follows:</p> + +<p>"We will go to London," she said—"we will try to be independent, and +to earn our own living, and in order to do so really, and to prevent +ourselves being tempted by Mrs. Ellsworthy's riches, or by Miss +Martineau's advice, we will not give our address. We will stay for a +short time at Penelope Mansion, and then we will go away. We will find +those nice, clean, cheap lodgings, where we can hang up our muslin +curtains, and keep things lovely and fresh, even though we are in +London, and we will stay there without troubling our friends about us +until we have succeeded. The moment we have succeeded in earning +enough to live on we will write home."</p> + +<p>Jasmine, and of course little Daisy, approved of this idea—Jasmine +said it was both romantic and strong—Daisy said she only wanted to be +with her own Primrose and her own Jasmine, and if the Pink might +always stay with her too she would be quite happy.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, when the girls' week of pleasure had quite come to an +end, Primrose reminded her sisters that it was time for them to begin +to get lost.</p> + +<p>"We are not really lost here," she said. "Mrs. Ellsworthy thinks +nothing of coming to town, and she could come to us at the Mansion any +moment; and now that we have met that friend of hers, that Mr. Noel, +she may be sending him to see about us—so you see it is more +important than ever that we should find a place where we can really +commence our work."</p> + +<p>"I don't dislike Mr. Noel at all," said Jasmine. "It is a great pity +he is related to our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy, for we might have had +the comfort of his advice without being considered dependent. Oh, +Primrose! is it possible that we are too independent—I can't help it, +Primrose; I do feel lonely. I must cry just for a minute. I'd rather +do a page of the 'Analogy' to-night than not cry for a minute."</p> + +<p>"My darling," said Primrose, putting her arms round Jasmine, "I am +sure that girls like us cannot be too independent, but I won't go on +with it if it really breaks your heart, Jasmine."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but it doesn't really," said Jasmine; "I think it's a noble plan; +I wouldn't give in for the world. I have had my cry now, and I'm +better—but, Rose, how are we to look out for these nice, clean, cheap +lodgings if we aren't to consult any one?"</p> + +<p>"We can consult people, and find out the locality we want, but we need +never tell the people we consult what number in the street we really +choose. Oh, there are lots of ways of finding out what we really want +to know."</p> + +<p>"I'll talk to Mrs. Dredge to-night," said Jasmine. "I think Mrs. +Dredge is very practical and kind, and I don't know why Miss Slowcum +should dislike her so much. I'll get her all by myself this evening, +and talk to her."</p> + +<p>Accordingly that evening, after the inmates of Penelope Mansion had, +as Mrs. Flint styled it, "tea'd," Jasmine sat down on a footstool at +Mrs. Dredge's feet, and laid herself out to be bewitching. No one +could be more charming than this little maiden when she chose, and she +had tact enough to adapt herself on most occasions to her company.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure you have lots of experience, Mrs. Dredge," she began; "you +look as if you had—your face tells me that you have gone through many +episodes"—(Jasmine was rather proud of this expression; she began to +consider that her style was forming).</p> + +<p>"Episodes, my dear, and experiences?" answered Mrs. Dredge. "Well, +well, I'm not to say over young, and years bring knowledge; but if you +mean, Miss Jasmine, that I'm up to the acquirements of the present +day, that I'm not, and I never will be,—no, thank Heaven! that I +never will be."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean with regard to education?" remarked Jasmine. "Is the +education of the present day wrong?—is that why you're so thankful +you are not up to it?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Miss Jasmine," answered Mrs. Dredge, with great solemnity, +"the education of the present day is to the heart hardening, and to +the mind demoralizing. No, no; none of it for me. Miss Slowcum, now! +Miss Jasmine, between you and me I don't admire Miss Slowcum."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she's very kind," answered Jasmine; "but look here, Mrs. Dredge, +what I want to consult you about has nothing at all to say to +education, and it has a great deal to say to experience. It's a great +secret, Mrs. Dredge, but we want to find cheap lodgings."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear! and don't you want to abide at the Mansion—all things +considered, it's a respectable and safe quarter—you are all three +young and attractive, my dears, and you have the advantage of being +guarded here by women who have years on their shoulders. Yes, my dear +Miss Jasmine, with the exception of your three selves and the maid +Sarah, there is no one in Penelope Mansion who will ever see fifty +again. Don't talk to me of Miss Slowcum being younger than that—I +know better."</p> + +<p>"Dear Mrs. Dredge, it is a secret, but we are really not going to stay +here long, and we want, if possible, to find very cheap lodgings."</p> + +<p>"Very cheap, love; and you think I can guide you? Well, well, I have +had, as you wisely say, my experiences. About what figure would you be +inclined to go to, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," answered Jasmine. "Our house in the country was twelve +pounds a year—I don't think we ought to pay as much as that, for of +course we should not want a whole house, only two rooms. A nice, +large, airy bedroom, and a cheerful sitting-room. We should not mind +how plain the furniture was, if only it was very, very clean. You know +the kind of place, with snow-white boards—the sort of boards you +could eat off—and little plain beds with dimity frills round them, +and very white muslin blinds to the windows—we have got our own white +muslin curtains; Hannah washed them for us, and they are as white as +snow. Oh! the place we want might be very humble, and very +inexpensive. Do tell us if you know of any rooms that would suit us."</p> + +<p>While Jasmine was speaking Mrs. Dredge kept on gazing at her, her +round face growing long, and her full blue eyes becoming extended to +their largest size.</p> + +<p>"My dear child," she said, "wherever were you brought up? Don't you +know that the kind of lodgings you want are just the hardest of all to +get? Yes, my dear, I have experience in London apartments, and about +them, and with regard to them, there is one invariable and unbroken +rule—cheapness and dirt—expense and cleanliness. Bless you! you +innocent child, you had better give up the notion of the cheap +lodgings, and stay on contented and happy at the Mansion."</p> + +<p>Jasmine smiled faintly—said "Thank you, Mrs. Dredge," in a pretty +gentle voice, and a moment or two later, with a deeper carnation than +usual in her cheeks, she quietly left the room.</p> + +<p>"Primrose," she said upstairs to her sister, "we mustn't ask advice +about our lodgings; we must take the map with us, and go and look for +them all by ourselves. Mrs. Dredge says that clean lodgings are very, +very dear, and it is only dirty lodgings that are cheap."</p> + +<p>When Jasmine ran into the room Primrose was standing by the +dressing-table, and in her usual methodical fashion was putting tidily +away her own things and her sisters'; now she faced Jasmine with a +little smile on her face.</p> + +<p>"There is just one thing," she said, "that we can do—we can with our +own hands make the dirty lodgings clean. Never mind, Jasmine darling, +we won't ask anybody's advice; we'll go out and look round us +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Early the next morning the three sisters set out—Daisy having first +locked the Pink in their room. It may be remarked in parenthesis that +the Pink did not like her new quarters, and had already made herself +notorious by breaking two saucers and a cup, by upsetting a basin of +milk, and by disappearing with the leg of a chicken. In consequence, +she was in great disgrace, and Mrs. Flint had been heard to speak of +her as "that odious cat!" The Pink, however, was safe for the present, +and the girls set out on their little pilgrimage of discovery.</p> + +<p>"London," said Primrose, in a somewhat sententious voice, has "points +of the compass, like any other place. It has its north and its south, +its east and its west. The west, I have been told, is the aristocratic +and expensive quarter, so of course we won't go there. In the east, +the miserably poor and dirty people live—we won't trouble +them—therefore our choice must lie between the south and the north. +On the whole, I am inclined to try the north side of London."</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"For dark and true and tender is the North,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>quoted Jasmine with enthusiasm. "By all means, Rose, we will go +northwards, but how shall we go?"</p> + +<p>"We'll inquire at the post-office just round this corner," answered +Primrose, with decision.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, having received some rather lucid instructions the girls +found themselves in a few moments in an omnibus going towards +Holloway. About noon they were landed there, and then their search +began. Oh, the weariness of that long day! Oh, the painful experience +of the three! They knew nothing about London prices—they had not an +idea whether they were being imposed upon or not.</p> + +<p>"On one point we have quite made up our minds," said Jasmine, +sturdily; "we won't go back to the Mansion until we have found rooms."</p> + +<p>The truth of Mrs. Dredge's prophecy became only too apparent. All the +apartments that were bright and clean and cheery were quite too +expensive for Primrose's slender purse. At last she came to a +resolution.</p> + +<p>"Girls," she said, "we must take rooms that look dirty, and make them +clean. We have at least been taught how to polish, and how to scrub, +and how to clean. You know, Jasmine, how shocked Miss Martineau was +when she saw you one day with a pair of gloves on down on your knees +polishing the drawing-room grate at Rosebury. You said you liked to do +it. How distressed she was! and how that grate did shine!"</p> + +<p>"Don't let us talk about Rosebury just now," said Jasmine, with a +quiver in her voice. "Yes, Primrose darling, of course we can make our +own rooms clean—we can even re-paper the walls, and we can whitewash +the ceilings. Now we know exactly what to do. At the very next house +where we see 'Apartments to Let,' we'll ask for dirty rooms, then of +course we'll get them cheap."</p> + +<p>"Those attics that we saw at that last house?" questioned Primrose, +thoughtfully. "They were rather large, and not very dark. If we took +down that paper, and put up a fresh one, and if we whitened the +ceilings and scrubbed the floors, why, those rooms might do. They were +not very expensive for London—only twelve shillings a week."</p> + +<p>"A frightful rent!" said Jasmine. "No wonder the people here look +careworn, and pinched, and old. We'll go back to that house, Primrose. +On the whole, the rooms may suit us. What is the landlady's name?—Oh, +Mrs. Dove. We'll go back to Mrs. Dove and take her rooms."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, in a funny little street off the Junction Road, the three +Mainwaring girls found a nest. It was a queer nest, up at the top of a +tall and rambling house; but Mrs. Dove appeared good-natured, and had +no objection to the young ladies doing their own papering and +white-washing, and as Primrose took the rooms on the spot, and paid +a week's rent in advance, she became quite gracious. Every morning, +as soon as ever breakfast was over at Penelope Mansion, the girls +started off to the new home they were preparing for themselves. +There they worked hard, papering, white-washing, and, finally, even +painting. By the end of a week Mrs. Dove scarcely knew her attic +apartments—elegant she now called them—a charming suite. The +enthusiasm of the three young workers even infected Mrs. Dove, who +condescended to clean the windows, and to rub up the shabby furniture, +so that when, at the end of the week, the attics were ready for +occupation, they were by no means so unlike Jasmine's ideal London +rooms as might have been expected. The girls kept their own counsel, +and during the week they were preparing for their flight to Eden +Street—for No. 10 Eden Street would be their future address—they +told no one at Penelope Mansion of their little plans. The good ladies +of the Mansion, Mrs. Flint excepted, were very curious about them; +they wondered why the girls disappeared every day immediately after +breakfast, and came back looking hot and tired, and yet with bright +and contented faces, at night; but Jasmine had ceased to confide in +Mrs. Dredge; and Primrose, when she chose to be dignified, had quite +power enough to keep even Miss Slowcum at a distance. Mrs. Mortlock, +who was stout, and rich, and good-tempered, tried the effect of a +little bribery on Daisy, but the sweet, staunch little maid would not +be corrupted.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you so much for those delicious chocolate creams," she +said. "Yes, I <i>do</i> love chocolate creams, and you are so kind to give +them to me. Where do we spend our day?—but that is Primrose's +secret—you would not have me so naughty as to tell!"</p> + +<p>So the week drew to an end, and the nest, as the girls called their +rooms, was finally ready for its inmates. The snowy-white muslin +curtains were really put up to the now clean windows—the walls, +covered with a delicate paper, had a soft, rosy glow about them—some +of the pretty home ornaments were judiciously scattered about, and the +rather small bedroom had three very small, but very white, little +beds in it.</p> + +<p>"We'll go in for lots of flowers, you know," said Jasmine. "I don't +suppose even in London flowers are very dear."</p> + +<p>At last there came a morning when the girls went away from Penelope +Mansion as usual, and only Mrs. Flint and Poppy knew that they were +not returning in the evening. Mrs. Flint felt rather indignant with +the young ladies for deserting her—not that she said anything for she +always made it a rule not to wear herself out with unnecessary words, +or with fretting, or with undue excitement; nevertheless, on this +occasion she was a little indignant, for surely, what place could +compare with the Mansion? Poor Poppy bade the young ladies, whom she +loved, good-bye with an almost breaking heart.</p> + +<p>"It's all one, Miss Jasmine," she exclaimed; "if it was my dying +breath, I'd have to own that London is not what we pictered +it—vanities there is, and troubles there is, and disappointments most +numerous and most biting. But for the one happy day I spent out with +you dear young ladies, I hasn't known no happiness in London. Oh, Miss +Jasmine," drawing up short and looking her young lady full in the +face—"what dreadful lies them novels tells! I read them afore I came, +and I made up such wonderful picters; but I will own that what with +the ladies in this mansion, as worrit me almost past bearing, and what +with you going away all secret like, and what with me being no longer +Poppy the tare, but Sarah Jane the drudge, even if I was to get one of +the bonnets that they show in the shop windows in Bond Street, why, it +wouldn't draw a smile from me Miss Jasmine!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3>HOW TO PAINT CHINA AND HOW TO FORM STYLE.</h3> + + +<p>Mrs. Dove had a great many lodgers—she let rooms on each of her +floors, and she called her lodgers by the name of the floor they +occupied—first floor, second floor, third floor came and went to 10, +Eden Street. The girls were known as "the attics," and Jasmine felt +very indignant at the name.</p> + +<p>"It's almost as bad as being a tare," she said to Primrose. "Dear, +dear! I never thought I should turn into an attic! What an unpleasant +place London is! I begin to think Poppy is quite right in what she +says of it."</p> + +<p>"I begin to suspect," said Primrose, "that London, like all places, +has its shady side and its bright side. We are in the shady side at +present, dear Jasmine—that is all."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dove had not only lodgers who seemed to worry her from morning to +night—for, unlike her name, she was always fretting or scolding +somebody—but she also had a husband, and this husband made his +presence felt by every lodger in the house. He was often away for a +whole week at a time, and then comparative peace reigned in No. 10; +but he would come back at unexpected moments—he would enter the +house, singing out, in a loud rasping voice—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Mrs. Dove,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">My only love!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>And then poor Mrs. Dove would get flushed and uncomfortable and lose +what little self-possession she ever had, and would own in confidence +to the first floor, or the second floor, or the attics, just as they +happened to be present, that Mr. Dove's honeyed phrases were only +words after all, and meant quite the contrary.</p> + +<p>The girls were not a week at No. 10, Eden Street, before it became +very apparent to them that there was little of the real Eden to be +found in the place. They kept themselves, however, quite apart from +the other lodgers; they began to get out their books and their +employments, and what with housekeeping, and what with cleaning their +rooms, and going out for long rambling walks in all directions, they +were busy from morning to night. Primrose said they would spend a +fortnight in the attics, and then the education which was by-and-by to +lead to bread-winning must commence. Never did three more ignorant +girls gird themselves for the fray. Primrose had a natural love for +painting. She had none of the knowledge, none of the grounding, which +is essential for real success in all departments of art in the present +day; but she had a quick and correct eye for color, and all that Miss +Martineau knew she had imparted to her. Primrose looked in at the shop +windows, and saw the lovely painted china, and resolved to take +lessons in this art. After some little difficulty, and after +questioning first Mrs. Dove, and finally the much-dreaded Mr. Dove, +she was directed to a teacher, who promised to instruct her at the +rate of three pounds three shillings for twelve lessons. Primrose did +not know whether her teacher was good or bad, or whether she was +paying too much or too little—she resolved to take the lessons and to +spend some of her little capital in buying the necessary materials.</p> + +<p>"After I've had my twelve lessons Mr. Jones thinks I may begin to +offer some of my plates and things for sale; he says he will be very +glad to put them up in his own shop window. He thinks," continued +Primrose with her sweet, grave smile, "that I may be able to recoup +myself for the expense of learning at the end of a few months."</p> + +<p>"And now," said Jasmine, "what am I to do? It's all settled for you, +Primrose—you will be an artist—and you shall paint a breakfast set +for our nest in your odd moments, and I'll buy it from you when my +ship comes home. Oh! and we are both going to be very successful, are +we not, darling? and we won't have any trouble at all in supporting +our pet Daisy and her kitty-cat. You know, Primrose, my gifts lie in +the poetic and novelistic line. I have really thought of a glowing +plot for a story since I came to London, and Mr. Dove is to be the +ruffian of the piece. I'll introduce Mrs. Dredge and poor Miss Slowcum +too, and, of course, you'll be the heroine, my beautiful sister. I +mean to buy some paper, and work away at my novel in the evenings next +week; but as we have come up to London expressly to have our education +perfected, and our gifts developed, don't you think I ought to be +having some lessons in English style? After all, Primrose, I do not +think Mrs. Flint's way of speaking was correct. Arthur Noel did not +talk in the least like her, nor did dear Mrs. Ellsworthy; and after +all, they are a real lady and gentleman. I wonder, Primrose, who would +teach me proper style. I wish I could meet Arthur Noel again, that he +might tell me!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jasmine, it is dreadful of you to speak of a perfect stranger by +his Christian name! Don't do it, dear—I know it is not right."</p> + +<p>"He did not seem the least like a stranger," said Jasmine, pushing +back her curling locks. "Well, Rose, who is to teach me style?—you +see, if I am to earn money by my pen I must be polished up. I have got +a poem now in the back of my head which would exactly suit the —— +<i>Review</i>. It's almost exactly on the lines of one they published not +long ago by Tennyson; but I'd rather not send it until I've had a +lesson or two from some gifted person here—who shall I go to, +Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"You must go to a school, of course," answered Primrose. "There is a +seminary for young ladies just round the corner—we will call there +this afternoon, and find out if the lady can give you lessons."</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton, the principal of the seminary in question, opened her +eyes a good deal at Jasmine's modest request.</p> + +<p>"I don't want French, nor German, nor music," quoth the young lady, +"but I do want to be helped to make very smooth and flowing verses, +and I want to have the plots of my novels cut up and criticised—for I +don't mind telling you," continued Jasmine, looking full into Miss +Egerton's deeply-lined and anxious face, "that I mean to live by my +pen. My sister is to be an artist, and I am to be a novelist and +poet."</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton owned to herself afterwards that she had never met such +extraordinary girls; but then they were so pretty, and so fresh, and +the times were hard, and the High Schools were carrying off all her +pupils, so though she knew little or nothing of making up verses or +developing plots, she promised to receive Jasmine as a pupil, to +direct her reading, and to help her to the best of her ability. She +was a good and kind-hearted woman, and she made a further suggestion.</p> + +<p>"What is to become of your little sister while you are both so busy, +young ladies?" she said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Daisy promises to be very good," said Primrose with a tender +smile at the little one. "Daisy will stay at home, and take care of +the Pink, and she is learning to sew very nicely. When Daisy is good +and stays quietly at home she helps our plan, and does as much for our +cause as any of us."</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton looked straight into Daisy's eyes. Long ago this dry and +hard-looking old maid had a little sister like Daisy—a pretty little +lass, who went away to play in the heavenly gardens many and many a +year ago. For the sake of little Constance Miss Egerton felt a great +kindness welling up in her heart towards Daisy Mainwaring.</p> + +<p>"Your little sister must not stay at home by herself," she said. "She +shall come to me. While I am teaching Miss Jasmine, Daisy can play or +work as she pleases, only not by herself in your lodgings, young +ladies, but in the room with her sister."</p> + +<p>So it was arranged, and the three girls might fairly have been said to +commence their work.</p> + +<p>When Primrose had gone to Mr. Danesfield and asked him to allow her to +draw their little capital out of his bank, he had made wonderfully +few objections. Of all their friends, he was the one who had opposed +Primrose's scheme the least, and perhaps for that reason she was more +willing to take his advice, and to be guided by him, than by either +Mrs. Ellsworthy or Miss Martineau. Mr. Danesfield had said to her: "My +dear, you and your sisters are in some particulars in a very unique +and unfortunate position. You are all three very young, yet you are +absolutely your own mistresses. No one in all the world has any real +control over you. If you ask me for your money, I cannot refuse you—I +have absolutely no choice in the matter; the money is yours, and when +you want it you must have it. Now I tell you plainly that Mrs. +Ellsworthy and Miss Martineau are dreadfully shocked with your scheme. +I may be wrong, but I confess I am not shocked. I fancy that you are +the kind of girls who will come out victorious, and that though you +will have rather a hard struggle, you will not be beaten; but there is +one thing I am most anxious to do for you, and that is to keep part of +your money. You have exactly two hundred pounds. How much of this +little capital do you propose to spend a year?"</p> + +<p>"As little as ever we can," answered Primrose.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear young lady, but you must have some sort of idea with +regard to your expenses. I would counsel you on no account to spend +more of your capital than seventy pounds a year; by restricting +yourselves to this sum you will have a very tiny but certain, income +for two years, and will have something to fall back on even in the +third year, if you are not then earning enough. Suppose I divide your +seventy pounds into four quarterly instalments, and send it to you as +you require it. You know nothing of keeping a banking account +yourself, and it will absolutely not be safe for you to live in London +lodgings, and have a large sum of money with you. Take my advice in +this particular, Miss Primrose, and allow me still to be your banker."</p> + +<p>"There is one little difficulty," said Primrose; "we really want to be +independent, and as we know that there will be difficulties and +discouragements in the career we are marking out for ourselves, and +that we may often grow faint-hearted and lonely, Jasmine and I feel +that we had better put ourselves quite out of the way of temptation. +We have, therefore, made up our minds not to give our address to any +one in Rosebury for at least two years. How can you send us the money, +Mr. Danesfield, if you don't know where to send it?"</p> + +<p>"My dear young lady, I fear you are a little bit too headstrong, and +though I admire your spirit, I cannot quite approve of your cutting +yourselves off from all communications with your friends. However, it +is not for me to interfere. Will this satisfy you, Miss +Primrose?—shall I give you my solemn promise only to use the address +with which you favor me to forward your money each quarter, and never +to divulge your secret to anybody else?"</p> + +<p>Finally this plan was adopted, and Primrose received her small +quarterly allowance with great regularity.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3>CROSS PURPOSES.</h3> + + +<p>After his interview with Jasmine in St. Paul's Cathedral, Arthur Noel +went home to his very luxurious chambers in Westminster, and wrote the +following letter to Mrs. Ellsworthy:—</p> + +<p>"MY DEAR MOTHER-FRIEND,</p> + +<p>"The most curious thing has happened. I came accidentally to-day +across the three girls about whom you were so interested. I met them +at St. Paul's, and could not help speaking to the second one. The +brightness, and yet the melancholy, of her little face attracted my +attention. She was not with the rest of her party, but sat for some of +the time on one of the chairs, and then knelt down and covered her +face. Poor little soul! I think she was crying. My sympathies were +roused by her, and I spoke. She flashed up a very bright glance at me, +and we became friends on the spot. I took her about the cathedral, and +showed her one or two objects of interest. She was full of +intelligence. Then her sisters joined her, and your boy came up, and, +of course, his name came out; and there was confusion and wondering +glances, and the girl whom I had spoken to turned first crimson, and +then white, and her dark grey eyes became full of tears. 'I know the +Ellsworthys; they are my dear, dear friends!' she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"I found out where the three lived before I left them. They were +accompanied by a prim-looking maiden lady, who was introduced to me as +a Miss Slowcum, and who appeared to be taking excellent care of the +pretty creatures. All three are delightful, and I have lost my heart +to them all.</p> + +<p>"Can I do anything for them? Of course you have already told me what +perverse creatures they are, and Miss Jasmine confirmed your story, +only, of course, she put her own coloring on it. I pity them, and yet, +to a certain extent—forgive me, mother-friend—I admire their spirit. +That eldest girl had a look about her face which will certainly keep +every one from being rude to her. Such an expression of innocence and +dignity combined I have seldom come across. Now, can I help them? It +is an extraordinary thing, but I have a wonderful fellow-feeling for +them. I can never forget the old days when I too was alone in London, +and you took me up. Do you remember how you met me, and took my thin +and dirty hands in yours, and looked into my face and said: 'Surely +this is a gentleman's son, although he is clothed in rags?' I could +just remember that I was a gentleman's son, and that I used to put my +arms round a beautiful lady's neck and kiss her, and call her mother. +Between her face and me there was a great horror of darkness, and +suffering, and ill-usage; and my memories were feeble and dream-like. +I don't even now recall them more vividly. You took me up, and—you +know the rest of my history.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is a strange thing, but those girls, especially that little +Jasmine, brought back the memory of the lady whose sweet face I used +to kiss. Can I do anything for your girls? There are a thousand ways +in which I could help them without hurting their proud spirits.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Yours affectionately,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"ARTHUR NOEL."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In a very short time Mr. Noel received a brief communication from Mrs. +Ellsworthy:—</p> + +<p>MY DEAR ARTHUR,</p> + +<p>"Your letter has been an untold relief. It was a special and good +Providence that directed your steps to St. Paul's on that afternoon. +My dear little Jasmine!—she is my pet of all the three. My dear +Arthur, pray call on the girls at that dreadful Penelope Mansion; they +are so naughty and so obstinate that they simply must be caught by +guile. You must use your influence to get them out of that dreadful +place. Look for respectable and nice lodgings, and go beforehand to +the landlady. If she is very nice, confide in her, and tell her she is +to look to me for payment, but she is on no account to let out this +fact to the girls. Kensington is a nice, quiet, respectable +neighborhood; you might take the drawing-room floor of a very quiet, +nice house, and ask the landlady to offer it to the girls for five +shillings a week, or something nominal of that sort. Primrose is so +innocent at present that she will think five shillings quite a large +sum; but tell the lady of the house to let it include all extras—I +mean such as gas and firing. I suppose you could not get a house with +the electric light?—no, of course not; it is not used yet in private +dwellings—gas is so unwholesome, but the girls might use candles. +Tell the landlady to provide them with the best candles, and tell her +I'll pay her something handsome if she'll go out with them. And, my +dear Arthur, <i>don't</i> let them go in omnibuses. Do your best, and, +above all things, take them away from that awful mansion as soon as +possible.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Your affectionate Mother-Friend,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"KATE ELLSWORTHY."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But alas! when Arthur Noel, in accordance with Mrs. Ellsworthy's +instructions, went to see the girls, he was confronted first by Mrs. +Flint, who assured him in her soft and cushion-like style that the +young ladies had left, and as they had been undutiful enough not to +confide in her she could furnish him with no address. As he was +leaving the mansion Poppy Jenkins rushed up to him.</p> + +<p>"I heard you asking for my young ladies, sir, but it ain't no use, for +they're gone. Flowers of beauty they was—beautiful in manner and in +face—but they ain't to be found here no more. The Mansion didn't suit +them, and the people in the Mansion didn't suit them, and that isn't +to be wondered at. I suppose they has gone to a more congenial place, +but the address is hid from me; no, sir, I know nothing at all about +them. Yes, sir, it's quite true—I misses them most bitter!"</p> + +<p>Here poor Poppy, covering her face with her hands, burst into tears +and disappeared down the back staircase.</p> + +<p>Noel wrote to Mrs. Ellsworthy, and Mrs. Ellsworthy wrote back to him, +and between them they made many inquiries, and took many steps, which +they felt quite sure must lead to discovery, but notwithstanding all +their efforts they obtained no clue to the whereabouts of the +Mainwaring girls.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3>DARK DAYS.</h3> + + +<p>"How bitterly cold it is, Primrose!"</p> + +<p>The speaker was Jasmine; she sat huddled up to a small, but bright +fire, which burned in the sitting-room grate.</p> + +<p>The girls had now been several months in Eden Street, and all the +summer weather and the summer flowers had departed, and the evening in +question was a very dull and foggy one in late November.</p> + +<p>The little sitting-room still wore its rose-tinted paper, but the +white curtains at the windows had assumed a decided and permanent tint +of yellow, and the fog found its way in through the badly-fitting +attic windows, and made the whole room look cloudy. The girls' faces, +too, had altered with the months. Jasmine had lost a good deal of her +vivacity, her expression was slightly fretful, and she no longer +looked the spruce and sparkling little lass who had gone away from +Rosebury in the summer. Primrose had lost the faint color which used +to tinge her cheeks; they were now almost too white for beauty, but +her eyes were still clear, calm, and sweet; her dress was still the +essence of simplicity and neatness, and her bearing was gentle and +dignified as of old. The alteration in Daisy was less apparent at this +moment, for she was stretched on two cushions in one corner of the +sitting-room, and with a warm rug thrown over her, and with the Pink +curled up in her arms, was fast asleep.</p> + +<p>"How cold it is, Primrose," repeated Jasmine; then, as her sister made +no reply, but went on calmly darning some stockings, she continued, "I +think you have really grown stingy. Why can't we have some more coal? +this is much too small a fire for weather with snow on the ground, and +a horrid, odious fog filling every corner."</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said Primrose, laying down her work, and stooping towards her +younger sister, who sat on the hearthrug, "I am keeping the coal to +put on until Daisy wakes. You know, Jasmine, we resolved not to run up +any bills, and I cannot get in any coal until Mr. Danesfield sends us +our next quarter's allowance—wrap my fur cloak round you, darling, +and then you will be quite warm."</p> + +<p>Jasmine shivered, but rising slowly, she went into the bedroom, and +returned in a moment, not with the fur cloak, but with a white woolly +shawl. "The day for Mr. Danesfield's money will arrive in less than a +week," she said. "Oh, Primrose! I thought you were going to be a good +manager; I did not think you were going to bring us to this."</p> + +<p>Primrose smiled.</p> + +<p>"Jasmine, dear," she said, "you are not quite brave to-night, or you +would not speak to me in that tone. You forget that we should not have +been short of money had not that five-pound note been stolen from us. +When Mr. Danesfield's allowance comes in we shall be able to go on as +usual, and then you need not suffer from a short allowance of fire. +Jasmine, I know what is the matter with you; you did not eat half +enough dinner to-day. When I was out this afternoon I called to see +Miss Egerton, and she gave me three delicious new-laid eggs—really +new-laid—we'll have them for supper."</p> + +<p>"No, we won't," said Jasmine, her eyes suddenly filling with tears, +and her pettish mood changing to a tender and very sad one—"those +eggs were given for Daisy, and no one else shall eat them. Do you +know, Primrose, that Miss Egerton does not think Daisy at all strong?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, she is mistaken," said Primrose. "No one who does not know her +thinks Daisy strong; she has a fragile look, but it is only her look. +All my courage would go if I thought Daisy were ill—she is not ill; +look at her now, what a sweet color she has on her cheeks."</p> + +<p>"Miss Egerton says she is like a little sister of her own," continued +Jasmine. Then she stopped suddenly. "Oh! Primrose, you are not going +to cry? oh, don't; it would be dreadful if you gave way! No, Primrose, +she is not like little Constance Egerton; she is just our own Daisy, +who never looks strong, but who is very strong—she shall never be +cold, and she shall have all the nourishment—you and I don't mind how +plainly we live, do we, Queen Rose?"</p> + +<p>Primrose had quickly wiped away her sudden tears. She rose to her +feet, and, going up to Jasmine, gave her a hasty kiss.</p> + +<p>"We'll remember our good old resolution," she said brightly, "not to +grumble, not to fret, not to cry. Ah! here is our dear little birdie +waking from her sleep. Now, Jasmine on with the coals, and let us have +a merry blaze while I see to the supper—porridge for you and me, and +a nice fresh egg and a cup of warm milk for the Daisy-flower."</p> + +<p>"The Pink must have some milk too," said Daisy, as she tumbled lazily +out of her soft nest of cushions; "the Pink isn't half as fat as she +used to be—I can feel all the bones down her spine—I know she wants +cream. Oh, Primrose! I had such a darling dream—I thought the Prince +came and found us!"</p> + +<p>"The Prince, Daisy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and he had the look of the gentleman we met long, long, long ago +at St. Paul's Cathedral! Oh, Primrose, I'm so tired of London!"</p> + +<p>"Never mind, darling," answered Primrose; "I'm always telling you you +are only seeing the shady side at present. Only wait till Christmas +comes, and Mr. Danesfield sends us our money."</p> + +<p>"I wrote another poem last night," said Jasmine; "I called it 'The +Uses of Adversity.' It was very mournful indeed; it was a sort of +story in blank verse of people who were cold and hungry, and I mixed +up London fogs, and attic rooms, and curtains that were once white, +and had now turned yellow, and sloppy streets covered with snow, with +the story. It was really very sad, and I cried a great deal over it. I +am looking out now for a journal which likes melancholy things to send +it to. I have not ventured to submit it to Miss Egerton, for she is so +dreadfully severe, and I don't think much of her taste. She will never +praise anything I do unless it is so simple as to be almost babyish. +Now 'The Uses of Adversity' is as far as possible formed on the model +of Milton's 'Paradise Lost'—it is strong, but gloomy. Shall I read it +to you after supper, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"If you like, dear," answered Primrose; "but why do you try to write +such very sad things, Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know; they suit me. Primrose, do you know of a very, very +melancholy periodical?"</p> + +<p>"Several of the periodicals seem to me rather melancholy," answered +Primrose; "there is one I sometimes see on Mrs. Dove's table—it is +called <i>The Watch</i>. I glanced at it one day, and I thought it seemed +very morbid."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know," answered Jasmine; "but there is a worse one than +that—Mrs. Dove showed it to me. Mrs. Dove is very fond of reading, +and she told me that she would not give a farthing for any literature +that could not draw forth the salt and bitter tear; she says the +magazine she likes best at present is a new one called <i>The Downfall</i>. +She says it is very little known, but its melancholy is profound. +Shall I send my verses to <i>The Downfall</i>, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"If you like, dear; but I don't at all admire the name, and I really +do not think Mrs. Dove ought to be your guide in such matters, +Jasmine."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she has very good taste," answered Jasmine; "she says that only +real talent is admitted on the staff of <i>The Downfall</i>. Of course I'd +rather write for one of the shilling magazines. Well, if you like, +I'll send my poem to one of them first."</p> + +<p>Before Primrose could answer Jasmine on this weighty point there came +a knock on the sitting-room door, and Mrs. Dove, with her face wrapped +up in a thick woollen shawl, entered the room.</p> + +<p>"Very sorry to disturb you, young ladies," she said, "but could you +oblige me with the loan of three and tenpence-halfpenny. Dove has put +in no appearance, and unless I can pay three and tenpence-halfpenny on +account to the baker he refuses positive to allow me sufficient bread +to see Sunday through."</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Dove made this request Primrose's face became intensely +pale. She was silent for half a minute, then she said—</p> + +<p>"I will lend you the money this time, Mrs. Dove, but please don't ask +me again; you know that at this present moment you owe me very nearly +two pounds."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, my dear Miss Mainwaring," answered Mrs. Dove, in a very +suave voice, as she hastily pocketed poor Primrose's few shillings. +"You are always obliging, and this, with the other trifle due, shall +be returned the moment Dove comes in—Dove is on a very good piece of +work just at present, and the money is as safe as safe. Oh, Miss +Jasmine, I have brought you this week's copy of <i>The Downfall</i>—the +serial in it is really of the most powerful order. I have shed a +deluge of tears over it. The lowest person of rank in the pages is a +marquess; but the story mostly deals in ducal families. It was a +terrible blow to come down to the baker from the duke's ancestral +halls—you read it, Miss Jasmine; you'll be very much overcome."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3>DOVE'S JOKE.</h3> + + +<p>Primrose had always been considered a very good manager. Her talents +for contriving, for buying, and, in short, for making a shilling do +the utmost that a shilling was capable of, had been observable from +her earliest days. In the last years of her mother's life Primrose had +been entrusted with the family purse, and the shopkeepers at Rosebury +had known better than not to offer this bright-looking young lady the +best that they had at the lowest price. Primrose, therefore, when she +came to London, had felt pretty confident that the talents which she +knew she possessed would stand her in good stead. She still hoped to +find the cheapest shops and to get the best for her money. She laid +her plans with accuracy and common sense, she divided the little sum +which the three had to live on into weekly instalments—she resolved +not to go beyond these. But, alas! Primrose had never reckoned on a +certain grave difficulty which here confronted her. Hitherto her +dealings had been with honest tradespeople; now it was her +misfortune, and her sisters', to get into a house where honesty was +far from practised. In a thousand little ways Mrs. Dove could pilfer +from the girls—she would not for the world have acknowledged to +herself that she would really steal; oh, no—but she did not consider +it stealing to use their coal instead of her own—of course, by +mistake; she by no means considered it stealing when she baked a +little joint for them in her oven on Sunday to boil it first, and in +this way secure a very good soup for various hungry young Doves; she +did not consider it stealing to so confuse the baker's account that +some of the loaves consumed by her children were paid for by Primrose; +nor did she consider it stealing to add water to the milk with which +she supplied the Mainwarings; above all things, and on this point she +was most emphatic, she thought it the reverse of stealing to borrow. +Primrose had not been a fortnight in her house before she began to ask +first for the loan of an odd sixpence, then for half-a-crown, for a +shilling here, and two shillings there. When she returned the +half-crown it was generally done in this fashion—</p> + +<p>"Oh, if you please, miss, I want to settle my little account. Oh, +dear, dear! I was certain I had half-a-crown in my purse. Well, to be +sure, I forgot that Dove took it with him when he went out to his +work this morning. Please, Miss Mainwaring, will you accept one and +sixpence on account, and we'll settle the rest in an hour or two. +There, miss, that's quite comfortable."</p> + +<p>Yes, the arrangement was certainly quite comfortable for Mrs. Dove, +who could score out the half-crown debt from her slate, and quite +stare when Primrose ventured to ask her for the odd shilling still +owing.</p> + +<p>Still, incredible as it may sound, Mrs. Dove considered herself a +strictly honest woman. Perhaps, had the girls only to deal with her +they might have struggled on, badly, it is true, but still after a +fashion. But, alas and alas! if Mrs. Dove considered herself honest, +Mr. Dove did not pretend to lay claim to this very excellent quality. +Poor Primrose little guessed that that lost five-pound note, which had +given her such trouble, and which had almost brought gray hairs to her +bright yellow head, had been really taken by Dove, who had come up to +the attics when the girls were away, had quietly taken the hinges off +Primrose's trunk at the back, had lifted the lid, and had helped +himself neatly and deftly to that solitary note!</p> + +<p>When the girls discovered their loss no one had been more indignant +than Dove. He had come up himself to speak to them about it, had +examined the trunk in their presence, had told them that he had a +cousin of his own in the detective business whom he would put on the +scent of the thief, and in the meantime he'd be very pleased, although +he was a remarkably poor man, to lend the young ladies ten shillings.</p> + +<p>Although they would not think of accepting his loan, the girls thought +that Dove had behaved rather kindly on this occasion, and they +certainly never in the least suspected it was into his pocket their +money had gone.</p> + +<p>Without being at all, therefore, to blame, poor Primrose found +herself, as Christmas approached, and the days grew short and cold, +with very little money in her possession; of course, her quarter's +allowance would soon be due, but some days before it came she had +broken into her last sovereign. Still, she had a resource which her +sisters had forgotten, and which, luckily for her, Dove knew nothing +at all about—she still had that letter of Mr. Danesfield's. She had +never opened it, but she always kept it safely locked up in her trunk. +Not for worlds would she yet break the seal—no, no, this letter was +meant for an hour of great need. Primrose fondly and proudly hoped +that that dark and dreadful hour would never approach and that, having +won success, she and her sisters might yet return the letter unopened +to its kind donor. In these dark days before Christmas she kept up her +heart, and worked hard at her china-painting, achieving sufficient +success and power over her art to enable her to produce some pretty, +but, alas! as yet unsaleable articles. Mr. Jones, her master, assured +her, however, that her goods must ere long find a market, and she +struggled on bravely.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, on the whole, Jasmine was more tried by her present life than +her sister. Jasmine's was a more highly-strung temperament; she could +be more easily depressed and more easily elated—hers was the kind of +nature which pours forth its sweetest and best in sunshine; did the +cold blasts of adversity blow too keenly on this rather tropical +little flower, then no expansion would come to the beautiful blossoms, +and the young life would fail to fulfil its promise. Jasmine was never +meant by nature to be poor; she had been born in Italy, and something +of the languor and the love of ease and beauty of her birthplace +seemed always to linger round her. She had talents—under certain +conditions she might even have developed genius, but in no sense of +the word was she hardy; where Primrose could endure, and even conquer, +Jasmine might die.</p> + +<p>The little sister, who was too young to acutely feel any change which +did not part her from Primrose and Jasmine, was, perhaps, the only one +of the three whose spirits were on a par with what they were in the +old Rosebury days; but although Daisy's little mind remained tranquil, +and she did not trouble herself about ways and means, nor greatly fret +over the fact that the skies were leaden, and the attic room foggy, +still Daisy also suffered in her rather delicate little body. She +caught cold in the London fogs, and the cold brought on a cough, and +the cough produced loss of appetite. The two elder sisters, however, +were scarcely as yet uneasy about her, and it was only Miss Egerton +who saw the likeness to little Constance growing and growing in +Daisy's sweet face. Thus Christmas drew near, and the girls had not +yet found their mission in life; they were by no means crushed, +however, nor was Primrose tired of repeating what she firmly believed, +that with the New Year some of the sunshine of London life would be +theirs.</p> + +<p>The quarterly allowance from Mr. Danesfield always arrived on the +first of the month. On the first of December this year the welcome +letter, with its still more welcome enclosure, was duly received. The +girls celebrated the event with a little breakfast feast—they ate +water-cresses, and Primrose and Jasmine had a sardine each to add +flavor to their bread and butter. Whatever happened, Daisy always had +her fresh egg, which she shared with the Pink, for the Pink had been +brought up daintily, and appreciated the tops of fresh eggs. On this +occasion Mrs. Dove herself brought up Primrose's letter. Letters came +so seldom to the girls that Mrs. Dove felt it quite excusable to gaze +very hard at the inscription, to study the name of the post town which +had left its mark on the envelope, and lingering a little in the room, +under cover of talking to Jasmine, to watch Primrose's face as she +opened the cover.</p> + +<p>"It is from Mr. Danesfield, is it not, Primrose?" exclaimed +Jasmine—"Oh, I beg your pardon, Mrs. Dove; no I didn't much care for +that new story which is begun in <i>The Downfall</i>."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dove had a habit of dropping little curtseys when she meant to be +particularly deferential—she now dropped three in succession, and +said in a high-pitched, and rather biting voice—</p> + +<p>"It isn't to be expected that the opinions of young ladies and of +women who have gone through their world of experience, and therefore +know what's what, should coincide. I leave you ladies three to read +your refreshing news from absent friends."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dove then turned her back, and meekly shutting the door behind +her, left the girls to themselves.</p> + +<p>"Them attics have become rather too uppish for my taste," she said to +Dove when she got downstairs. "I took them a letter just now, and, my +word! they had not eyes nor ears for me, though I toiled up all the +weary stairs, which my shortness of breath don't agree to. It wasn't +even 'Thank you very much, Mrs. Dove,' but all three of them, their +eyes was fixed on the letter as if they'd eat it. It's my belief, +Dove, that they're short of funds, for when I went yesterday to ask +for the trifling loan of tenpence three-farthings to pay the cobbler +for Tommy's boots, Miss Mainwaring said, as pretty as you please, but +very prim and firm—'I haven't really got the money, Mrs. Dove.' Well, +well, I've done a deal for those girls—elbow grease I've given them, +and thought I've given them, and books for the improving of their +intellecs I've lent them, and that's all the return I get, that when I +bring up a letter it isn't even 'Thank you, Mrs. Dove.' What I say is +this, Dove, shall I give the attics notice to quit?"</p> + +<p>"By no manner of means," answered Dove—"you mark my words, Mrs. Dove, +my only love, that why they were so flurried over the letter just +received was because there was money in it. Don't you turn away nice, +genteel, quiet-spoken young ladies from this house. There's most +likely a postal order in that letter, and my name ain't Dove if I +don't get my gleanings from it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, fie, Dove! you will have your joke," answered his wife; but she +said nothing further about giving the Mainwarings notice to quit.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3>DAISY'S PROMISE.</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Danesfield always forwarded the girls' allowance in such a way +that Primrose could easily obtain it—he did not trouble her with +cheques or bank notes, but sent a money-order, which she could cash at +the nearest post-office.</p> + +<p>The three went out gleefully that day, and obtained their much needed +money—then Primrose bought a new pair of boots for Daisy, and allowed +Jasmine to spend sixpence on scribbling paper. Having obtained this +delightful possession, Jasmine determined to begin her great work of +fiction without a moment's delay; she felt that she had listened quite +long enough to Miss Egerton's gentle warnings—that she had been +discouraged sufficiently, and that what she had really to do was to +prove the stuff which was in her, and to take the world by storm. She +hesitated a little as to whether her great work was to appear before +the world in the form of a novel or a poem. She thought that to +produce a second "Evangeline" would be a matter of but slight +difficulty, but on the whole she was inclined to give the world her +experience in the fiery and untrammelled words of prose.</p> + +<p>"My theme burns within me," she said to herself. "I won't be kept back +by metres or rhymes, or numbers of feet, or any of those tiresome +rules which Miss Egerton tries to instil into me. Oh, I shall be happy +over my work! I will forget that we are poor, and forget that we live +in attics. I will work with Miss Egerton in the daytime, and I will +help Primrose in her house-keeping, and take Daisy for a walk, but +morning and evening I will get into my Palace Beautiful, and write +away, and forget the sordid cares of life."</p> + +<p>The little maid had really a certain amount of genius to guide her, +and although all her ideas were crude and unpractised, she managed to +be happy in the castle which she built, and her dark eyes grew bright +once more, and her pretty face resumed its animated and contented +expression.</p> + +<p>Primrose, who worked very steadily at her china-painting, was much +cheered at this time with one or two small, but <i>bona-fide</i> orders for +work. They came not through Mr. Jones, who pocketed her money and +exhibited her wares in a dusty and uncertain fashion, but through Miss +Egerton, who was proving herself a real friend to the girls. Primrose +was immensely cheered by these little orders, and, in consequence, +Christmas Day—the girls' first Christmas Day without a home and a +mother—passed not uncheerfully. Things might have gone well with the +three but for an incident which occurred just at the beginning of the +New Year.</p> + +<p>One morning Daisy awoke shivering, and complaining of fresh cold. She +refused, however, to stay at home by herself, and begged of Jasmine to +wrap her up, and take her across to Miss Egerton's, but when the two +girls reached the kind mistress's door they were informed that she had +been suddenly sent for to the country, and would not be back until the +following day.</p> + +<p>"You must go back now, my pet," said Jasmine. "I'll take you back +myself, and I'll build up such a nice fire for you, and you shall look +at the dear old scrap-book which we made when we were all happy at +Rosebury."</p> + +<p>"I wish we were back at Rosebury," said little Daisy, in a very sad +and plaintive voice. "I don't think London is at all a cheerful place. +We made a great mistake about it, didn't we, Jasmine? Oh, Jasmine, +darling, you are not going to leave me by myself, for I really don't +feel well this morning."</p> + +<p>"I'll come back ever so quickly, Eyebright, but I really think I must +do Primrose's shopping for her, now that I am not going to Miss +Egerton. Primrose is working very hard at her china-painting order, +and it is not fair she should be interrupted. You won't be selfish, +will you, Eyebright? You know we arranged long ago that the way you +were to help matters forward was not to hinder us older girls in our +work."</p> + +<p>"I know," answered Daisy, with a patient sigh. "I won't be selfish, +Jasmine. Just kiss me before you go."</p> + +<p>Jasmine went away, and Daisy, taking the Pink into her arms, sat down +close to the fire. She was not exactly nervous, but she scarcely liked +to be left in the attics by herself. She wished Mrs. Dove would come +up, or even that Tommy Dove, who was a rude boy, and whom, as a rule, +she particularly disliked, would pay her a visit. Any company, however +she reflected, would be better than none, for she was feeling heavy +and depressed with her cold. The warm feel of the Pink's furry little +body, elapsed tightly in her arms, comforted her not a little. She +remembered with some satisfaction that Jasmine had locked the door, +and she began already to count the moments for her sister's return.</p> + +<p>An hour passed, and still Daisy listened for Jasmine's light and +springing step on the attic stairs.</p> + +<p>She was very tired now, and her head ached. She thought she would go +into the bedroom and, lying down on her little white bed, sleep away +the weary moments. Taking the Pink with her, she did so, wrapping the +counterpane well up over them both.</p> + +<p>In a very few moments the child was in a heavy slumber.</p> + +<p>She awoke, after what seemed to herself a very short nap, to hear +sounds in the bedroom. She stirred sleepily, and, opening her eyes, +said—</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jasmine, what a time you've been away!"</p> + +<p>No answer from Jasmine, but a smothered exclamation from some one +else; a heavy tread on the uncarpeted boards, and Dove, his face red, +his shoes off, and something which looked like a screw-driver in his +hands, came up and bent over the child.</p> + +<p>"Oh! what are you doing here, Mr. Dove?" exclaimed little Daisy. The +man bent down over her, and stared hard into her wide open blue eyes.</p> + +<p class="figcenter"><img src="./images/illus161.jpg" alt="THE MAN BENT DOWN OVER HER." title="THE MAN BENT DOWN OVER HER." /></p> +<p class="figcenter"><b>THE MAN BENT DOWN OVER HER.</b> Palace B.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know you was here, missie; it was very cunning of you to +feign sleep like that—it was very cunning and over sharp, but it +don't come round me. No, no; you has got to speak up now, and say what +you has seen, and what you hasn't seen. I allow of no nonsense with +little girls, and I can always see through them when they mean to tell +a lie. You know where the children who tell lies go to, so you'd +better speak up, and the whole truth, missie." Dove spoke in a very +rough voice, and poor Daisy felt terribly frightened.</p> + +<p>"I didn't see anything," she began, in her innocent way. "I was fast, +fast asleep. I thought you were Jasmine—Jasmine should have been back +long ago. I have a bad cold, and I was trying to pass the time by +going to sleep. I haven't seen anything, Mr. Dove."</p> + +<p>"Let me look into your eyes, miss," said Dove; "open them wide, and +let me look well into them."</p> + +<p>"Oh! you frighten me, Mr. Dove," said Daisy, beginning to cry. "I was +very lonely, and I'd have liked you to come up half an hour ago; but +you look so queer now, and you speak in such a rough voiced—what is +the matter? Perhaps you were bringing up some of those books for +Jasmine. Oh! I don't know why you should speak to me like that."</p> + +<p>Dove's brow cleared; he began to believe that the child had really +been asleep, and had not seen the peculiar manner in which he had been +employing himself for the last ten minutes.</p> + +<p>"Look here, miss," he said, "I don't mean to be rough to you, you +pretty little lady. Look here, what I was after was all kindness. I +only spoke rough as a bit of a joke. I has got some lollipops in my +pocket for a nice little maid; I wonder now who these yere lollipops +are for?"</p> + +<p>"For me, perhaps?" said Daisy, who, although she could not have +swallowed a sweety to save her life at that moment, had sense enough +to know that her wisest plan was to propitiate Dove.</p> + +<p>"You're fond of lollipops then, missie? you didn't think as 'twas +because poor Dove guessed that, that he travelled up all these weary +stairs? Kind of him, wasn't it? but you're real fond of lollipops, +ain't you, missy?"</p> + +<p>"Some kinds," answered Daisy, who was really a most fastidious child, +and who shrank from the sticky-looking sweetmeats proffered to her by +Dove. "I like the very best chocolate creams; Primrose brings them to +me sometimes, but they are rather expensive. Oh! and I like sticky +sweets too," she continued seeing an ominous frown gathering on Dove's +brow. "I'm very much obliged to you, Mr. Dove." Then making a great +effort, she put out her little white hand to take one of the sweeties.</p> + +<p>But Dove drew back quickly.</p> + +<p>"No, no," he said, "not till they're arned—by no means until they're +arned. You don't suppose as a poor man—a poor man with a large +family, and an only love of a wife—can afford to bring sweeties all +for nothing to rich little ladies like yourself. No, no, miss; you arn +them, and you shall have them."</p> + +<p>"But I'd rather not, please," said Daisy, "I'm not <i>very</i> hungry for +sweeties to-day on account of my cold, and I think, on the whole, you +had better keep them, Mr. Dove. Indeed, I don't know how to earn +them—Primrose and Jasmine say I'm too young to earn."</p> + +<p>Here Dove drew himself up to his full height, and stared hard at the +child.</p> + +<p>"There's one way of arning," he said, "and one only. Look you here, +Miss Daisy Mainwaring, you are young, but you ain't no fool. Ef you +please, miss, you has got to make me a promise—you has got to say +that you will never tell, not to Miss Primrose nor to Miss Jasmine, +nor to no one, that you've seen me in this room. I don't wish it to be +known. I has my reasons, and <i>whatever</i> happens, you are never to +tell. Ef you make me the promise true and faithful, why you shall have +the sweeties, and I'll stick up for you, and be your friend through +thick and thin. You'll have Dove for your friend, Miss Daisy, and I +can tell you he ain't a friend to be lightly put aside. But if you +ever tell—and however secret you do it, I have got little birds who +will whisper it back to me—why, then Dove will be your enemy. You +don't know what that means, and you won't like to know. I was my own +boy Tommy's enemy once, and I locked him up in the dark for +twenty-four hours, where no one could hear him screaming. Now, miss, +you had better make me your friend; I'm real desperate in earnest, so +you promise me."</p> + +<p>Daisy's face had grown deadly white, her breath came in gasps, her +eyes were fixed on the cruel man.</p> + +<p>"You promise me, miss?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, Mr. Dove."</p> + +<p>"That's right, missy. Now you say these words after me:—'Mr. Dove, I +promise never to tell as you came up to my room to give me the nice +sweeties. I'll never tell nobody in all the wide world, so help me, +God.'"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't like that last part," said little Daisy. "I'll say +it—I'll say all the words, only not the last ones, and I'll keep my +promise as true as true; only please, please, please, Mr. Dove, don't +ask me to say the last words, for I don't think it's quite reverent to +say them just to keep a secret about sweeties."</p> + +<p>"Well, missy, as you please. Now put your hands in mine, and say all +the other words."</p> + +<p>Daisy did so.</p> + +<p>"That's right, miss; now my mind's easy. I have got your promise, +miss, and I'll keep the little birds a-watching to find out if ever +you go near to breathing it. There's a dark cellar, too, most handy +for them children who turn out to be Dove's enemies, and <i>you</i> know +where the people who tell lies go to. Now, good-bye, miss—eat up your +sweeties."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<h3>A DELIGHTFUL PLAN.</h3> + + +<p>Neither Primrose nor Jasmine could quite understand their little +sister that night—her cold was worse, but that fact Primrose +accounted for by Jasmine's imprudence in taking her out; but what +neither she nor Jasmine could understand was Daisy's great +nervousness—her shrinking fear of being left for a moment by herself, +and the worried and anxious look which had settled down on her usually +quiet little face. Primrose determined to do what she had never done +yet since they had come to London—she would commit the unheard-of +extravagance of calling in a doctor.</p> + +<p>"I think Daisy is very feverish," she said to Jasmine; "only that it +seems impossible, I would say she has got some kind of shock, and was +trying to conceal something. You are quite sure that you locked the +door when you left her alone here this afternoon, Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," answered Jasmine, "and I found it locked all right when I +came back. I was rather longer away than I meant to be, for I did such +a venturesome thing, Primrose—I took my 'Ode to Adversity' to the +Editor of <i>The Downfall</i>. I saw him, too—he was a red-faced man, with +such a loud voice, and he didn't seem at all melancholy—he said he +would look at the poem, but he wasn't <i>very</i> encouraging. I told him +what Mrs. Dove said about his readers liking tearful things, and he +gave quite a rude laugh; however, I shouldn't be surprised if the poem +was taken; if it fails in that quarter, I must only try one of the +very best magazines. Oh, what was I saying about Daisy? I think she +was asleep when I came back—she was lying very quiet, only her cheeks +were rather flushed. Of course, Primrose, nothing happened to our +little Daisy; if there did, she would tell us."</p> + +<p>"I will send for the doctor, at any rate," said Primrose; "I don't +like her look. I will send for the doctor, and—and—"</p> + +<p>But Primrose's brave voice broke, and she turned her face away.</p> + +<p>Jasmine ran up to her, and put her arms round her neck.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Rose darling?—are you really troubled about Daisy? or +are you thinking of the expense? I wonder what a London doctor will +charge? Have you got any money to pay him, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"I've got Mr. Danesfield's money," said Primrose; "I have always kept +it for an emergency. I had hoped never to need it, but if the real +emergency comes it is right to spend it. Yes, Jasmine, I can pay the +doctor and you had better go down and ask the Doves the name of one, +for I don't know a single doctor in London."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Jasmine, "I'll run down at once."</p> + +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Dove were greatly concerned when they heard of Daisy's +illness—in especial, Mr. Dove was concerned, and expressed himself +willing to do all in his power for the sweet, pretty little lady. He +said he knew a doctor of the name of Jones, who was a dab hand with +children, and if the young ladies liked he would run round to Dr. +Jones's house, and fetch him in at once.</p> + +<p>Jasmine thought Mr. Dove very good-natured, and she expressed her +great gratitude to him for the trouble he was about to take, and +requested him to seek Dr. Jones and to bring him to see Daisy without +a moment's delay. Accordingly, in a very short time the doctor of +Dove's selection stood by Daisy's bedside and pronounced her to be +suffering from nothing whatever but a common cold, ordered some +medicine for her cough, and went away with the assurance that she +would be as cheerful as ever on the morrow. But Daisy was not cheerful +the next day; and day after day passed without bringing back either +her sweet calm, or any of the brightness which used to characterize +her little face. Daisy possessed in a certain degree Primrose's +characteristics, but she was naturally more highly strung and more +nervous than her eldest sister. After a little time her cold got +better, but her nightly terrors, the look of watchfulness and anxiety, +grew and deepened as the time wore on. Daisy's sweet little face was +altering, and Primrose at last resolved to dismiss Dr. Jones, who was +doing the child no good whatever, and to consult Miss Egerton about +the little one. It may be added that Primrose was able to pay Dr. +Jones's account without breaking into Mr. Danesfield's money.</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton from the very first had taken a great interest in the +girls, and when Primrose went to her, and told her pitiful little +story, the kind governess's eyes filled with tears.</p> + +<p>"My dear," she said, in conclusion, "whatever is or is not the matter +with that nice little sister of yours, I am sure she wants one thing, +and that is change. Now, I am not so greatly taken with those rooms of +yours, Primrose. You remember I paid you a visit at Christmas, and you +tried to show me all the beauties of your apartments. They were +neatly kept, dear, and were clean, and were furnished with some +little attempt at taste, but the ceilings were very low, the window +sashes fitted badly, and there was such a draught from under the +door—and, my dear child, now that you have come to me in confidence I +may as well tell you that I did <i>not</i> admire your landlady Mrs. Dove."</p> + +<p>"She is rather fond of borrowing money, certainly," said Primrose, +in a thoughtful voice, "but on the whole I believe she is +good-natured—she lends Jasmine books, and yesterday she baked a cake +herself for Daisy, and her husband brought it up to her."</p> + +<p>"All the same," repeated Miss Egerton, "I don't admire the woman. I +have never seen the man; but I would rather you were in a nice house. +Now I have a proposal to make. I too have got some attics—they are +quite as large as Mrs. Dove's, and can soon be made as cheerful. I can +also promise you that the windows will not shake, nor will a draught +as keen as a knife come in from under the door. My attics, however, I +grieve to say, are unfurnished. Now, my dear, what do you pay at Mrs. +Dove's?"</p> + +<p>"Twelve shillings a week," said Primrose.</p> + +<p>"That is a great deal for such rooms; I knew you were being imposed +upon. Now, I would let you have mine for five, only somehow or other +you must contrive to help me to furnish them. I can give you a carpet +for your sitting-room, and a warm rug for your bedroom floor, and I +believe I can supply you with bedsteads and beds, and there is a +famous deep cupboard in the sitting-room, and two in the bedroom where +you could easily keep all your clothes; but do you think you could +provide the rest of the furniture? I would help you to get it as cheap +as possible and would show you how to make old things look like new; +for, my dear, I've gone through the contriving experience a long time +ago. Now what do you say to my plan? You will not be cheated, you will +be cared for, and you will be in the house of a friend—for I want to +be your friend, my dear girl."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how kind you are!" said Primrose, her eyes glistening. "Yes, you +know how to give real help—the kind of help we girls want. I should +love your plan, but I must try and find out if we really have the +money. How much money will it take to put in very simple +furniture—just enough for us to go on with, Miss Egerton?"</p> + +<p>"You might manage it for ten pounds, dear, perhaps even for less, if +you have that sum by you; you will soon save it in your lowered rent. +Go home, and think it over, Primrose. I know Daisy will be much, much +better in my house than at the Doves'. Go and think about it, and let +me know what you decide to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Primrose thanked Miss Egerton, and went back to her lodgings with a +full heart. This offer from so good a friend had come, she felt, at +the right moment. Accept it she must; find the ten pounds she must; +and once again she thought with a feeling of satisfaction of Mr. +Danesfield's letter, and felt glad that she had been able to pay Dr. +Jones's bill without breaking into its contents.</p> + +<p>She went upstairs, and instantly told Jasmine of the proposed change.</p> + +<p>"But we can't do it," said Jasmine; "you know that we have not ten +pounds to spare."</p> + +<p>"I think," said Primrose, "that perhaps the time has come when we +should open that letter Mr. Danesfield put into my hand the morning we +left Rosebury. You know, Jasmine, how we determined to keep it, and +return it to him unopened some day if we possibly could; but we also +resolved to use it if a time of necessity really came—we resolved not +to be proud about this. You know, Jasmine, it has come over me more +than once lately that I have been headstrong in coming to London, only +I could not endure being dependent on any one."</p> + +<p>"Of course you could not, darling," said Jasmine. "I am certain you +have done right; of course we are rather depressed now with +difficulties, but I think yours was a grand plan. I have a kind of +feeling, Primrose, that our worst days are over; I think it more than +probable you will have a great run on your china-painting bye-and-bye, +and if <i>The Downfall</i> and the other magazines begin to wish for my +poetry, why, of course, I shall earn two or three guineas a week. I am +told that a guinea is not at all a large sum for a good poem, and I +have no doubt I could write two or three a week; and then my novel—it +is really going to be very good. Mr. Dove says that he would recommend +me to put it in a newspaper first, and then offer it to a publisher to +bring out as a book. I said I would only let my first work appear in a +very high-class newspaper. I never much cared for newspaper stories, +but I might put up with one of the illustrated weekly papers if it +paid me well. Yes, Primrose, I feel hopeful; and I have not the +smallest doubt that we can earn the ten pounds for our furniture very +quickly, so let us borrow the money out of Mr. Danesfield's letter. +But Rose, darling, how do you know there is any money in the letter? +You have never opened it and you can't see inside."</p> + +<p>"I've never opened it, certainly," said Primrose, "but from a hint Mr. +Danesfield gave me on the last day I saw him, I believe there are +three five-pound notes in the letter. Of course I am not sure, but I +am nearly sure."</p> + +<p>"Well, let us get the letter and open it," said Jasmine, "and then our +minds will be at rest. Oh! there is Daisy waking out of her nice nap. +Daisy, darling, would you not like to go and live at Miss Egerton's? +You know you are fond of Miss Egerton, and she is turning out a very +kind friend. Won't you like to live always in her nice house, Daisy +love?"</p> + +<p>Daisy's little face had flushed painfully when Jasmine began to talk, +now it turned white, and her lips trembled.</p> + +<p>"Are there—are there any little birds there?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Eyebright, what a silly question! Primrose had she not better +have her beef-tea. I think Miss Egerton keeps a canary, but I am not +sure."</p> + +<p>"I'd rather not have any little birds about," said Daisy, with great +emphasis, "and I'd greatly, greatly love to go. I like Miss Egerton. +When shall we go, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"In a day or two," said Primrose. "We have just got to buy a little +furniture, and I'm going to open my trunk now, and get a letter out +which I know has money in it. Yes, we'll very soon go away from here, +darling, and Miss Egerton has thought of this delightful plan +entirely to please you. She says you will be much, much better when +you are out of this house. Oh, Daisy! how bright your eyes look, and +how pleased you seem."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Daisy, "I am delighted; we need never walk down this +street again, need we, Primrose? and we need never to have anything to +say to the Doves, most particularly to Mr. Dove; not but that he's +very kind, and he's—oh, yes! he's my friend; yes, of course he told +me he was my friend, but we needn't ever see him again, ever, <i>ever</i> +again, Primrose, darling?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Daisy! what a funny child you are! If Mr. Dove is your friend, +why should you not wish to see him? He is not my friend, however; +indeed, I may say frankly that I don't like him at all. Now drink up +your beef-tea, darling."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<h3>THE POOR DOVES.</h3> + + +<p>The next morning early Primrose opened her trunk, and unlocking a +certain little morocco case, which contained her mother's letter about +her lost brother, one or two trinkets which had belonged to that same +mother, and Mr. Danesfield's envelope, she took the latter out of the +case, and slipped it into her pocket. After breakfast she went round +to see Miss Egerton.</p> + +<p>"An old friend," she said, "in the village where we lived—I would +rather not say his name—gave me this. I believe it contains money. I +have a kind of idea that it contains three bank notes for £5 each. I +have never opened it, and I never wish to. I meant to return it some +day to this kind friend—yes, I know he meant to be very kind. This is +what he has written on the outside of the envelope."</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton read aloud—"When you want me, use me; don't return me, +and never abuse me."</p> + +<p>"There must be money here, my dear," she said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know there is money," said Primrose, "for he wanted to press +fifteen pounds on me when I went to say good-bye; but I was too proud +to accept it, so now I think he has thought of this way of helping us. +We could buy our furniture out of some of that money, Miss Egerton."</p> + +<p>"Quite so, dear," said Miss Egerton, in a very cheerful voice. "Give +me the letter, Primrose, and I will put it carefully away for you; you +need not open it just at this moment. I will order just as little +furniture as possible, and have it sent in to-day, and then when the +bill comes you shall pay out of this envelope. I should not be +surprised if we did our furnishing for seven pounds; I thought of so +many nice, cheap little expedients last night. Now go home, dear, and +come to me again in the evening, and I will tell you what I have done. +I have no doubt I can have your rooms ready by to-morrow; is Daisy +pleased at the idea of coming?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she is delighted," said Primrose; "her dear little face quite +changed when I spoke about it. I am sure you are right, Miss Egerton, +and the change will do her lots of good."</p> + +<p>"I mean to make your attics quite charming," said Miss Egerton. "They +shall be converted into a kind of beautiful palace for my brave young +workers. Yes, Primrose, I admire your spirit, and if I can do anything +to aid you three girls to conquer fate, I will."</p> + +<p>The moment her school duties were over Miss Egerton went out. She +visited certain shops that she knew of—queer little, quaint, +out-of-the-way shops—quite pokey little places; but from their depths +she managed to extract one or two round tables, one or two +easy-chairs, a few brackets, which could be easily converted into +book-shelves, a certain sofa, with not too hard a back, a couple of +fenders, some fire-irons, some cups and saucers, some dinner plates. +These and a few more necessary articles she bought for what would have +seemed a ridiculously low figure to any one who was not in her secret. +The furniture was all conveyed to her neat little house that +afternoon, and there it was absolutely pounced upon by her willing and +hard-working servant who washed it, and scrubbed it, and rubbed it, +and polished it; and, finally, Miss Egerton purchased bright chintz, +and slipped it over the ugly little chairs, and covered up the +antiquated old sofa, and that very night a certain amount of her work +was got through, and the attics began already to look habitable.</p> + +<p>"I mean to do a great deal more," thought Miss Egerton; "fortunately +the paper is fresh and the paint clean; but I must put up two or three +pictures, and I shall fill these book-shelves with the books I used to +love when I was young. My own white sheep-skin rug shall go in front +of the fire. Daisy will like to see the Pink curling down into the +depths of that sheep-skin. Ah, yes! the girls shall have a good +time—a cosy, home-like time—in these rooms, if I can give it to +them."</p> + +<p>Then Miss Egerton went downstairs to meet Primrose with a smile about +her thin lips, and a serene, beautiful light in her kind eyes.</p> + +<p>"They are getting ready—the rooms are beginning to look charming, +dear," she said. "Oh no, you must not see them yet. It is my fancy not +to show them to you until they are quite ready, and I fear that won't +be until the day after to-morrow; but to-morrow, Primrose, you and +Jasmine and little Daisy may occupy yourselves packing your trunks."</p> + +<p>"It all sounds delightful," said Primrose. "You cannot think, Miss +Egerton, how cheered we all are at the thought of coming to you. As to +Daisy, I simply should not know her—she is a changed child. I told +the Doves that we were leaving as I went out this afternoon. They +looked rather cross, and Mrs. Dove asked for a week's rent, instead of +the usual notice. But I can manage to pay that nicely. I won't stay +now, dear Miss Egerton. I'm going round to see Mr. Jones about the +plates he was to try and sell for me, and then I shall hurry back to +Daisy."</p> + +<p>"Take her this fresh egg and this little sponge-loaf for her supper," +said Miss Egerton. "Now good-bye, dear. God bless you, dear!"</p> + +<p>"It is wonderful what kind friends we girls seem to meet at every +turn," thought Primrose to herself, as she hurried down the dirty, +sloppy street. "It would be very strange if we did not succeed with so +many people wishing us well. Oh! I feel in good spirits to-night. Even +if Mr. Jones has not sold the plates I shall not complain."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jones assured his industrious pupil when she entered his dark +little shop that he had "all but" got a customer for her. The customer +was a wealthy old gentleman, who had a passion for collecting china, +and, in special, liked the work of beginners. The old gentleman had +looked at Primrose's plates, and had said that they were very fine, +and had a certain crudity or freshness about them, which, for his +part, he took to; and if she had three or four more lessons he felt +morally certain that he would purchase her wares.</p> + +<p>"He's a splendid customer, but he was most explicit on the point of +more lessons, Miss Mainwaring," said Mr. Jones.</p> + +<p>"But you have found me so many 'all but' customers who just wished me +to have a few more lessons, Mr. Jones," said Primrose, smiling sadly.</p> + +<p>"None like the present man—none like the present man, my dear young +lady," answered Mr. Jones, rubbing his fat hands softly together. "A +man who likes crudity, and calls it freshness, ain't to be found every +day of the week, Miss Mainwaring."</p> + +<p>Primrose admitted this fact, and, bidding her teacher good evening, +without committing herself to any definite promise of taking further +lessons, she turned her steps homewards. Even Mr. Jones had scarcely +power to depress her to-night. She felt brave and bright, and all her +youth made itself manifest in her springing, elastic step. Now that +she was about to leave them, she felt horrified at the thought of +having lived so long with the Doves. Her sense of relief at the +thought of making her home with Miss Egerton was greater than she +could express.</p> + +<p>She entered the house, and came upstairs singing a gay air under her +breath.</p> + +<p>At the door of their attics she was met by Jasmine.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Primrose! I have been watching for you. I am so glad you have +come. I cannot think what is the matter with Daisy."</p> + +<p>"With Daisy?" echoed Primrose; "but I left her so bright two hours +ago."</p> + +<p>"She was bright an hour ago, Primrose; she was sitting on the floor +with the Pink in her arms, and laughing and chatting. I put on my +bonnet, and left her alone for about ten minutes while I ran round +the corner to get what we wanted for our supper, and when I came back +she was sitting with her hands straight before her in her lap, and the +Pink standing by her side, and looking into her face and mewing and +Daisy not taking a scrap of notice, but with her eyes fixed straight +in front of her in quite a dreadful way. When I went up to her and +touched her, she began to shiver, and then to cry, and then she said, +'oh Jasmine! we can't go away from here—we can't; oh, we can't! We +mustn't do it, Jasmine; we must stay here always, always!'"</p> + +<p>"Poor little darling!" said Primrose. "She must have had a bad dream; +certainly Miss Egerton is right, and her nerves are very much shaken +and she wants change as soon as possible. Is she in the bedroom, +Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Will you cook the supper, and I will go to her?"</p> + +<p>Jasmine nodded, and Primrose went straight into the other room. Her +little sister had once more flown to the Pink for consolation; she was +holding the little animal tightly in her arms, and was rocking herself +backwards and forwards, and sobbing under her breath.</p> + +<p>Primrose knelt down by her.</p> + +<p>"What is it, my own little darling?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing, Primrose," said poor little Daisy, raising her +tear-stained face; "nothing really, dear Primrose, only I don't like +to leave the poor Doves."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is that all?" said Primrose, in a very cheerful tone. "Why, +Daisy, you did not at all mind leaving them a couple of days ago; but +if you are really fond of them you can still see them occasionally, +for we are not going far away."</p> + +<p>"I don't wish to leave the poor Doves," repeated Daisy, bending down +over the Pink, and her tears falling afresh.</p> + +<p>"But, Daisy dear, how very funny of you to speak like this! You know, +darling, you must allow Jasmine and me to decide for you; we feel that +you will be much happier and much more comfortable with Mrs. Egerton. +Come, Daisy, these tears are very bad for you in your weak state. Let +me wash your face and hands, and take you into the other room to a +nice surprise supper sent by Miss Egerton."</p> + +<p>But Daisy only shook her head, and bent lower over her cat, and +repeated over, and over, and over:</p> + +<p>"I can't go away from Mr. and Mrs. Dove."</p> + +<p>Poor Primrose became really alarmed at last.</p> + +<p>"Daisy," she said, "there must be some reason for this sudden change +in your wishes. You were quite delighted at the thought of going to +Miss Egerton's an hour ago, when Jasmine was here; Jasmine went out, +and when she came back she found you in this state. Did you see +anybody while Jasmine was out?"</p> + +<p>"N—n—no—I mean—I mean I can't say. Don't ask me, Primrose. Oh, +Primrose, I'm such a miserable little girl! but please, please, please +don't take me away from the poor Doves."</p> + +<p>Daisy cried herself nearly into hysterics, and Primrose had at last to +pacify her by assuring her that they were not going away from the +Doves just yet.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>A STARTLING DISCOVERY.</h3> + + +<p>All through her dreams that night Daisy sobbed and moaned. Primrose, +lying awake by her side, felt more and more alarmed and concerned. +What was the matter with her little sister? She felt completely +puzzled. The bright little castle in the air she and Jasmine had been +building; the cheerful thought of the cosy rooms which the girls were +to share together in their friend's house; the dear delight of having +furniture of their very own again; all these very healthful and +natural dreams were fading and fading, for whenever Primrose even +alluded to their leaving their present quarters Daisy clutched her +hand, and looked at her with such pleading eyes, and used hurried +words of such anguished entreaty, that at last the eldest sister felt +obliged to say—</p> + +<p>"We will stay where we are, Daisy, until you wish to leave."</p> + +<p>Then the poor little thin face relaxed into a wan smile, the lids +drooped over the tired blue eyes, and the child slept more +peacefully.</p> + +<p>When Primrose felt her head, however, it was feverish, and her little +hands burned to the touch. She went into the next room and called +Jasmine.</p> + +<p>"Jasmine," she said, "I am going round to Mrs. Egerton's; I am going +to tell her all about Daisy's alarm and terror. I am going to consult +her, for I know she means to be a good friend to us. Jasmine, promise +me one thing—don't leave Daisy alone while I am out. I cannot in the +least understand how it happened, but I feel sure she must have got +some fright when you were out last night."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she couldn't have," answered Jasmine—"I locked the door after +me. I never leave Daisy alone without locking the door. I won't leave +her now, of course, Primrose—I will take my little writing table +close to her bedside, and if she wakes I can read her a part of my +novel."</p> + +<p>Primrose gave one or two more directions, and then hurried out, and +Jasmine, after she had washed up the breakfast things, and put the +little sitting-room perfectly tidy, moved her small writing-table into +the bedroom, and sat down by Daisy's side. She was in the scribbling +stage of her great work, and with her head bent low, her cheeks +flushed, and her fingers much stained with ink, was writing away with +great rapidity, when she was startled by some very earnest words from +the little sleeper.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, indeed, Mr. Dove—oh no, you may be quite certain. I know +where I'd go if I told a lie, of course, Mr. Dove. Yes, yes, you are +my friend, and I'm your friend—yes, yes."</p> + +<p>"Daisy, do wake up," said Jasmine; "you are talking such rubbish about +Mr. Dove, and about telling lies, and Mr. Dove being your friend—open +your eyes, Daisy, and let me give you such a nice little breakfast."</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Jasmine?" said Daisy—"I thought you were Mr. Dove—I +was asleep, and I was dreaming."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Eyebright, and talking in your dreams," said Jasmine, stooping +down and kissing her.</p> + +<p>Daisy held one of Jasmine's hands very tightly.</p> + +<p>"Did I say anything, Jasmine—anything that you shouldn't +hear—anything about—about sticky sweetmeats, Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"No, you silly pet, not a word. Now sit up in bed, and let me give you +your breakfast. Daisy, I really do think my novel is going to be a +great success. I am going to put Mr. Dove into it, and Mrs. Dove, and +Tommy Dove, and our dear old Poppy, and of course ourselves. One +reason why I feel so confident that the novel will be a success is +that <i>all</i> the characters will be sketched from the life."</p> + +<p>"But please don't put in about the Doves," said Daisy. "I think they +are such dread—I mean, of course, they are my friends, particularly +Mr. Dove, he's my real, real friend, but I mean that I don't think +they'd come well into a book, Jasmine—I don't think they're book +people a bit—book people should be princes and knights and lovely +ladies, and there should be no houses, and no attics, only there might +be fairy palaces, and all the little girls should be happy, and kept +safe from ogres—the little girls in the books shouldn't even have an +ogre for a friend. Oh, Jasmine, Jasmine! I'm so very miserable!"</p> + +<p>Daisy again broke into weak sobs, and poor Jasmine could scarcely +soothe her.</p> + +<p>A little before noon Primrose and Miss Egerton, and a tall, grave, +kind-looking man, who went by the name of Dr. Griffiths, and was a +great friend of Miss Egerton's, came up the stairs.</p> + +<p>Both Dove and his wife saw them go, and Dove shook his hand at Dr. +Griffiths, as that gentleman walked up the stairs. They all three went +into the attics, and the doctor had a long talk with the little +patient—he felt her pulse and her head, and looked into her eyes, and +tried to induce her to laugh, and did succeed in getting one little +startled and half-frightened sound from the child; then he went back +into the sitting-room, and had a long talk with Primrose and Miss +Egerton. The upshot of this was that Miss Egerton went sorrowfully +away, for the doctor absolutely forbade the girls to move from their +present quarters for another week or fortnight. At the end of that +time he said Daisy would be better, and might have got over the +foolish fancy which now troubled her, but for the time being she must +be yielded to, and at any risk kept easy in her mind.</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton went very sorrowfully away, and upstairs to the rooms she +meant to make so pretty.</p> + +<p>"There is no special hurry about the furnishing, Bridget," she said to +her servant. "Little Miss Daisy is too ill to be moved for the +present."</p> + +<p>"The men have come round to be paid for the bits of furniture, +leastways, ma'am," answered Bridget, "and the foreman from the other +shop is standing in the hall, and wants to know if you'll settle with +him now, or if he shall call again."</p> + +<p>"I'll settle with him now, Bridget. Dear Miss Primrose left some money +in my charge yesterday morning, and I can pay the man at once."</p> + +<p>One of the rules of Miss Egerton's life was never to leave a bill +unpaid for twenty-four hours, if possible—she hated accounts, and +always paid ready money for everything. She now ran downstairs, and +unlocking her desk, took out Mr. Danesfield's envelope. Primrose had +begged of her to open it when the bills came in, and pay for the +furniture—Primrose seemed to have an absolute prejudice against +unfastening that envelope herself.</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton opened it slowly now, smiling as she did so at the quaint +inscription on the cover. A folded sheet of paper lay within—she +spread the paper before her, expecting to see the three five-pound +notes folded within its leaves—blankness and emptiness alone met her +view—no money was inside the envelope—the whole thing was a cruel +fraud. The poor governess fairly gasped for breath—there lay the bill +for six pounds nineteen shillings which she had incurred, making sure +that she could meet it out of Primrose's money. Primrose had spoken so +confidently about her little nest-egg, and behold, she had not +any!—the envelope was a fraud—the girl had been subjected to a cruel +practical joke.</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton was extremely poor—it was with the utmost difficulty she +could make two ends meet. She thought hard for a minute—then her brow +cleared, and she rose to her feet.</p> + +<p>"Better I than those orphan girls!" she said, under her breath, and +then she went to her desk again, and filled in a cheque for the +amount.</p> + +<p>"I can do without my winter cloak, and my black merino dress will last +me for some weeks longer if I sponge it with cold tea, and re-line the +tail," she said to herself. "Any little privation is better than to +hurt the hearts of the orphan girls."</p> + +<p>She paid the man, who signed the receipt, and then she let him out +herself. As she did so a young man came hastily up the steps—he had a +bright face, and running up to the governess, he seized both her hands +in his.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Arthur, how glad I am to see you!" said Miss Egerton.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<h3>A BLESSING.</h3> + + +<p>Miss Egerton took Arthur Noel—for it was he—straight back into her +little sitting-room, and sitting down on her worn little horse-hair +sofa, and raising her eyes anxiously to the young man's face, she told +him the story of the attic upstairs, of the furniture she had +purchased, of the girls she had meant to serve. She showed him, with +hands that trembled, the envelope with its queer inscription, and she +unfolded for his benefit the empty sheet of blank paper. She told her +story at once without any reservation, even relating with a little +hasty blush how she felt obliged to pay for the furniture herself.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Arthur Noel was the only person in the world to whom she would +have made this confession; for she was one of those who made it a +practice never to let her right hand know what her left did, but she +had known Arthur from his boyhood, and he was one of those men who +inspire trust and sympathy at a glance.</p> + +<p>He listened to the story with interest, and even excitement—he was +naturally enthusiastic, but even Miss Egerton had never seen him so +perturbed and so moved as he was at present.</p> + +<p>"I know about those girls," he said at last; "what are their names?—I +am sure I know about them. Nay, let me ask you a question—Is not one +called Jasmine? Has she not a piquant face, and very soft and yet +bright eyes, and a great lot of curly brown hair? Yes, Miss Egerton, I +am sure the girls you speak of are in a certain sense <i>my</i> girls; for +if they are the ones I mean I took them under my protection long ago."</p> + +<p>"Their name is Mainwaring. My dear Arthur, where and how have you met +them? My dear boy, I fully believe, I have always believed, in your +good intentions, in your wish to do your utmost for every one; but if +you have really known Primrose, and Jasmine and Daisy, and have taken +them, as you say, under your protection, I must say that of late you +have lost sight of them—you have not been as kind as you generally +are to people in difficulties, for I never met three more absolutely +friendless girls than these."</p> + +<p>"It was a good Providence sent me here this morning," said Noel. "You +are quite right, Miss Egerton; I did lose sight of the children. I +tried to follow them, but they managed to hide themselves most +effectually. Think of my coming up to see you this morning, with a +message from Mrs. Ellsworthy, and finding that our lost lambs are all +but safe in your kind fold. How relieved my dear mother-friend will +be!"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ellsworthy is the kindest and best of women," said Miss Egerton; +"I will receive your message presently, Arthur, but you puzzle me more +and more when you tell me that she too knows my girls. I came across +them quite accidentally. They called to ask me to give Jasmine lessons +in English composition, and I took a fancy to them, and, in +particular, felt drawn to the little one—for she reminded me of—, +but no matter! The girls have been in and out of my house ever since. +I saw that they were fearfully independent, but in many trivial ways I +tried to help them. Well, Arthur, it is most surprising—it is +altogether incomprehensible, but never during the months we have been +seeing each other daily have they alluded to you or the Ellsworthys. +They seemed perfectly unconstrained, and chatted many times of their +cottage home in the country, but they never spoke of the Ellsworthys."</p> + +<p>"They would not be likely to do," answered Noel. "I think, Miss +Egerton, I must now tell you Mrs. Ellsworthy's and my side of the +story."</p> + +<p>Certainly Miss Egerton appeared to neglect her duties that morning; +fortunately, her school had not yet re-opened, but Bridget waited for +orders, and the tradesman left the house unattended to. Bridget knew +that Miss Egerton was always greatly taken up with Mr. Noel, and she +had to admit that he was a bonny-looking young man with a pleasant +face; but Bridget hitherto had given her mistress credit for always +putting duty before pleasure. What, therefore, did her present neglect +of household management mean?</p> + +<p>Arthur Noel had a long story to tell, and Miss Egerton listened, +weighing each point, and not giving too undue sympathy to either +party. Noel was of course enthusiastic in Mrs. Ellsworthy's cause, and +announced his intention of going to see her that very day.</p> + +<p>"She is in town," he said; "and if you give me the girls' address I +can bring her to them this afternoon."</p> + +<p>But here Miss Egerton laid her thin hand on the young man's arm.</p> + +<p>"No, Arthur, I won't betray their secret, poor little dears! they may +have been headstrong, and silly, and rash, and, poor children, they +may fail utterly, but they have not failed yet by any means, and if +they wish not to be tempted into a luxurious and dependent life, even +by the kindest friend, I, for one, will stand by them. You have come +on me by accident, Arthur, and have learned about the girls by +accident; you have no right to tell what you have thus discovered. I +have studied those girls' characters and I know that Primrose at least +would die of a broken heart if her independence were taken from her. +No, Arthur; if you wish really to help them you must put them in the +way of earning their own living, and in this manner the Ellsworthys +can doubtless assist, for they are rich, and have influence."</p> + +<p>Then Miss Egerton and her guest had another long and earnest +discussion, at the end of which time a compromise was arrived at. Noel +might tell the Ellsworthys that he and Miss Egerton knew where the +girls lived, and the Ellsworthys might give in-direct help by aiding +him in his efforts to find suitable work for Primrose and Jasmine—he +too, could be their open and acknowledged friend, and he arranged with +Miss Egerton to call and see them that very afternoon.</p> + +<p>Finally, Miss Egerton again drew his attention to the envelope, which +was only given to mock, as it contained nothing but blank paper.</p> + +<p>Noel examined it carefully.</p> + +<p>"This must have been given to the girls by Mr. Danesfield, the banker +at Rosebury," he said. "I know him well; he is the last person who +would play them such a trick. Don't you think, Miss Egerton it is +quite possible that this envelope may have been opened, and the money +removed?"</p> + +<p>"But the envelope does not look tampered with," answered Miss Egerton, +turning it round, and examining it carefully.</p> + +<p>"Thieves are very clever," answered Noel. "It is easy to open an +envelope by holding it over steaming water."</p> + +<p>"But Primrose always kept this letter locked up in her trunk."</p> + +<p>"Well, I will settle the point by writing direct, and in strict +confidence, to Mr. Danesfield. In the meantime let us say nothing to +Miss Mainwaring; and you will let me pay for the furniture, kind +friend."</p> + +<p>But Miss Egerton's face flushed brightly, and she drew back a step or +two.</p> + +<p>"No, my dear boy, I cannot. Since I drew that cheque I have felt +strangely happy. I think this very small act of self-denial will bring +me a blessing, and I don't wish to be deprived of it. Good-bye, +Arthur; come to see me again at three, and I will take you to my +girls."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<h3>VOICE OF THE PRINCE.</h3> + + +<p>Daisy felt quite certain that the Prince had come. Jasmine greeted her +old friend of St. Paul's Cathedral with sparkling eyes and effusive +words of welcome. Primrose, too, was very pleased to see any one who +brought such a contented look into Daisy's little face, for the child +asked herself to sit in his arms, and laying her head on his shoulder, +she listened with pleasure to some wonderful fairy stories which he +related. While Noel was by, Daisy seemed quite to forget her nervous +fancies—she even spoke confidentially of ogres who tried to make +themselves friendly, and she asked Arthur, with a very puzzled, +anxious face, if a little girl, who was so unfortunate as to have an +ogre for a friend, could ever get rid of him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; he might turn into an enemy," answered Arthur.</p> + +<p>But here poor Daisy shuddered violently, and turned very white.</p> + +<p>"No, no," she said; "not into an enemy, never into an enemy, dear Mr. +Arthur."</p> + +<p>"What matter is it to you, little maid?" answered Arthur cheerily, +though he regarded her with very keen observation. "There is no ogre +going to trouble you as either friend or enemy; If he does he will +have to meet me. I am the Prince, you know, and my mission in life is +to slay the wicked ogres."</p> + +<p>"Oh! but his poor wife and his children!" half sobbed Daisy; "couldn't +you lock him up in a tower, dear Prince?"</p> + +<p>Arthur smiled, and gradually managed to lead the child's thoughts into +another direction. He was already gaining the greatest possible +influence over her, and he managed, on the occasion of his second +visit, to coax her to let him carry her across to Miss Egerton's for a +couple of hours. Dove met them as Arthur was carrying the child away, +and he first scowled, and then smiled obsequiously. Daisy turned +deadly white, and Noel felt that she trembled.</p> + + + +<p class="figcenter"><img src="./images/illus321.jpg" alt="DOVE MET THEM." title="DOVE MET THEM." /></p> +<p class="figcenter"><b>DOVE MET THEM.</b> Palace B.</p> + +<p>"I'm coming back to-night, Mr. Dove," she called out, in a shaky +little voice; and Dove answered—</p> + +<p>"Pleased to hear it, missy; the attics would be lonesome without you, +missy."</p> + +<p>"Daisy," whispered Noel, "tell me something—is Dove the ogre?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't, don't, Mr. Prince!" answered back the child. "No, no, of +course not; why, he's only poor Mr. Dove—a friend of mine."</p> + +<p>When Daisy reached Miss Egerton's and found herself seated in that +lady's cosy little drawing-room, with sponge-cakes <i>ad libitum</i> to +eat, and Noel sitting by and willing to give up all his time to her +benefit, she cheered up wonderfully; a faint color came to her white +little cheeks, and Miss Egerton, as she passed the open drawing-room +door, heard one or two silvery peals of laughter coming from her lips.</p> + +<p>"Bless the child!" thought the kind woman; "how much better she is +when she is out of that house. What nice influence that good fellow, +Arthur, has over her. I do trust the silly little one will soon give +up her fancies—for they surely can be nothing but fancies—and come +to live with me."</p> + +<p>But when the twilight fell Daisy ceased to laugh, the anxious and +troubled look returned to her face, and after a time she said to +Arthur, in her pretty coaxing way—</p> + +<p>"Take me home now, please, Mr. Prince."</p> + +<p>Two days afterwards Noel called at the girls' lodgings Daisy alone was +in, but to all his entreaties she now turned a deaf ear. No, she did +not want to go out; she would rather stay in her own dear, nice old +attics; she was never so happy anywhere as in her own attics. She was +very fond of Miss Egerton, but she did not think she would like to +live with her. Miss Egerton kept a bird, and Daisy had a great +dislike to birds.</p> + +<p>"Please, Mr. Prince," she said, in conclusion, "stay with me here for +an hour or two, and tell me a beautiful story."</p> + +<p>Noel was rather clever at making up impromptu stories, and he now +proceeded to relate a tale with a moral.</p> + +<p>"There was a kind lady who had prepared lovely +guest-chambers—beautiful they were, and worthy of a palace."</p> + +<p>Here Noel stopped, and looked hard at his little listener.</p> + +<p>"Do you know why they were so lovely, little maid?"</p> + +<p>"No; please tell me, Mr. Prince. Oh, I am sure this is going to be a +real true fairy tale—how delicious!" and Daisy leaned back on her +sofa with a sigh of content.</p> + +<p>"The rooms were beautiful, Daisy," continued Arthur "because the walls +were papered with Goodness and the chairs, and the tables, and the +carpets, and the sofas, and the thousand-and-one little knick-knacks, +were placed in the rooms by Self-Denial, and the windows were polished +very brightly by Love herself, and she kept the key which opened the +chamber doors."</p> + +<p>"How sweet!" said Daisy.</p> + +<p>"Yes; there were two rooms, and they were very sweet. To live there +meant to get into an abode of peace. As to ogres, they would fall down +dead on the threshold of such rooms. There were only two, and they +were up high in a small house, and without the gilding and the glory +which I spoke of they would have seemed humble enough, but to those +who knew their secret, and what their owner had done for her expected +guests, they appeared a very Palace Beautiful. Now, Daisy, I must tell +you something so sad. The rooms were ready, but the guests did not +arrive. Three guests were expected, but the kind lady who had prepared +the rooms, who had papered them with Goodness, and furnished them with +Self-Denial, and brightened them with Love, waited and longed for her +visitors in vain.</p> + +<p>"Two of the visitors were most anxious to come, but one—a little +one—although she looked very gentle and had a sweet expression and +blue eyes, and seemed quite the sort of little girl who would not +willingly hurt a fly, held back. It never entered into her head that +she was selfish, and was making two or three people who loved her both +anxious and unhappy. She preferred to live in rooms which, by +comparison, were like dungeons; for the owners had never put Love into +them, and had never thought of Self-Denial in connection with them. +There, Daisy-flower, I have done. It seems a pity that the little girl +should have been so selfish, does it not?"</p> + +<p>"But how does the story end, Mr. Arthur? You have really only just +begun."</p> + +<p>"I only know the beginning, Daisy," said Noel, as he rose to leave. "I +have not an idea whether that Palace Beautiful will ever receive its +visitors, whether that kind lady will ever be made happy, or whether +that little girl will ever cease to be selfish."</p> + +<p>A few moments afterwards Noel went away, and poor Daisy turned her +face to the wall and wept.</p> + +<p>Of course, the very obvious moral had hit her hard, poor little maid! +Oh! if she could really only confide in Arthur—he was so nice and +strong, and he looked so contemptuously at Mr. Dove that day when he +was carrying Daisy across the road to Miss Egerton's.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe he would be afraid of Mr. Dove," she whispered +softly, under her breath. "Oh dear! why am I so terribly frightened? +Why does he make my heart beat? and why do I shake so when I see him? +Well, I'll never tell about his bringing me up the sticky +sweetmeats—of course I'll not tell. I promised I wouldn't; it would +be dreadful to break one's promise. Of course I know where people go +who break their promises. No, I promised Mr. Dove, and I must always, +and always, and always keep my word; but I did not promise him that +I'd stay here. He wanted me to, and I just had it on the tip of my +tongue, for I was dreadfully frightened, but he heard a noise, and he +went away. I'm so glad I didn't promise, because the Prince says I +should go and live in the Palace Beautiful. He thinks I'm a selfish +little girl. Oh dear! how terrified I shall be, but I won't be a +selfish little girl, and keep Primrose and Jasmine away from the +Palace, and break the kind lady's heart. I must try and write a very +private little note to Mr. Dove, and tell him that though I am going +away I'll always and always keep my word about the sweeties, and I'll +always be his truest of friends, although I do fear him more than +anything in the world."</p> + +<p>Here Primrose came in, and poor little Daisy roused herself, and tried +to talk cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"Primrose," she said, "do you mind my writing a letter which nobody is +to see?"</p> + +<p>Primrose laughed.</p> + +<p>"You funny pet!" she said; "if no one is to see the letter why do you +trouble to write it?"</p> + +<p>"I only mean, Primrose," continued Daisy, "that you are not to see it, +nor Jasmine, nor Miss Egerton, nor Mr. Noel. It is to—to somebody; +but you are not to be curious, Primrose, nor to ask any questions. +It's a most terribly important letter, and when it's written I'm going +to put it in the post myself. I'll go out with you, and you must turn +your back when I drop it into the pillar-box. You'll be very happy +when it's written, Primrose, and I'm doing it for you and Jasmine, and +because I won't be a selfish little girl."</p> + +<p>Primrose stooped down and kissed Daisy.</p> + +<p>"You may write your letter and post it," she said, "and I'll try not +to be the least bit curious, Eyebright. Now sit down and write away, +you have a nice quiet hour before Jasmine comes in to tea."</p> + +<p>"So I have," answered Daisy; "thank you, Primrose. Please don't say +anything to me when I'm writing."</p> + +<p>Then Daisy in her corner blotted her fingers, and brought a deep flush +to her little pale face, and ruined several sheets of note-paper, all +of which she carefully tore up to the smallest fragments. At last an +epistle, over which she sighed and trembled, and even dropped tears, +was finished. It ran as follows:—</p> + +<p>"MY DEAR FRIEND, MR. DOVE,—I always and always will be most true to +you. I would not be such a wicked little girl as to break my word for +anything I'm going always to keep it, and tortures, even the +Inquisition, and even the rack, wouldn't get it out of me. Did you +ever hear of the rack, Mr. Dove? but perhaps you had better not know. +Yes, I'll always keep my word, the word that I promised, and no one +shall ever know about you and me and the sticky sweetmeats; but I +won't keep the word that I didn't promise. You remember how you wanted +me to give you another word that I'd always stay here, and keep +Primrose and Jasmine here, instead of letting them go and going with +them to the Palace Beautiful. I almost promised you, for you looked so +fierce, and your eyes were so bloodshot, and cruel, and terrible, and +I'd great work to keep remembering that you were really my friend; but +I'm so glad I did not give you that word too, for now I know that I'd +have done very wrong. A Prince has come to me, Mr. Dove, and told me I +am very selfish to try to keep my sisters out of the Palace Beautiful. +He says the walls are covered with Goodness and the furniture is put +there by Self-Denial, and the windows are shining because Love has +polished them up. He says there's no Love and no Goodness here, and he +calls your rooms dungeons. He's a very, very strong Prince, and he +kills ogres—he even kills ogres who are friends to little girls. +Please, Mr. Dove, this is to say that I'm going away to the Palace +Beautiful, and that I'll always keep my word about the sweeties.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Your true little friend,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">DAISY."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Then Daisy fastened her letter, and directed it to Mr. Dove, No. 10, +Eden Street, and she asked Primrose for a stamp, and then she and her +eldest sister went out, and Primrose turned her back while Daisy +dropped the letter into the nearest pillar-box.</p> + +<p>The moment this was done the child gave a little skip, and caught +Primrose's hand, and squeezed it hard, and said, in an excited voice—</p> + +<p>"Now I've done it! I'm not going to be the selfish little girl who +breaks people's hearts. Primrose, darling let us hurry back to the +dungeons, and put all our things together, so that we may reach the +Palace Beautiful to-night."</p> + +<p>Poor Primrose, who was not in Daisy's secret, and knew nothing of +Arthur Noel's allegory, was conscious of a momentary wild fear that +her little sister had taken leave of her senses; but she soon began to +see meaning in Daisy's words, and was only too glad to yield to the +child's caprice at once.</p> + +<p>That very night, therefore, Miss Egerton's nice rooms were occupied, +and that good lady laid her head on her own pillow with a light and +thankful heart.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for Daisy, Dove was out while the packing was going on, +and only Mrs. Dove, with a very black scowl on her face, saw the girls +drive away in a four-wheeler. She refused to say good-bye to them, +and was heard to mutter that the "ongratitude of some folks was past +enduring."</p> + +<p>"Here, Dove," she said, when late that night her lord and master came +in, "those pretty young ladies as you thought so much of—'the attics' +I called them, and always will call them—well, they're gone. They had +a four-wheeler, and off they've gone, bag and baggage. For my part I +ain't sorry, for now that them attics are painted up and cleaned, +which they did out of their own money, I may be able to rise my rent. +Those young ladies and I couldn't have kept together much longer. +Disobliging, I call them—disobliging, and shabby, and mistrustful; +it was only this morning I asked Miss Mainwaring for the loan of seven +and sixpence, and she up and said, 'I'm sorry I can't oblige you, Mrs. +Dove.' Those kind of young ladies don't suit me, and I'm thankful +they're gone. Why, Dove, how you do stare!—there's a letter waiting +for you on the table."</p> + +<p>Dove took up his letter and read it carefully once or twice; after his +second reading he put it into his pocket, and turned to his wife—</p> + +<p>"They've gone round to Miss Egerton's; isn't that so, my love?"</p> + +<p>"Who do you mean by 'they,' Dove?"</p> + +<p>"The three young ladies, of course."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I suppose so; but I neither know nor care—I wash my hands of +them from this day forward!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, look here, Mrs. Dove, my love," said the husband, "I +<i>don't</i> wash my hands of them—no, not by no means. It's all right if +they're gone to Miss Egerton's—there are trap-doors in the roof at +Miss Egerton's; I know the build of the house. There are trap-doors in +the roof, and quarter-day is coming on, Mrs. Dove, my only love!"</p> + +<p>"Law, Dove! you have a most startling way of saying them poetic +lines," answered his wife.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<h3>A "CONTINUAL READER."</h3> + + +<p>A few days after the girls were comfortably settled in their new +quarters Primrose went out. She went out all alone, for by this time +London streets and London ways were familiar to her. Neatly and very +quietly dressed, with the usual serene light on her sweet face, and +that dignity about her whole bearing which prevented any one from ever +being rude to her, she went, not to her china-painting as usual, but +simply to take exercise in the London streets.</p> + +<p>The fact was, Primrose wanted to be alone—she wanted to think out a +problem. She was beginning to be perplexed, and even slightly alarmed. +Her alarm was not caused at present by anything in connection with +Daisy, for Daisy seemed almost bright and well again; but money +matters were not too prosperous with the young housekeeper, the life +of independence she had hoped to attain for herself and her sisters +seemed to recede from her view day by day—the china-painting brought +in no apparent results; Mr. Jones never did anything except "all but" +get customers—the quarter's allowance from Mr. Danesfield looked +smaller and more inadequate to Primrose the more her experience in +expenses grew, and now something about Miss Egerton added to her +cares. It seemed to Primrose that Miss Egerton was holding back +something—she had always been frank and open with the girls, but when +Primrose asked her how much their furniture had cost, and whether she +had opened Mr. Danesfield's letter to pay for it the good lady's brow +had grown troubled, and she had replied—</p> + +<p>"I am busy to-day—I will go fully into the matter presently, +Primrose;" but when morning after morning Miss Egerton was still too +busy to go into the question, Primrose began to have nameless little +fears, and had to scold herself for being fanciful and nervous.</p> + +<p>On this afternoon she walked quickly, and without being herself aware +of it she presently found herself in the neighborhood of Regent's +Park, and at last not very far from Penelope Mansion. She was thinking +hard, and paying little attention to any of the objects that met her +eyes, when she was suddenly pulled up short by a round and hearty +voice, a fat hand was laid on her shoulder, and she found herself face +to face with Mrs. Dredge.</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear, how are you, Miss Mainwaring? Oh, yes, I'm delighted +to see you. You did give us the slip, you and your pretty sisters. I +don't think Mrs. Flint quite liked it; we all questioned her, me, and +Miss Slowcum, and Mrs. Mortlock, and we said, 'At any rate give us +their address, Mrs. Flint—we take an interest in them—they are +pretty-spoken young ladies, and they were a credit to the +establishment.' But Mrs. Flint only frowned and bit her lips, and +colored. Then Mrs. Mortlock put her foot in it as far as Miss Slowcum +was concerned, for she said 'I'm sorry the girls from the country have +departed, and that they found us so disagreeable that they had to do +it unbeknown and quiet, for it was a real pleasure for ancient females +like ourselves to have young and bonny creatures about us.'</p> + +<p>"Miss Slowcum got very stiff at this, for she apes youth, my dear, in +a way that's past belief, and Mrs. Mortlock had her little fling on +purpose. Well, dear, and how are you? You look thin to what you were, +and a bit pale. How is that pretty little sister of yours who wanted +the cheap lodgings, that was to be so clean you might eat on the +floor?"</p> + +<p>"We are all fairly well, Mrs. Dredge," replied Primrose, when she +could edge in a word—for Mrs. Dredge was extremely voluble—"we are +fairly well, only Daisy has been suffering from cold. We have got +clean rooms too, thank you, Mrs. Dredge."</p> + +<p>"Well now, dear, I'm glad to hear it; that pretty child amused me when +she spoke of cheapness and cleanliness going hand in hand. Bless her +little heart! little she knew.</p> + +<p>"We have learned a great many things we knew nothing about six months +ago Mrs. Dredge," answered Primrose, a tinge of sadness in her voice. +"Yes, I am very glad to see you again—please, remember me to all the +ladies at Penelope Mansion."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear, they'll be glad to hear I met you—even Miss Slowcum +will, though she's a little bitter on the subject of age; and as to +that poor Sarah Maria, or Sarah Martha—I forget which she is, only I +know she's Sarah, with something tacked to the end of it—why, she'll +be fairly skipping with delight. That poor girl, she just worships the +ground you three young ladies walk on."</p> + +<p>"Oh, do give our dear love to Poppy," said Primrose tears springing to +her eyes.</p> + +<p>Those sudden tears did not escape the notice of fat, good-humored Mrs. +Dredge.</p> + +<p>"I hope you're getting on comfortably in every way, dear," she said, +"money matters and all. I had sore worries myself in the money line +until poor Dredge made his fortune in the chandlery business. My dear, +I was almost forgetting to tell you that we've had an affliction at +the Mansion."</p> + +<p>"I'm very sorry," began Primrose.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, and it's an affliction which is likely to continue, and to +grow heavier. It's poor Mrs. Mortlock, dear—I'm afraid she's losing +her sight, and very troublesome she'll be, and a worry to us all when +it's gone, for poor woman, she has a passion for politics that's +almost past bearing. Miss Slowcum and me, we take turns to read her +the papers now, but though our throats ache, and we're as hoarse as +ravens, we don't content her. Mrs. Mortlock is looking out for what +she is pleased to call a 'continual reader,' dear, and what I'm +thinking is that perhaps you or your sister would like to try for the +post—I believe you'd suit her fine, and she can pay well, for she's +fairly made of money."</p> + +<p>Primrose colored. To read to Mrs. Mortlock was about the last +occupation she would have chosen, but the thought of the purse at home +which was getting so sadly light, and the feeling that after all her +efforts she might never do much in the china-painting line, caused her +to reflect anxiously.</p> + +<p>"May I think about it and let you know, Mrs. Dredge?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, my dear, not by any means, for she has advertised, and they +are pouring in. Poor Sarah Susan is almost off her head answering the +door to them. Stout readers and thin readers, old readers and young +readers, they're all flying to the post, as if there were nothing in +life so delightful as being 'continual reader' of politics to poor +Mrs. Mortlock. She ought to have been suited long ago, but I've a +strong hope that she isn't, for she's as fidgety and particular as if +she were a countess. Your best chance, dear, is to come straight home +with me—we'll see Mrs. Mortlock on the spur of the moment, and try +and arrange it all."</p> + +<p>In this way Primrose obtained her first situation, for Mrs. Mortlock +was glad to feel her soft young hand, and her gentle and refined tones +had an instant and soothing effect on the poor lady's irritable +nerves.</p> + +<p>"My dear," she said, "what with rasping voices, and piping voices, and +droning voices, to say nothing of voices that were more like growls +than anything else, I felt nearly demented. Yes, Miss Mainwaring, this +is a sore affliction that has befallen me, and I knew there was +nothing before me but the services of a 'continual reader,' for poor +Mrs. Dredge, though she did her best, was decidedly thick in her +utterance; and Miss Slowcum, oh dear! the affectations of Miss Slowcum +were quite beyond me, besides our differing altogether in politics—me +holding for Gladstone, and she fairly hating the poor man. You'll do +very well, Miss Mainwaring, and I hope you'll study your papers well +while you're at home, so that you may know what you are reading about, +and read intelligent accordingly. I always like both sides of the +question, which was my poor husband's habit, for he was a very +intelligent man, Miss Mainwaring. And then I like my bit of gossip and +my Court news. I adore my Queen, Miss Mainwaring, and it is a real +<i>bonâ fide</i> pleasure to learn when and where she drives abroad. You'll +come, please, in the morning, and set to work at your continual +reading. Salary, fifteen shillings a week certain. Now, now, you +needn't hesitate at taking what I call a lofty salary, for it always +was my way to pay down handsome. There now, that's settled. Shake +hands, dear; good-bye till the morning. Sarah Maria, you needn't show +up no more of the 'continual readers,' for I believe I have made a +bargain with this young lady."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Primrose!" said poor Poppy, as she showed her out, "I am +more than thankful that you are coming here, miss—that's for my sake, +miss, though I'm dreadful afraid you'll suffer yourself. I'm awful +afraid you'll get muddled in your head, miss, for as to mine, it has +swam away long ago. I begin not to know in the least who I am, miss. +Poppy, why it ain't nowhere! only I'm Sarah, with all the other words +in the dictionary tacked on to it. I don't mind it now; they say folks +can get accustomed to anything, so I don't mind being Sarah, and +everything else too, only it has a very swimming effect on the head, +Miss Primrose. Oh, my darling young lady! do ask Miss Jasmine and Miss +Daisy to let me come and see them."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Poppy, you shall come and see us all again, if you will only +keep our little secret, for just at present we don't want the people +at home to know where we are; and remember, Poppy dear, that you are +always Poppy to us three girls."</p> + +<p>"I'll hold on to that," said poor Poppy, "when my head's fairly +reeling. I'll clutch on to it, and hold firm. Poppy, which means a +tare, I am, to my own dear young ladies. Oh dear! oh dear! they're +calling me—it's Sarah Matilda this time. Good-bye until to-morrow, +dear Miss Primrose."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + +<h3>JASMINE BEGINS TO SOAR.</h3> + + +<p>When Primrose went home and told her sisters and Miss Egerton what she +had done, Jasmine's eyes had grown first bright, and then misty.</p> + +<p>"To be continual reader to Mrs. Mortlock!" she exclaimed. "Oh, +Primrose, it is an act of self-denial to you—it is, isn't it? Own at +once that you were very brave to do it, darling."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," said Primrose; "there may be a certain little +amount of drudgery in it, and perhaps I would rather have orders to +paint beautiful roses and lilies on china plates, but you see, +Jasmine, this work has been sent to me—I think God sent it, and I +must not refuse it because perhaps I would like something else +better."</p> + +<p>"That's bravely spoken, Primrose," said Miss Egerton who was sitting +by, for she often spent odd half-hours with the girls. "Look at +everything in the same spirit, my love; try to see God's hand in all +the little events, and you will have a brave life and a happy one."</p> + +<p>"And a successful, I hope," added Jasmine. "Miss Egerton, how awful it +would be if we girls were to fail!"</p> + +<p>"My Prince says," here interrupted Daisy, "that whenever we do a good +thing and a right thing, we bring something fresh and lovely into our +Palace Beautiful. Isn't it nice to think that dear old Primrose has +done this?"</p> + +<p>"The money, too, will be of great help," added Primrose. "Why, +Jasmine, we may even be able to save a little."</p> + +<p>Thus encouraged, Primrose commenced her duties, and though her throat +ached—and she certainly found the continual reading of politics, +interspersed with very sharp discussions on the part of Mrs. Mortlock, +anything but agreeable—she did not give way.</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton was pleased to see Primrose so bright, and was glad to +know she was really earning something; and Jasmine and Daisy prepared +the cheeriest welcomes possible for her evening after evening on her +return.</p> + +<p>Jasmine, however, by no means intended Primrose to be the only one who +was to bring assistance to the household purse.</p> + +<p>Jasmine knew that they had all come up to London on purpose to be +educated, or to educate themselves, sufficiently to earn their +livings. She considered that six months' experience of the ups and +downs of London life might bear fruit in her case as well as in her +sister's.</p> + +<p>Jasmine was supposed to be having her style formed by Miss Egerton's +daily tuitions, but Miss Egerton's words of encouragement over her +pupil's productions were decidedly meagre; and Jasmine, though she +loved her, had long ago confided to Daisy that she considered Miss +Egerton's manner had a damping effect on enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>One bitterly cold March day Jasmine had been sitting for hours +scribbling away at her novel. Daisy petted the cat, looked over some +well-known picture-books, and finally sank back into the recesses of +one of the most comfortable chairs in the room and began to think +about the Prince.</p> + +<p>"Don't go to sleep, Daisy," called out Jasmine presently. "I'm coming +over in a minute to consult you."</p> + +<p>Nothing could possibly be more gratifying to Daisy than to know that +Jasmine wished to ask her advice. She accordingly roused herself, +ceased to think of the Prince, and said, in a very bright little +voice—</p> + +<p>"I'll help you the best I can, Jasmine."</p> + +<p>"It's just this," said Jasmine, dashing down her pen on the top of +her manuscript, and causing thereby a great blot—"it's just this, +Daisy; I've got to do something, and you have got to help me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm sure if I can," said little Daisy, still in that slightly +patronizing voice, for the little maid's head was almost turned by +being thus appealed to. "Is it to sew on buttons for you, Jasmine? for +though I don't like sewing on buttons, I'll do it, or even—even—I'll +darn your stockings, dear Jasmine."</p> + +<p>Jasmine laughed.</p> + +<p>"It's nothing of that kind, Eyebright; it's something much, much more +important. You know, Daisy, what we came up to London for—why, of +course you know why we left all our dear friends, and are living in +about the very dullest part of London—of course you know?"</p> + +<p>"Was it?" said Daisy, looking dubious; "was it—I never could quite +make out—because Primrose did not like Mrs. Ellsworthy?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you silly, silly little thing! What a dreadful thing to get into +your head, Daisy-flower! I did think you knew why we came to town, and +gave everything up, and made ourselves so miserable."</p> + +<p>"We did make ourselves miserable," sighed Daisy, "and I had to take +Mr. Dove for my friend. I like to have him for my friend, though. What +was the reason, please, Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"We came to London for the glorious privilege of being independent," +chanted Jasmine, in a majestic voice. "Daisy, I'm going to be it. I'm +going to fling my shackles to the winds. I'm going to soar."</p> + +<p>"It sounds lovely," said Daisy. "You always were a poet, Jasmine, and +I suppose poets do talk like that; but how are you going to be +independent, Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to earn money, little woman. Miss Egerton has kept me in +shackles. I've worn them patiently, but now I burst the bonds. Daisy, +I have formed a little theory. I believe girls are sent into the world +with a strong bias in a particular direction. You see, it always did +seem to be meant that dear Primrose was to be a companion, or +secretary, of some sort; for Mrs. Ellsworthy wanted her to be Mr. +Ellsworthy's secretary, and to write his letters for him. She would +not be that, even though it was her bent, and now she's got to accept +something far worse; for it really must be dreadful to be 'continual +reader' to poor old Mrs. Mortlock. Now, Daisy, what I say is +this—there's no use in wasting time or money looking after things +which don't suit us. Primrose was meant to be a secretary or continual +reader, and so she has to be one; and I have always been meant to +belong to the rather higher order of novelist or poet, and there's no +use in my being damped any longer by Miss Egerton. I don't mean to be +conceited, but I know that I have got the flutterings of a poet's +wings in my soul, and soar I must."</p> + +<p>Jasmine looked very pretty while she was speaking, and little Daisy +admired her high-flown words, and fully believed in her genius.</p> + +<p>"Do soar, Jasmine, darling," she said; "I have not a notion how you +are to do it, but do begin at once. It will make these rooms more than +ever like a Palace Beautiful if you take to soaring in them."</p> + +<p>"I've nearly finished my novel," said Jasmine; "and I've also written +a poem. It is called the 'Flight of the Beautiful,' and is in seven +parts. Each part would take up two or three pages of a magazine. +To-morrow, Daisy dear, I am going to take my novel and poem into the +market. I shall offer them to the highest bidders. I won't send them +by post, for I always notice in books that, when gifted authors send +their contributions by post, they are declined with thanks, because +they aren't read. I am going to take my own manuscripts to the +publishers, Daisy, and I shall propose to them to read aloud a few +extracts."</p> + +<p>"You can't be at all shy if you do that, Jasmine," said Daisy, looking +in a rather awe-struck way at her sister.</p> + +<p>"Shy?" echoed Jasmine. "If one feels it, one has only to get over it. +Is that the way to conquer difficulties, Daisy?—just to be baffled by +a little nervous feeling. No, I really want to fill the purse, and I +also wish to give the publishers what I am sure they must be always +looking for; for I have looked in vain, month after month, in several +magazines, and nowhere have I seen three or four pages of continual +blank verse. I suppose they can't get it, poor things! but they will +in my 'Flight of the Beautiful!'"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> think blank verse a little dull," said Daisy, softly, and half +under her breath; but, when Jasmine frowned, she added hastily, "Of +course you're splendidly brave, dear Jasmine; and who'll go with you +to the publisher's when you do go?"</p> + +<p>"I've been considering that," said Jasmine; "and I think I'll take +Poppy. Poppy is to have a whole holiday on Tuesday next, because her +quarter's wages are due, and I'll ask her to come with me. She'd enjoy +it—Poppy would—and very likely in the evening I'll be able to tell +you and Primrose that I've made my first success. Oh, how happy and +how proud I shall be!"</p> + +<p>A few minutes afterwards Jasmine went out, and Daisy wondered solemnly +if her bent in life was to keep on friendly terms with Mr. Dove.</p> + +<p>"I'm very glad I took the Prince's advice," she said to herself. "I'm +much, much happier since I came to the Palace Beautiful, and I don't +think Mr. Dove minds much, for he has never answered my letter. Oh +dear! perhaps I was too much afraid of Mr. Dove. I am so glad the +Prince explained to me about being a selfish little girl. And, oh dear! +there is the Prince!"</p> + +<p>Arthur Noel often came to see Daisy. He came in the evenings at an +hour when the elder girls were often away, and then Daisy sat on his +knee, and chatted to him volubly.</p> + +<p>This afternoon she told him about both her sisters.</p> + +<p>"Is having a bent the same as destiny, Mr. Noel?" she inquired +anxiously. "Jasmine says she has a bent, and she must follow it, and +no one can prevent her."</p> + +<p>"The bent can be guided, Daisy," said Arthur; but he looked puzzled +and seemed uncomfortable at the little girl's news. The Ellsworthy's +had begged of Noel to promote the interests of these girls. He was +only too anxious to do so, but he found his task by no means an easy +one. What wild imprudence would poor little Jasmine commit if she was +not aided and helped; surely Primrose's work was too uncongenial for +her long to continue it. Why did the girls persistently reject the +kindnesses of those who would help them? Where was it all to end? +Their money could only hold out to a certain date. How fragile Daisy +looked, even now; had anybody been cruel to the little one? What was +the mystery about Mr. Danesfield's letter? and above all things, why +did not Mr. Danesfield reply to a long epistle which Arthur had sent +him some weeks ago?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> + +<h3>VISITING THE PUBLISHERS.</h3> + + +<p>Jasmine had begged of Daisy to keep her secret from Primrose's ears. +She said that half her pleasure in bringing home money for her +contributions would be destroyed if Primrose knew about it beforehand. +Jasmine hoped that if she were very successful she might be able to +buy a little present apiece for both her sisters. Primrose badly +needed some new gloves, and Jasmine pictured to herself how her eldest +sister's sweet eyes would fill with tears, and how touched she would +be by her little offering. Yes, certainly Daisy must keep her secret +faithfully.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday morning, as Primrose was preparing to start for Penelope +Mansion, Jasmine announced her intention of accompanying her. Her face +had a slightly guilty look as she made this suggestion; and Daisy +quite blushed, and kept her eyes fixed on her plate, and wondered how +Jasmine would smuggle a large roll of manuscript out of the house. +Primrose immediately guessed that there was a little mystery afloat, +but she was not a curious girl, and was only too pleased to see that +her sisters had something to interest them.</p> + +<p>"You can walk with me if you like, Jasmine," she said; "but it is a +rather dull morning, and I fear it will rain."</p> + +<p>"Torrents wouldn't keep me in to-day," said Jasmine. Then fearing she +had betrayed herself, she added hastily, "I want to see Poppy. Poppy +is to have a holiday to-day, and I want to take her out."</p> + +<p>Primrose made no further objection, and Jasmine having packed her +manuscript into a small leather bag, and having given Daisy a somewhat +solemn farewell, the two girls set out.</p> + +<p>When they arrived at the Mansion Primrose went upstairs at once to +Mrs. Mortlock's sitting-room, but Jasmine began to enter into an +earnest conversation with Poppy.</p> + +<p>"Are you quite ready, Poppy? Oh, you've got your working dress on +still; how tiresome!"</p> + +<p>"I won't be a minute changing, Miss Jasmine; the hours for the working +maid's holiday are from ten to ten, and I won't be denied them. The +clock has just gone ten, miss, and not another stroke of work shall +Aunt Flint get out of me to-day, miss."</p> + +<p>"Quite right, Poppy," said Jasmine; "run upstairs now, and be as +quick as possible, and I will wait for you in the hall."</p> + +<p>Poppy did not need to be told to hasten; she flew up to the small +attic which she occupied at the top of the house, and made a hasty +and, she hoped, a brilliant toilet. She had been thinking for weeks of +this day; for since Primrose had come to Mrs. Mortlock's Jasmine had +promised Poppy that she was to spend her holiday with her, and Poppy +had been getting ready her toilet with a view to the occasion.</p> + +<p>Her dress, after all, was only an ordinary and somewhat shabby brown +one, but she had adorned her tight-fitting black jacket with a +sky-blue bow, which hung down in front with what she considered "truly +hartistic folds." Poppy's hat, however, was her master-piece; it was a +rather small white straw hat, trimmed with dark blue velvet, and +adorned with a scarlet tip and a bunch of yellow daffodils.</p> + +<p>Poppy's black eyes gleamed mischievously under the shade of this +brilliant hat, and her cheeks rivalled the scarlet tip in their color.</p> + +<p>With her little purse clasped tightly in her hand she tripped +downstairs and joined Jasmine.</p> + +<p>Jasmine was too excited and too eager to be off to notice Poppy's +attire particularly, and when her hat and general get-up were received +without a comment the little maid whispered to herself, "It's only +another of the <i>bitings</i>; life's full of them—choke-full."</p> + +<p>"Where are we going, Miss Jasmine?" she asked aloud, smothering back a +slight sigh.</p> + +<p>"Business first, Poppy," said Jasmine—"business first and then +pleasure. I thought we'd make a little programme in this way—we'd +visit the publishers at their seats of learning in the morning hours; +in the afternoon we might go to Madame Tussaud's or a picture +gallery—I'd prefer that, but of course naturally you'd go in for +Madame Tussaud's, Poppy; then in the evening we'll go and have tea +with Daisy. We'll bring something nice in for tea, and Daisy will be +so happy. I expect to have very good news to bring to my little sister +to-night, Poppy."</p> + +<p>"Oh, indeed, miss, I'm sure I'm gratified to hear that same. I think, +Miss Jasmine, that the programme sounds sensible—the dull part first, +and then the pleasure, and then the needed refreshment for our hungry +bodies. All things considered, Miss Jasmine, seeing that I eats the +bread of toil from morn to eve, and have a swimming head, owing to +being Sarah with every other name tacked on, I think it might be best +for me to be enlivened with the waxen figures, miss, and not to have +my poor brain worrited with picters."</p> + +<p>"All right, Poppy, we will certainly go to Madame Tussaud's—but you +must not consider the first part of our day dull, dear Poppy—it is +business, certainly, but you don't know what it means to me. To-day, +Poppy, I am about to take my first soaring flight."</p> + +<p>"Oh law! Miss Jasmine—I always knew you were clever, miss, and I +suppose it is because I'm so worried in my business days that I've got +that stupid that I can't see no meaning at all in your words, miss."</p> + +<p>"All right, Poppy, you need not see any meaning in them—all you have +to do is to come with me, and look very grave and solemn, and say +'Yes' when I say 'Yes,' and shake your head and look stern when I do. +You are older than me, Poppy, and you are coming as a sort of +chaperon. Oh dear! Poppy, I wish you would not wear that scarlet wing +and those yellow flowers in your hat."</p> + +<p>"The cruellest of all the bitings," whispered Poppy under her breath. +Aloud she said, in a meek but determined little voice—</p> + +<p>"That hat's as it's trimmed, Miss Jasmine, and must remain according, +for it can't be denuded in the street."</p> + +<p>"All right, Poppy. Your own dear face looks sweet and home-like under +it; now let us get into the very first omnibus, and find our way to +the city."</p> + +<p>When the girls arrived within the sacred precincts of the far-famed +Paternoster Row, Jasmine held her breath a little, and stood still +while she eagerly considered as to which publishing house she should +offer her wares. Finally, she determined that her first pilgrimage +should be to the editor of <i>The Downfall</i>, who had not yet returned or +even written to her about her "Ode to Adversity."</p> + +<p>The office of <i>The Downfall</i> was not in Paternoster Row, but in a very +narrow street adjoining, and Jasmine, followed by Poppy, plunged +boldly down this narrow alley, and then up, and up, and up, and up the +winding stairs to the editor's office at the top of the house.</p> + +<p>Jasmine had not been at all agreeably impressed by Mr. Rogers on the +occasion of her former visit. Unaccompanied by Poppy, she would +scarcely have again ventured to approach him, but Poppy looked quite +determined and resolute enough to give her little companion courage, +and Jasmine's childish voice was presently heard in the outer office +demanding to see the editor.</p> + +<p>It so happened that Mr. Rogers was not particularly engaged, for <i>The +Downfall</i> was rapidly proving the truth of its title, and was having a +very quick descent into an early and untimely grave—consequently its +editor had very little to do.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rogers consented to see Miss Jasmine Mainwaring and her +companion, and accordingly the two girls were ushered into the +editorial presence.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rogers commenced his interview with Miss Jasmine by apparently +forgetting all about her. This had a most disconcerting effect on the +young author.</p> + +<p>"But surely you must remember that I came to see you nearly three +months ago, and brought you a poem called an 'Ode to Adversity,'" +pleaded Jasmine—"we had rather a long talk about it; I don't know how +you can absolutely forget."</p> + +<p>"My dear young lady, so many people call, and leave so many poems, and +each poem is so like the last, that really you must pardon me, but my +head gets confused."</p> + +<p>"Taken with a kind of swimming, sir?" here burst in Poppy. "I suppose +it is a sort of Sarah case over again."</p> + +<p>The editor stared rather fiercely at this unexpected interruption, +deigned no reply whatever to Poppy, and continued his conversation +with Jasmine.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry that I have forgotten both you and your poem—it is, +doubtless, docketed with others to be returned in due course—I am +sorry, but of course I could not use it—did you expect me to? Why, +the name alone—an 'Ode to Adversity,' was quite sufficient to make me +decline it."</p> + +<p>"But, but," said Jasmine, coloring crimson and very nearly crying, "I +was told by a lady who reads your paper that the name was just what +you like. She said that your paper was called by a melancholy name, +and of course you wanted melancholy subjects."</p> + +<p>The editor smiled in a very bland, though disagreeable manner—"<i>The +Downfall</i>," he said; "we chose that title for political reasons." Here +he sounded a gong. "Jones," as an attendant came in, "look in +pigeon-hole D, and put into an envelope for this young lady some +verses entitled an 'Ode to Adversity.' Sorry I can do nothing more for +you this morning, Miss Mainwaring. Good morning—<i>good</i> morning."</p> + +<p>When the two girls got out on the landing Jasmine thrust her rejected +poem into Poppy's hand.</p> + +<p>"Put it into your pocket, Poppy," she said, "and don't on any account +let me see it—I must try to forget it, or my courage will go. +Evidently, Poppy, names go by contraries. I wrote some dismal papers +on purpose for <i>The Downfall</i>; I will now offer them to a magazine +which has a cheerful title."</p> + +<p>"Look there, Miss Jasmine," said Poppy, when they got into the street. +"Right there, facing us at the other side, is what I call a pleasant +magazine—it has lots of pictures, for see, it's pressed up to the +window wide open, and it's called <i>The Joy-bell</i>—I'm a great deal +more taken with that sound than with the sound of <i>The Downfall</i>."</p> + +<p>"So am I, too," said Jasmine, the April cloud quickly leaving her +expressive face—"I'm so glad I have you with me, dear Poppy; I was +feeling so low just now that I should never have noticed the office of +<i>The Joy-bell</i>—it has a very nice, high-class sound, and I should say +was a more attractive magazine than even a shilling one. We'll go +there at once, Poppy, and be sure you support me, and say 'Yes' when I +look at you; and if I happen to frown in your direction, you'll know +that I want you to help me not to accept too low a price. Now come, +Poppy; I feel that destiny leads my steps to the office of <i>The +Joy-bell</i>."</p> + +<p>The editor of <i>The Joy-bell</i> happened also to be disengaged, and after +keeping the young aspirant for literary fame waiting for about a +quarter of an hour, consented to see her and her companion.</p> + +<p>Jasmine's interview with this editor caused her to come away in very +high spirits, for he had not only promised most carefully to consider +her poem, "The Flight of the Beautiful," but he had also said he was +wanting a serial story to run through the pages of <i>The Joy-bell</i>, and +if hers happened to suit him he would be happy to use it. Finally, she +went away, leaving both her story and her poems in his hands, and with +a large parcel of <i>Joy-bells</i> under her arm.</p> + +<p>"I will let you know my decision in a few days," said the editor, with +a very suave smile. "Oh, yes, as to terms, we can talk them over when +I discover if your story is likely to suit me."</p> + +<p>Then Jasmine went away trembling with delight.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Poppy!" she said, "how very, very happy I am."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> + +<h3>A PLAN.</h3> + + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy had by no means forgotten the girls—they had all +three taken her fancy, and, as she said to her husband, she could not +get them out of her head. Arthur Noel, who was a sort of adopted son +of the house, often now brought her information about her favorites, +but the good little lady was impatient to see the girls herself, and +felt much annoyed at not being able to induce Arthur to give her their +address.</p> + +<p>"I don't want them to succeed," she said, talking one day to the young +man. "I have plenty of money, more than I really know what to do with, +and I particularly want to spend some of it on these girls. If they +succeed in what they are about they won't want my money, and of course +that is the last thing I wish. If I cannot adopt all three, why at +least can I not have Jasmine?—Jasmine is my favorite, although I love +that little pet Daisy too. Arthur, you may talk to me from morning to +night, but you will never persuade me but that Jasmine is the sort of +girl who would shine better in prosperity than in adversity."</p> + +<p>"You cannot take her from her sisters," said Noel; "I do not believe +you would get her to leave them—but if you were to try and were to +succeed, you would certainly lower her character, and having done +this, you could not say she would be a better girl in prosperity than +in adversity."</p> + +<p>"You are so particular, Arthur," half grumbled Mrs. Ellsworthy; "you +must have forgotten your own very poor days, or you would not speak so +warmly for adversity."</p> + +<p>"I don't quite forget them," said Arthur, a cloud coming over his +face, which was a particularly bright one. "I have a dim memory about +them, and a very, very dim memory about a mother and an old nurse, who +loved me very much. I can just recall crying night after night for my +mother, and being beaten, and silenced, and half starved. Then I +suppose I was ill, for I know there is a blank which I never can fill +up; but I shall always remember that day when I stood in the snowy +street, and cried so bitterly, and tried to ask for pennies, and how +my hat blew off, and I ran to catch it, and then—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was horrible!" said Mrs. Ellsworthy, covering her face with +her hands. "I shudder at it even now—the coachman could not keep the +horses in, and they went over you, and we thought you were killed. You +were lifted into the carriage—such a ragged, thin little figure, +with such a lovely face. You came to—you were not so badly hurt—it +was nothing short of a miracle, for you ought to have been almost +killed. My brother Arthur was with me, and when you opened your eyes +you stretched out your arms to him. He just took you to his heart on +the spot, and you were his son from that day forward. Well, Arthur, I +don't think, prosperity has done you any harm."</p> + +<p>"I had no choice," said Noel. "Prosperity came to me as God's gift. It +so happens that I am now a rich man and I suppose even rich people can +find their mission. The girls at present are poor; our cases are in no +way parallel. Oh! how gladly I would help them, but believe me, I +would help them to keep their independence."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy frowned.</p> + +<p>"If you are going to thwart me, Arthur, I am done," she said.</p> + +<p>"Can you not help them without adopting them?" asked Arthur.</p> + +<p>"Oh! my dear boy, what am I to do? I know lots of influential people, +but I can't go to them and say, 'I know three charming girls; they are +all as ignorant as possible; they don't know any of our manners and +customs; they are not educated up to the required standard; they are +fearfully independent. Will you, my dear friend, take the eldest into +your family, and give her a governess's salary, although she cannot +teach? and will you, my other beloved friend, speak to the editor of +the magazine you most admire, and ask him to accept poems which do not +scan, and stories which are the feeble productions of an ambitious +child? And will you, my last friend, come to the rescue by employing a +certain sweet little girl to look after your kittens?' Arthur, how can +those girls be independent unless they are taught?"</p> + +<p>"Still I believe the girls can be helped; and that it is the right and +only thing to do," said Noel. "I propose to talk to Miss Egerton about +them. I will ask her to go into figures with me, and to state what sum +she thinks ought to be expended on their education. She probably knows +something about what talents they have by this time. After she and I +have talked our plans over together we will ask you whether you are +inclined to advance the necessary money. If you say 'Yes,' Miss +Egerton will speak to the girls, and tell them quite openly what you +are doing, and appeal to their common sense not to reject their only +real chance of obtaining an independence bye-and-bye. They can, if +they think right, arrange to pay you back within a certain term of +years. I believe you will do best for them by making such an +arrangement."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy both frowned and smiled, but finally agreed to allow +Arthur Noel to have his own way.</p> + +<p>That very afternoon the energetic young man went to see Miss Egerton. +They discussed the subject in an its bearings, and Miss Egerton +arranged to speak to Primrose at the first opportunity.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> + +<h3>THEIR QUARTER'S ALLOWANCE.</h3> + + +<p>"Two letters," said Daisy, holding them up in her hand; "actually two +letters; one for Primrose—oh, yes! of course that must be from Mr. +Danesfield; and one for Jasmine—oh! Jasmine's is such a funny-looking +letter, quite thick and interesting, and with a darling little picture +on the back. What can the picture be?—oh! some little bells, and <i>The +Joy-bell</i> written over them."</p> + +<p>"Give it to me," said Jasmine, her face suddenly turning crimson. "Oh, +Daisy! why do you examine my letters so curiously? This was meant to +be quite private. Oh, oh, oh! how my fingers tremble."</p> + +<p>"We are all alone, you know, Jasmine," said Daisy; "dear Primrose is +not in. She went to her continual reading nearly an hour ago. Dear +Primrose! she sometimes looks quite pale and tired. Perhaps the letter +is about our secret, Jasmine; please do read it to me—please do."</p> + +<p>But by this time Jasmine had torn the envelope open, and was +oblivious to all Daisy's comments. Her eager eyes devoured the +contents of an official-looking sheet of paper, then she danced up and +down the room, then she tossed the paper up to the ceiling, and +finally caught Daisy in her arms, and covered her little face with +kisses.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Daisy, it's too good!—I'm so happy, I could almost cry. Daisy, +darling, he wants to see me about my story—he thinks it's very +fine—he says there are masterly bits in it—I'm to go and see him as +soon as possible."</p> + +<p>"Him?" repeated Daisy; "but who is he, Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"He's the editor of one of the most powerful of all our magazines," +said Jasmine; "the magazine is called <i>The Joy-bell</i>—hasn't it a +delicious title? Oh, Daisy! I must go at once to see him."</p> + +<p>"Take me with you," said Daisy, coming up close to her sister—"take +me with you, darling, dear Jasmine. I'm much better, I've nearly lost +my cough, and the spring is coming; the air feels quite warm +to-day—do take me, Jasmine, for it is our own secret, and then, after +you've got your money—for I suppose you'll get a lot of money—we can +both tell Primrose to-night."</p> + +<p>Jasmine hesitated, but the sun was shining warmly, and Daisy's little +face was very pleading—Jasmine felt so happy at this moment that she +greatly longed to give happiness.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, suddenly, "I don't suppose Primrose will really mind, +and you must wrap up well; only there's just one thing, Daisy, we'll +have to call for Poppy. I would not on any account go to the +publisher's without Poppy."</p> + +<p>As Jasmine and Daisy were hurrying quickly down the street to catch +the first omnibus which went in the direction of the Edgware Road, +Daisy suddenly clutched her sister's hand, the color left her pretty +face, and she began to hurry forward at a very rapid pace.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Daisy?" said Jasmine: "you have quite hurt my +hand; has anything frightened you? have you seen any one?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's nothing—I mean I'm subject to starts," said poor little +Daisy, in a sad voice. "I'll be better when I get into the omnibus +with you, Jasmine; and please, Jasmine, may I sit very close to you? +and may I hold your hand?"</p> + +<p>"You poor little darling!" said Jasmine, affectionately, "you are not +a bit strong yet—you must have some more chemical food; I am told +there is nothing so good for starts as chemical food."</p> + +<p>Daisy gave another start and a very gentle sigh. She knew well in her +little breast that no amount of chemical food would take away the +terror which inspired her when she saw the face of Mr. Dove. She had +seen him just now, although Jasmine had not—he was standing with +several other men at the corner of the road, and his blood-shot eyes +had seemed to look through her, and as she passed by he had raised his +hand, and shaken it at her in a truly menacing manner.</p> + +<p>Dove had not forgotten Daisy, as Daisy had fondly hoped. Daisy +Mainwaring meant to him a certain amount of money. Dove was not the +sort of man to allow the chance of gaining money dishonestly to go by. +As to earning money, and coming by it as the sweet fruits of honest +toil, that did not at all suit his idea. When he saw the child going +out with her sister he recollected, with much pleasure, that +quarter-day was about due. Feeling in his own pockets, he confessed +they were unpleasantly light and empty, and then he wondered if he +might find any agreeable little pickings in the girls' trunks. He had +subjugated poor little Daisy so completely that he would have ventured +to rob even in her presence, but of course he preferred doing his +burglary work alone.</p> + +<p>He very quickly made up his mind to pay a visit that very day to the +girls' new rooms in Miss Egerton's house. He made an excuse to get +away from his companions, and then, walking quickly in the direction +of Miss Egerton's house, he took his bearings carefully. At this hour +Miss Egerton was busy with her school and Bridget was employed in the +kitchen. He might do what he liked, therefore, in that part of the +house which the girls called the Palace Beautiful. He knew a way by +which he could get on the roof—from the roof there was an easy +entrance to the girls' rooms. By the time Jasmine, Daisy, and Poppy +were joyously driving towards the city Dove had taken possession of +their nice bright rooms. When he got in he locked the outer door, and +then he felt quite comfortable, and at leisure to look around him.</p> + +<p>The first thing he saw was the letter directed to Primrose on the +sitting-room table. He took it up, and examined it closely. He could +spell out—for he was by no means a proficient reader—the word +Rosebury on one of the post-marks; that was enough for him; the letter +was tucked neatly into his pocket, and then he went round the room in +search of fresh spoil.</p> + +<p>He found very little, for the Palace Beautiful showed none of its +charms to his eyes; in Dove's opinion it was a poor sort of +place—clean, certainly, but what of that? Dove considered that +cleanliness meant poverty. Dove's tastes lay in the direction of rooms +thickly carpeted; he liked two or three carpets, one on the top of the +other, on a floor; he liked the rooms to be well crowded with +furniture—furniture of the good old mahogany type, heavy and +dark—and the windows draped with thick merino. A room so furnished +would, as Dove expressed it, look solid, and mean a heavy purse, and +perhaps a nice little nest-egg laid by tidily in one of the drawers or +bureaus. Such a room would be very interesting to examine, but this +sitting-room, with its crimson drugget, and its white flooring, its +one or two choice engravings on the walls, and its little book-case +filled with good and valuable books, was, Dove considered, very shabby +indeed. He found nothing more worth taking, and having given the Pink +a kick by way of a parting blessing, he left the room, made his exit +again by the roof, and so departed unperceived. He had Primrose's +letter in his pocket, and he thought himself very lucky to have so +nicely secured her quarter's allowance. He returned to his own house +in Eden Street, and in the privacy of his back parlor opened Mr. +Danesfield's letter. It was a short letter, and, as it happened was +not written by Mr. Danesfield at all. Dove, however, by patient +spelling and peering, presently mastered its contents.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"The Bank,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">"High Street, Rosebury,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">"April 21.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"MADAM,</p> + +<p>"In Mr. Danesfield's absence, I send you a cheque for £17 10<i>s.</i>, +according to his orders. The cheque will require your signature at the +back, and if you will kindly sign it you, or any one else, can obtain +cash for the amount at the Metropolitan Bank, Strand.</p> + +<p>"I expect Mr. Danesfield home in about six weeks; he has been +wintering abroad.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Yours faithfully,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"JOHN DAVIS."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Dove took the greater part of an hour to make this letter out; next he +fingered the cheque, turning it backwards and forwards; then his face +grew very blank—for, unsigned, that cheque was valueless. He was a +violent man, and he uttered some strong expressions, and his wife, on +hearing them, took good care to keep out of his way. She could not +make out why Dove sat so long in the back parlor, and why he refused +to eat his dinner, which was very hot and tasty. After a time, with a +sigh of relief, she heard him go out.</p> + +<p>Dove had hastily fastened up the letter, trusting to no one's noticing +that it had been opened. Again he reached Miss Egerton's house; again +he made his way from the roof to the upper landing, and from the upper +landing to the girls' rooms; the letter was not placed on the table, +but was skilfully slipped down between some books which lay in a pile +on Jasmine's little writing-table. It might have been put there by +any one who was dusting the room, and it might have lain in its +present position unseen for many days. Dove hoped no one would +perceive it; he scowled at the poor little Pink, who crouched away +from him, and turning on his heel again, left the room.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE JOY-BELL</i>.</h3> + + +<p>It is to be feared that Poppy stole away from her work that morning. +Poor Poppy was getting into a sadly defiant mood. She was getting +thoroughly tired of her aunt, Mrs. Flint, and when Jasmine appeared +and said a few coaxing words the naughty girl left her work undone, +disregarded the many cries for Sarah Ann and Sarah Maria, and putting +on her brilliant hat and her smart jacket, sallied forth citywards +with Jasmine and Daisy. In due time the three reached the office of +<i>The Joy-bell</i> and were admitted into the presence of the editor.</p> + +<p>"You musn't let me accept too low terms, Poppy," said Jasmine, as they +were going in at the door.</p> + +<p>Poppy nodded very brightly in reply, and Jasmine took the seat the +editor offered her with a certain little air of modest elation.</p> + +<p>"I got your note," she began, "and I thought you'd like to see me +immediately, so I came. This is my sister; she knows all about it; +she's in the story herself. I've drawn all my characters from the +life; and my friend, Poppy Jenkins—you saw her a fortnight ago—she's +in the book too."</p> + +<p>The editor—Mr. Potter was his name—had a habit of waving his hand +when anything that he considered superfluous was being said; he now +waved both Daisy and Poppy into the background, and addressed himself +to Jasmine in a style which, as she said afterwards, riveted her +attention on the spot.</p> + +<p>"I wrote to you, Miss Mainwaring," he said, "because I saw germs of +promise in your composition—it is young, of course, for you are very +young, but it is fresh, and with due correctness, which I myself am +willing to supply, I do not see why 'The Pursuit of Happiness' should +not appear in our journal. We publish, however, only under certain +conditions, and before I make any offer for your writings I should +like to know whether you are able to fulfil them."</p> + +<p>"That sounds in the nature of a bargain," here burst from Poppy's +lips. "Now, Miss Jasmine, please will you listen very sharp, and see +what the gentleman is after? Bargains seem to me to be all in favor of +them that makes them. Aunt Flint made a bargain with me, and, oh my! I +thought it good enough to leave the country and come up to a town +whose name is wanity. Nothing have I got, Miss Jasmine, from my share +of the bargain but a swimming head and the name of Sarah!"</p> + +<p>"If this young person will cease to interrupt us," proceeded the +editor, in his blandest tones.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; Poppy, please stop talking," said Jasmine. "I beg your +pardon, sir; I only wanted Poppy to help me when we came to terms. We +have not come to the money part yet, dear Poppy. Yes, sir, I am most +anxious to listen to you."</p> + +<p>"Well, Miss Mainwaring, the facts are these—yes, I fear it is a +question of money, after all. <i>The Joy-bell</i> is a new magazine; we are +most anxious to extend its circulation by every means in our power. We +have hit on what we consider a novel, but effective expedient. Each +contributor to our pages is expected to subscribe for a hundred copies +per month of our magazine—these copies he is asked to disseminate as +widely as possible amongst his friends. The magazine is only sixpence +a month. Of course you get your friends to take the copies off your +hands. Your story will, I think, run for six months—you are really +put to no expense, for, of course, you must know a hundred people who +will gladly take a magazine in which you appear. Thus you gain the +advantage of having your story widely read and published not at your +own expense."</p> + +<p>"But please—" began Jasmine.</p> + +<p>"If I might speak who am brought here for the purpose," here burst +from Poppy, "what pay is the young lady to have for the words of +genius that she has wrote upon the paper? Yes, Miss Jasmine, you said +I was to let my voice be heard here—I'm not afraid, not of nobody, +and here, I puts down my foot, and I says, 'What's the pay?'"</p> + +<p>"The pay?" echoed the editor. "Surely the young lady does not expect +to be paid for anything so very amateur—no, she cannot expect to be +paid in money—in another way she is paid, and largely; she obtains a +reputation, and what immature talent she has is brought to the fore! I +am afraid, Miss Mainwaring, I must not take up any more of your +valuable time—I think I have explained myself quite clearly—do you +accept my offer? If you are willing to become a subscriber for one +hundred copies monthly of <i>The Joy-bell</i> your story shall appear; if +not, I must return you your MS. with regret."</p> + +<p>Poor Jasmine's white little face grew piteous.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Poppy!" she began.</p> + +<p>"Do you want it, Miss Jasmine?" said Poppy. "I calls it a cheat; but +do you want it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear Poppy, I thought my words would look so lovely in Print—I +am disappointed!"</p> + +<p>"Then you shan't be, Miss Jasmine, darling. Here, sir, you're another +of the Aunt Flint tribe, but my darling Miss Jasmine shall not look +as she does now if I can prevent it. Please, sir, will you look in +this here little purse given to you by the honest hand of toil, and +see if it contains the price of a hundred of those nasty <i>Joy-bells</i>. +There's my three months' wage in that purse, sir, so I expect it will +prove sufficient."</p> + +<p>The editor opened the little purse gingerly.</p> + +<p>"Do you wish your friend to subscribe for you?" he asked, looking at +Jasmine. "I will allow you to have the first instalment at a +reduction. The full price for a hundred copies of <i>The Joy-bell</i> at +sixpence a copy will be, of course, fifty shillings. On this occasion +you shall have these delivered to you at your residence for forty-five +shillings."</p> + +<p>"It's in the purse, sir," said Poppy, with an air of modest pride. +"Forty-five shillings, and fifteen shillings over, for my wage with +Aunt Flint comes exactly to three pounds a quarter. The fifteen +shillings will find me in boots and house shoes, Miss Jasmine; and as +my 'at is fresh trimmed, and I have enough cotton dresses to go on +with, you are more than welcome to the two pound five."</p> + +<p>"We will arrange it so, then," said the editor. "Miss Mainwaring, you +must give me your address, and you shall receive proofs in a day or +two. This sum of money provides for the appearance of the first +instalment of your story. From the sale of the hundred copies you will +be provided with funds for the second instalment, and so on."</p> + +<p>"But how am I to pay Poppy back if I must give you the money that I +get for the magazines?" asked Jasmine, her face becoming more crimson +each moment.</p> + +<p>"Ah! that," said the editor, with a slightly sarcastic smile, "that is +surely not my affair."</p> + +<p>After this a few comparatively trivial arrangements were made. Jasmine +gave the address of the Palace Beautiful to Mr. Potter, and walked +downstairs, feeling excited, pleased, and disappointed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Poppy!" she said, "how light, how very light your purse is."</p> + +<p>"No, Miss Jasmine," answered Poppy, "you're out altogether there, for +fifteen shillings in silver weighs more than three pounds in gold. +It's my heart, not my purse, that's light, Miss Jasmine—it has done +me a sight of good to help you, Miss Jasmine; I know he is a cheat in +there, but never mind, when your pretty, beautiful tale appears +there'll be a run on it, I think, and that <i>Joy-bell</i> will be asked +for high and low. You'll pay me back, never fear, and I'll be real +proud to my dying day to feel that I was the first to help you."</p> + +<p>That evening, as Jasmine and Daisy sat together waiting for Primrose +to return, Daisy said suddenly—</p> + +<p>"Did you soar to-day, Jasmine, when you took Poppy's wages to have +your story printed?—was that what you call a soaring flight?"</p> + +<p>Daisy spoke innocently, and with real desire for information, but at +her words Jasmine covered her face and burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"What a cruel remark, Eyebright," she said. "Do you know I'm quite +miserable about this; I've been getting more and more wretched ever +since I left that man's office. Suppose, Daisy, I don't sell a hundred +copies of <i>The Joy-bell</i>; then I shall never be able to have any more +of my story printed, and I shall never have it in my power to pay +Poppy back. I think I must have yielded to temptation that time; +perhaps I'm nothing but a vain little girl, and think myself cleverer +than I am."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm sure you're a genius, Jasmine," said Daisy. "I know, for I +have studied your face a great deal; in the story-books I generally +notice that the geniuses have the same kind of face that you +have—they generally have a little discontented, surprised look about +them. I admire the expression very much myself, and sometimes when I'm +alone—for you know you and Primrose have to leave me a good deal +alone—I try to practice it before the glass. I think it's mostly +done with a rise of the eyebrows, but I never can keep mine up long +enough."</p> + +<p>Jasmine laughed.</p> + +<p>"I do hope I am a genius," she said; "I have always longed so to be +one. If I really am, it will be all right about Poppy's money, for, of +course, the public will try to buy my story. It's really rather a +striking story, Daisy. There's a girl in it who does such wonderfully +self-denying things—she never thinks of herself for a moment—she is +very poor, and yet she earns money in all sorts of delightful ways, +and supports her family—she has got two sisters—they are not half as +clever as she is at earning money. The story begins by the sisters +rather despising Juliet, but in the end they find out how much she is +worth. The leading idea in the story is the inculcation of +unselfishness—oh dear! oh dear! I hope I shall prove myself a genius +in having developed this character. If so, I shall be able to pay +Poppy back."</p> + +<p>"There is something so beautiful in unselfishness," said Daisy, in a +rather prim, moralizing little tone. "Do you know, Jasmine, that I was +once going to be frightfully selfish?—I should have been but for the +Prince, but he spoke to me; he made up a lovely little story, and he +told me about the Palace Beautiful."</p> + +<p>"I never can make out why you call these rooms the Palace Beautiful, +Daisy," said Jasmine.</p> + +<p>"It's because of the way they've been furnished," said Daisy. "They +are full of Love, and Self-denial, and Goodness. I do so dearly like +to think of it. I lie often on the sofa for hours, and make up stories +about three fairies, whom I call by these names; they are quite +playmates for me, and I talk to them. I often almost fancy they are +real, but the strange thing is, Jasmine, they will only come to me +when I have tried to be unselfish, and cheerful, and done my best to +be bright and happy. Then Goodness comes, and makes the walls shine +with his presence, and Self-denial makes my sofa so soft and easy, and +Love gives me a nice view through the window, for I try to take an +interest in all the men and women and little children who pass, and +when I sit at the window and look at them through Love's glass you +cannot think how nice they all seem. I told the Prince about it one +day, and he said that was making a real Palace Beautiful out of our +rooms."</p> + +<p>Jasmine sighed.</p> + +<p>"I hear Primrose's step," she said. "Oh, Daisy! you are a darling! how +sweetly you think. I wonder if these rooms could ever come to mean a +Palace Beautiful to me! I don't think fairies could come to me here, +Daisy. I don't think I could see things through their eyes. I want my +palace to be much larger and grander than this. Perhaps if I am a real +genius it will come to me through my story; but, oh! I hope I did not +do wrong in taking Poppy's money."</p> + +<p>"No, for you are a genius," said little Daisy, kissing her +affectionately.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2> + +<h3>ENDORSING A CHEQUE.</h3> + + +<p>Primrose's life was very busy at this time. Certainly nothing could be +more irksome than the daily task of reading to poor Mrs. Mortlock, but +the fifteen shillings a week which she now earned regularly was a +wonderful help to the household purse, and Primrose performed her +irksome duties with a cheerful, and even thankful heart. Her anxieties +about Daisy were almost laid to rest. Since the child had been moved +to Miss Egerton's house she seemed quite a changed creature. Her old +cheerfulness and sweet calm were returning to her. Morning after +morning she bade Primrose good-bye with a bright smile on her little +face, and however long and dull her day was, she greeted her sister +happily at night. What, therefore, was poor Primrose's consternation +to find, on returning home the evening after Jasmine had made +arrangements for the publication of her manuscript not only Jasmine, +but Miss Egerton and Bridget all surrounding poor little Daisy, who +lay on the sofa with a ghastly white face, and burst into nervous +troubled weeping whenever she was spoken to.</p> + +<p>"We found her in such a queer state," said Jasmine; but Miss Egerton +held up a warning hand.</p> + +<p>"Let it rest now, my dear," she said; "we need not go into the story +in Daisy's presence; she wants perfect quiet. Primrose, she has been +longing so for you; will you sit down by her, and hold her hand?"</p> + +<p>Daisy opened her eyes when she heard Primrose's name, and held up a +hot little hand to her sister, who clasped it very firmly.</p> + +<p>"I want to speak to you all by yourself, Primrose," she whispered. +"Please ask Jasmine, and Miss Egerton, and Bridget to go away. I want +to say something most important to you."</p> + +<p>"Leave us for a moment," said Primrose to the others; and Jasmine went +down with Miss Egerton to the sitting-room.</p> + +<p>The moment Daisy found herself quite alone with Primrose she raised +her head, ceased crying, and looked at her sister with bright feverish +eyes, and cheeks that burned.</p> + +<p>"Primrose," she said, "would you think it very, very wrong of me if I +did something that wasn't in itself the very best thing to do, but +something that I had to do to prevent a dreadful ogre putting me down +into a dark dungeon? Would it be very wrong of me to do a very little +thing to prevent it, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"My darling," said Primrose, "your poor little head must be wandering. +I don't understand what you mean, my dear little one. Of course it +would be only right of you to keep away from an ogre, and not to allow +one to touch you—but there are no ogres. Daisy love—there never were +such creatures. You need not make yourself unhappy about beings that +never existed. The fact is, Daisy, you are too much alone, and your +little head has got quite full of the idea of fairies. I must ask Mr. +Noel not to talk to you in so fanciful a manner."</p> + +<p>"Oh don't, Primrose, for it is my one and only comfort. Oh! I am glad +you think I ought to keep out of the ogre's power. He is a dreadful, +dreadful ogre, and he has tried to get into the Palace, and I am +awfully afraid of him."</p> + +<p>Then Daisy laughed quite strangely, and said, in a wistful little +voice—</p> + +<p>"Of course, Primrose, this is only fairy-talk. I always was fond of +fairies, wasn't I? Primrose, darling, I want you to do a little thing +for me, will you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, Daisy. Why, how you are trembling, dear!"</p> + +<p>"Hold my hand," said Daisy, "and let me put my head on your shoulder. +Now I'll ask you about the little thing, Primrose; there's your +letter from Mr. Danesfield on the table."</p> + +<p>"Has it come?" said Primrose; "I am glad. I expected it yesterday +morning."</p> + +<p>"It's on the table," repeated Daisy. "Will you open it, Primrose? I'd +like to see what's inside."</p> + +<p>"Oh, there'll be nothing very pretty inside, darling; it is probably a +postal order for our quarter's money."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but let me see it, Primrose."</p> + +<p>Primrose moved slowly to the table, took up the letter, and opened it.</p> + +<p>"It's just as I said, Daisy," she remarked, "only, no—it's not a +postal order, it's a cheque. I must write my name on the back, and +take it to the Metropolitan Bank to cash to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Let me see you writing your name on the back, please, Primrose," said +Daisy, in a queer, constrained little voice.</p> + +<p>Primrose smiled to herself at the child's caprice but, taking up a +pen, she put her signature across the back of the cheque.</p> + +<p>"May I take it in my hand, Primrose?" said Daisy. "Oh, thank you! My +hand shakes, doesn't it? but that's because I'm so dreadfully subject +to starts. Isn't it funny, Primrose, to think that this little paper +should mean a lot of golden sovereigns? Doesn't it make you feel rich +to have it, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"It makes me feel that with it and the help of my weekly salary we +shall be able to pay for our bread and butter, Daisy."</p> + +<p>Daisy turned ghastly white.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," she said, "oh, yes, dear Primrose. Will you put the cheque +back into the envelope, and may I sleep with it under my pillow? I'll +stay so quiet and still, and I'll not start at all if I have the +cheque that you have signed under my pillow."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>DAISY'S REQUEST.</h3> + + +<p>Primrose was so anxious to soothe Daisy that she allowed her without a +moment's hesitation to have her way. The moment the child felt her hot +little fingers clasping the letter with its precious enclosure she +became quiet, and ceased to speak. Primrose had undressed her, and +placed her in bed, and she now turned her back on her sister, and +still clasping the letter tightly, closed her eyes. Primrose hoped she +was asleep, and went softly out of the room to talk over matters with +Jasmine and Miss Egerton. Miss Egerton could throw no light on the +subject of Daisy's queer attack, and when Primrose at last went to bed +she had to own that her anxieties with regard to her little sister had +returned.</p> + +<p>The next morning she was obliged to leave earlier than usual, and +rather to Daisy's astonishment, and very much to her relief, said +nothing about Mr. Danesfield's letter. Primrose had not forgotten the +letter, but she knew she would not be able to go to the bank that +day, and she thought it would comfort Daisy to take care of it.</p> + +<p>"Jasmine," she said to her second sister, "must you go out this +morning? I think it is hardly well to leave Daisy alone."</p> + +<p>Jasmine's face clouded over.</p> + +<p>"Have you forgotten, Primrose, that Miss Egerton and Mr. Noel were to +take me to South Kensington Museum to-day? They arranged that I should +go with them quite a week ago, and it would never do to put them off +again now. I'll tell you what I'll do, Primrose; I'll take Daisy too; +I'll see that she is not over tired, and Mr. Noel will take great care +of her; they are very fond of each other."</p> + +<p>"Try to arrange it so, then, Jasmine," said Primrose; "for I do not +feel happy about her being left."</p> + +<p>Primrose went away to spend her day as usual with Mrs. Mortlock, and +sat down to her "continual reading" with a heavy heart.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortlock was losing her sight rapidly—cataract was forming on +her eyes, and she could now only dimly see the face and form of her +young companion. Primrose, however, always managed to soothe the +somewhat irascible old lady, and was already a prime favorite with +her.</p> + +<p>To-day she took up the newspaper with a heavy heart, and the anxiety +which oppressed her made itself felt in a certain weary tone which +came into her voice.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortlock was fond of Primrose, but was never slow in expressing +an opinion.</p> + +<p>"Crisp up, Miss Mainwaring," she said; "crisp up a little; drawling +voices give me the fidgets most terribly. Now, my dear, try to fancy +yourself in the House of Commons; read that speech more animated, my +love. Ah, that's better!"</p> + +<p>Primrose exerted herself, and for a few minutes the reading came up to +its usual standard, but then, again, thoughts of Daisy oppressed the +young reader, and once more her voice flagged.</p> + +<p>"There, my dear, you had better turn to the bits of gossip; they are +more in your line, I can see, this morning. Dear, dear, dear! I can't +tell what's come to girls these days; they don't seem to find no heart +nor pleasure in anything. Now, if there is a girl who, in my opinion, +has fallen on her feet, it's you, Miss Mainwaring; for, surely, the +handsome salary I allow is earned with next to no trouble. When once a +girl can read she can read continual, and that's all I ask of you."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry," said Primrose; "some things at home are troubling me, and +I cannot help thinking about them. I shall do better over the gossip."</p> + +<p>"That's right, my love! I'd ask you about the home troubles, but my +nerves won't stand no worriting. Get on with the gossip, dear, and +make your voice chirrupy and perky, as though you saw the spice of it +all, and enjoyed it—do."</p> + +<p>Just at this moment, while poor Primrose was trying to train her +unwilling voice, the door was opened, and Poppy, red in the face, and +with her best hat and jacket on, came in.</p> + +<p>"Miss Primrose, I'm come to say good-bye, I am. No, Mrs. Mortlock, +when about to quit I don't fear you no longer—not all the Sarahs in +Europe would have power over me now. I'm going. Aunt Flint and me we +has quarrelled, and I has given her fair warning, and I'm going back +to my native place, maybe this evening. Never no more will this city +of wanities see me. I'm off, Miss Primrose; I leaves Penelope Mansion +now, and I go straight away to your place to bid Miss Jasmine and Miss +Daisy good-bye."</p> + +<p>"For goodness sake, Sarah Matilda Ann!" here interrupted Mrs. +Mortlock, speaking with great excitement, "before you go see you bring +me up my beef-tea—Mrs. Flint won't give it a thought, and my nerves +won't keep up without the nourishment. Run down to the kitchen this +minute, Sarah Mary, and bring me up the beef-tea, and a nice little +delicate slice of toast, done to a turn, to eat with it. Mind you, +don't let the toast get burnt, for if I can't see I can taste, and +well know when my toast is burnt."</p> + +<p>Poppy was about to give a saucy answer, but a look from Primrose +restrained her, and before she left Penelope Mansion she had provided +the old lady with her luncheon. Primrose said a few words of farewell +and regret, and then Poppy set out, determined to take her chance of +finding Jasmine and Daisy at home.</p> + +<p>"I'll go back to my own place to-night," she said to herself, "and +tell my mother that wanity of wanities is London—my fifteen shillings +will just buy me a single third, and I needn't eat nothing until +to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>When Poppy arrived at Miss Egerton's she was told by Bridget that Miss +Jasmine was out, but that she would find Miss Daisy by herself +upstairs. Poppy ran nimbly up the stairs, and knocked at the +sitting-room door; there was no answer, and turning the handle, she +went in. Daisy was lying with her face downwards on the sofa—sobs and +quivers shook her little frame, and for a time she did not even hear +Poppy, who bent over her in some alarm.</p> + +<p>"Now, Miss Daisy, darling, I'm real glad I has come in—why, what is +the matter, missie?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, Poppy; nothing indeed," said Daisy, "except that I'm most +dreadfully unhappy. If I was a really quite unselfish little girl I'd +go and live in a dungeon, but I couldn't do it—I couldn't, really."</p> + +<p>Whatever Poppy was, she was practical—she wasted no time trying to +find out what Daisy meant, but bringing some cold water, she bathed +the child's face and hands, and then she made her take a drink of +milk, and finally, she lifted her off the sofa, and sitting down in an +arm-chair, took her in her arms, and laid her head on her breast.</p> + +<p>"There now, pretty little dear, you're better, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"My body is better, thank you, Poppy—I like to feel your arms holding +me very tight. My mind will never, never be well again, dear Poppy."</p> + +<p>"Would it ease it to unburden?" said Poppy. "Sometimes it's a +wonderful soother to speak out about what worries one. At Aunt Flint's +I used to let fly my worries to the walls for want of a better +confidant. You think over about unburdening to me, Miss Daisy. I'll +promise to be a safe receptacle."</p> + +<p>Daisy shook her head mournfully.</p> + +<p>"It would be no use," she said; "even telling now would be no manner +of use. Oh, Poppy, I wish I had been strong enough, and I wish so +dreadfully I had not minded about the dungeon. If the Prince was here +he would say I ought not to live any longer in the Palace Beautiful, +and I don't think the rooms do look like the rooms of a palace +to-day. Please, Poppy, look round you, and see if you can see any +goodness shining on the walls, and if you can see through Love's glass +into the street."</p> + +<p>"Oh lor! no, Miss Daisy; I'm not so fanciful. The walls is just fairly +neat, and the windows, they're just like any other attic windows. Now, +missy, you're just fairly worn out, and you shall shut your eyes and +go to sleep."</p> + +<p>Poor little Daisy was so weary and weak that she absolutely did close +her eyes, and comforted and soothed by Poppy's presence, she fell into +a short and uneasy doze. She awoke in about an hour, and lay quite +still, with her eyes wide open. Poppy said something to her, but she +replied, in an imploring tone.</p> + +<p>"Please let me think. I had a dream when I was asleep. I did something +in the dream, and I think I'll do it now really—only you must let me +think Poppy."</p> + +<p>"Think, away, pretty little miss," said Poppy: "and while you are +worriting your poor little brain over thoughts I'll take it upon me to +prepare a bit of dinner for you."</p> + +<p>Poppy made some tea, and boiled an egg, and toasted some bread to a +light and tempting brown. When the meal was prepared she brought it to +Daisy, who said wistfully—</p> + +<p>"If I do what I want I must be strong, so I'll eat up that egg, and +I'll take some toast, and you must take something too, Poppy."</p> + +<p>"Seeing as I can't get no meal till to-morrow morning I'm not inclined +to refuse a good offer," said Poppy. "You don't know, missy, as I'm +going back to my native 'ome to-night."</p> + +<p>"Poppy," said Daisy, suddenly, taking no notice of this remark, "do +you know if Mrs. Ellsworthy is a very rich woman?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ellsworthy of Shortlands?" said Poppy; "why, in course; ever +since I can remember, my mother has said to me, 'Poppy, child, them +there Ellsworthys is made of money.'"</p> + +<p>"Made of money," repeated Daisy, a little shadowy smile coming to her +face; "then they must be really rich. Do you think, Poppy, that Mrs. +Ellsworthy is rich enough to give away £17 10<i>s.</i> to buy the daily +bread, and to help a little girl who could not help being selfish out +of a dreadful dark dungeon? Mrs. Ellsworthy has always been very kind, +and I used to love her when I lived at home, but if I thought she was +not really very, very rich, I would not ask her, for that might be +putting <i>her</i> to great trouble. Losing money makes one's heart ache +terrible, Poppy, and I would rather bear my own heartache than give it +to another person."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ellsworthy is made of money," repeated Poppy, "and £17 10<i>s.</i> +would be no more than a feather's weight to her. All the same, I can't +make out what you're driving at, Miss Daisy."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if Mrs. Ellsworthy is at Shortlands now," continued Daisy.</p> + +<p>"To be sure she is, Miss Daisy; shall I take her any message when I +goes back home?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Poppy, thank you very much. Poppy, I wish you had not lent +all that money to Jasmine two days ago—you have not any money in your +pocket now, have you, Poppy?"</p> + +<p>Poppy gave a slight sigh.</p> + +<p>"Just the price of a third single to Rosebury, and no more, Miss +Daisy, darling."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me," said Daisy, "it's just exactly that much money which +would make me perfectly happy. Must you go to Rosebury to-night, +Poppy?"</p> + +<p>"Well, missy, I'd do something to make you 'appy, but I don't know +where to go if I don't go to my home—to be sure, Aunt Flint would +give her eyes to get me back again, but I fears that even for you, +Miss Daisy, I can't bear no more of that Sarah game."</p> + +<p>"But don't you think you might be able to bear it just for a week, +Poppy? If I loved you always and always all the rest of my life, do +you think you could bear it just for one little week longer? I'd be +sure to let you have the money back again then, dear Poppy."</p> + +<p>Poppy gazed hard at the child, who was sitting upright on her sofa, +with her cheeks flushed and her eyes shining, and a fitful quiver +about her pretty lips.</p> + +<p>"What does it all mean?" thought practical Poppy; "it's more than +common worries ails the little dear. I'm sure I'd bear Sarah to my +dying day to help her, the sweet lamb! I wonder, now, has she lost +some of Miss Primrose's money. I know they're short enough of means, +the darling ladies, and maybe the child has mislaid some of their +money, and is frightened to tell. Dear me, I shouldn't think Miss +Primrose would be hard on any one, least of all on a sweet little lamb +like that; but there's never no saying, and the child looks pitiful. +Well, I'm not the one to deny her."</p> + +<p>"Miss Daisy," said Poppy, aloud, "I have got exactly fifteen shillings +in my purse, and that's the price of a third single to Rosebury, and +no more. It's true enough I meant to go down there to-night, and never +to see Aunt Flint again, but it's true also that she'd give her eyes +to have me back, and was crying like anything when I said good-bye to +her. 'Sarah,' she says, 'it's you that's ongrateful, and you'll find +it out, but if you comes back again you shall be forgiven, Sarah,' she +says. So I can go back for a week, Miss Daisy, and if you have lost +fifteen shillings, why, I can lend it to you, dearie."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Poppy, you are a darling!" said little Daisy. "Oh, Poppy, how can +I ever, ever thank you? Yes, I have—lost—fifteen shillings. You +shall have it back again, Poppy, and Poppy, I will always love you, +and always remember that you were the best of good fairies to me, and +that you took me out of the power of a terrible ogre."</p> + +<p>"All right, Miss Daisy," said Poppy, returning the child's embrace; +"here's the fifteen shilling, and welcome. Only I never would have +called sweet Miss Primrose an ogre, Miss Daisy."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2> + +<h3>THE JOURNEY.</h3> + + +<p>Poppy went away presently, and the moment she was gone Daisy began to +make some hasty little preparations.</p> + +<p>"I'll take the Pink with me," she said to herself. "I'll empty all the +things out of my little work-basket, and my darling Pink can sleep in +it quite snugly, and she'll be great company to me, for I cannot help +feeling very shaky, and I do start so when I see any one the least +like Mr. Dove in the distance. I mustn't think about being frightened +now—this is the least I could do, and if I'm terrified all over I +must go through with it."</p> + +<p>Then Daisy wrote a tiny note—a little note on half a sheet of +paper—which she tore out of her copy-book. It was blotted with tears +and almost illegible. This was what she said:—</p> + +<p>"Primrose, darling, I and the Pink, we have gone away for a little +bit. Your money is lost, Primrose, and I cannot look you in the face +until I get it back again. Don't be a bit frightened about me—I and +the Pink will come back when we have got the money.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Your loving little</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"DAISY."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>This note was left open on the table to greet Primrose when she came +in, and then Daisy buttoned on her little jacket, and put on her +strongest pair of boots, and the neat little hat which Primrose had +trimmed for her the week before, and popping the Pink into her +work-basket, she stole softly downstairs and out of the house without +old Bridget, who was busily engaged in the back kitchen, hearing her.</p> + +<p>The poor little maid got into the street just when the shades of +evening were beginning to fall. She had the Pink in her basket, and +fifteen shillings clasped tightly inside one of her gloves. Fifteen +shillings paid for a third single to Rosebury, and she was going to +Rosebury—so far her plans were definite enough; beyond this broad +fact, however, all was chaos.</p> + +<p>Daisy knew very little more about London than she had known nine +months before, when first she and her sisters arrived in the great +city. She had gone out much less than the other two, and she had never +gone alone. Whenever she had walked abroad she had gone with a +companion.</p> + +<p>Now her only companion was the Pink, and the poor little heart felt +very lonely, and the little feet trembled as they walked along the +pavement.</p> + +<p>She had been so terrified about Poppy finding out what she really +wanted to do with the fifteen shillings that she had been afraid to +ask her any questions about Rosebury. She had not an idea from what +railway station she was to go, and she feared, as she walked through +the streets, that she might have to walk many miles.</p> + +<p>At first she walked very rapidly, for she was anxious to get out of +Mr. Dove's neighborhood, and she also thought it just possible that +she might meet Primrose or Jasmine returning home. Besides the fifteen +shillings which were to pay for her ticket she had threepence of her +own in her pocket. When she had walked about half an hour, and thought +that she had gone a long way, and felt quite sure that she could not +be very far from the railway station which led to Rosebury, the Pink +awoke, and twisting and turning in her narrow basket began to mew +loudly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, poor Kitty Pink," said Daisy, "she must be wanting her supper, +poor dear little kitty! I'm not at all hungry myself, but I think I +ought to buy a penno'th of milk for my kitty. I'll just go into that +shop over there—I see that they sell bread and milk. Perhaps they'll +give me some bread and milk for kitty for a penny, and oh, perhaps +they will know if I am near the right railway station for Rosebury."</p> + +<p>Summoning up all her courage, for Daisy was naturally a timid child, +she ventured into the shop, and having asked for some bread and milk +for her cat, which was given with a little stare of amusement by a +good-natured looking woman, she put her important question in a very +faltering voice.</p> + +<p>"Rosebury, my little dear?" said the shopwoman; "no, I never heard of +the place. Is it anywhere near London, love?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Daisy; "it's miles and miles away from London. I know the +county it's in—it's in Devonshire and a third single costs fifteen +shillings, and I have got fifteen shillings in my glove. Now, perhaps, +you'll know where it is."</p> + +<p>"In Devonshire?" repeated the woman. "And a third single costs fifteen +shillings? Surely, miss, you are not going all that long way by +yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Daisy, in a dignified little tone. "I'm obliged to go. +Thank you very much for Pussy's milk. How much am I to pay? Oh, a +penny? Thank you. Good evening."</p> + +<p>The Pink was once more shut down into her basket, and Daisy hurried +out of the shop. The good-natured woman stared after her, and felt +half inclined to call her back; but, like many another, she reflected +that it was no affair of hers. The child went on to the end of the +long street, and then stood at a corner where several omnibuses came +up. A conductor, seeing her wistful little face, jumped down from his +stand, and asked her if she wanted to go anywhere.</p> + +<p>"To Rosebury, in Devonshire," said poor little Daisy. "It's fifteen +shillings a single third."</p> + +<p>The man smiled at the anxious little face.</p> + +<p>"You want to get to Devonshire, missy," he said. "Then I expect +Waterloo's your line, and this here 'bus of mine goes there. Jump in, +missy, and I'll put you down at the right place."</p> + +<p>"I've only got two pennies," said Daisy, "Will two pennies pay for a +drive to Waterloo for me and kitty?"</p> + +<p>The man smiled, and said he thought he might manage to take her to +Waterloo for that sum.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL.</h2> + +<h3>A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT.</h3> + + +<p>There are little girls of ten years old who in the present day are +possessed of a large amount of self-possession. Some of these little +maids are, in their own way, quite womanly—they can ask their way +without faltering, and they can even walk about alone in a great world +like London without losing themselves.</p> + +<p>But to this class of self-possessed little girls Daisy Mainwaring did +not belong. She had a charming, babyish little face, and was something +of the baby still in the confiding and wistful way in which she leaned +on others for support. Daisy was, perhaps, in all particulars younger +than her years. When at last, after inconceivable difficulties—after +being jostled about by an indifferent crowd, and pushed rudely against +by more than one stupid, blundering porter—she did find her way to +the right ticket-office, and did secure her single third to Rosebury, +and then get a very small allowance of room in a crowded third-class +carriage her heart was beating so loudly that she almost wondered it +did not burst. The great train, however, moved out of the terminus, +and Daisy felt herself whirling away through the night, and then she +became conscious of a little sensation of thankfulness. Surely the +worst of her journey was over now; surely she and the Pink would be +received very kindly and very lovingly by Mrs. Ellsworthy; surely Mrs. +Ellsworthy would listen with full credence to the little tale Daisy +would make up about an ogre having stolen away her money, and would +hasten to fill the poor empty little purse from her own abundant +stores. Daisy thought such happy and hopeful thoughts as she was +commencing her weary journey, and then she clasped the basket which +contained the Pink tightly in her little arms, and presently, from +sheer weariness, dropped asleep. When the little head bobbed forward +two or three times a good-natured neighbor put her arm round the +child, and after a little even took her into her arms, where Daisy, +after many hours of deep slumber, awoke. The night train to Rosebury +went very slowly, stopping at every little wayside station, and +sometimes seeming to the exasperated passengers scarcely to move at +all; but all these weary hours Daisy slumbered peacefully, and when +she awoke the sun was shining brightly, and a new day had begun.</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear, you have had a hearty sleep," said the good-natured +woman; "and where are you bound, if I may make so bold as to ask, +little miss?"</p> + +<p>"I am going to Rosebury," said Daisy. "Oh! how kind of you to let me +sleep in your arms. I've had quite a nice nap, and I'm not so very +tired. Thank you very much for being so very good to me. Are we near +Rosebury now, please?"</p> + +<p>"In half an hour you'll get there, dear. Now I must say good-bye, for +this is my station. Good-bye, missy, and a safe journey to you."</p> + +<p>"I'm so sorry you are going away," said Daisy, and she raised her +little lips to kiss her friend.</p> + +<p>"God bless you, love," said the nice, pleasant-faced woman, and then +she got out of the carriage, nodding her head to Daisy as she walked +away.</p> + +<p>The loneliness which had more or less been soothed or kept in abeyance +by this good woman's company now returned very strongly, and Daisy had +to feel a certain empty little purse which she held in her pocket to +keep up her resolution. She did not seem so certain about Mrs. +Ellsworthy being nice and kind as she was the night before. The +third-class carriage in which she had travelled was now nearly empty, +and when she at last arrived at Rosebury she was the only passenger to +alight. She gave up her ticket and walked out of the station, a +forlorn and unnoticed little personage. It was still very early in the +morning, not quite six o'clock, and there were very few people about, +and the whole place had a strange, deserted, and unhomelike feeling. +Could this be the Rosebury where Daisy was born, where she had been so +petted and loved? She did not like its aspect in the cold grey morning +light. There was a little drizzling mist falling, and it chilled her +and made her shiver.</p> + +<p>"I know I've been very, very selfish," she kept murmuring to herself. +"I oughtn't to have minded the dungeon. I ought not to have been so +terrified at the ogre. I'm afraid God is angry with me for being so +dreadfully selfish, and for letting the ogre take Primrose's money. I +always did think the sun shone at Rosebury, but perhaps even the sun +won't get up because he is angry with me."</p> + +<p>Daisy knew her way down the familiar and straggling village street, +but there were one or two different roads to Shortlands, and she +became puzzled which to take, and what with the drizzling rain, and +her own great fatigue of body, soon really lost her way.</p> + +<p>An early laborer going to work was the first person she met. She asked +him eagerly if she was on the right road; but he answered her so +gruffly that she instantly thought he must be a relation of Mr. Dove's +and ran, crying and trembling, away from him. The next person she came +across was a little boy of about her own age, and he was kind, and +took her hand, and put her once more in the right direction, so that, +foot-sore and weary, the poor little traveller did reach the +lodge-gates of Shortlands about nine o'clock.</p> + +<p>But here the bitterest of her disappointments awaited her, for the +woman who attended to the gates said, in a cold and unsympathizing +voice, that the family were now in London, and there was no use +whatever in little miss troubling herself to go up to the house. No +use at all, the woman repeated, for she could not tell when the family +would return, probably not for several weeks. Daisy did not ask any +more questions, but turned away from the inhospitable gates with a +queer sinking in her heart, and a great dizziness before her eyes. She +had come all this weary, weary way for nothing. She had taken dear +Poppy's last money for nothing. Oh, now there was no doubt at all that +God was very angry with her, and that she had been both wicked and +selfish. She had still twopence in her pocket—for the good-natured +omnibus conductor had paid her fare himself. She would go to the +nearest cottage and ask for some milk for the Pink, and then she +wondered—poor, little, lonely, unhappy child—how long it would take +her to die.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI"></a>CHAPTER XLI.</h2> + +<h3>MRS. DREDGE TO THE RESCUE.</h3> + + +<p>High tea at Penelope Mansion was an institution. Mrs. Flint said in +confidence to her boarders that she preferred high tea to late dinner. +She said that late dinner savored too distinctly of the mannish +element for her to tolerate. It reminded her, she said, of clerks +returning home dead-beat after a day's hard toil; it reminded her of +sordid labor, and of all kinds of unpleasant things; whereas high tea +was in itself womanly, and was in all respects suited to the gentle +appetites of ladies who were living genteelly on their means. Mrs. +Flint's boarders were as a rule impressed by her words, and high tea +was, in short, a recognized institution of the establishment.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the day when poor little Daisy had disappeared from +her Palace Beautiful Mrs. Flint's boarders were enjoying their genteel +repast in the cool shades of her parlor. They had shrimps for tea, and +eggs, and buttered toast, and a small glass dish of sardines, to say +nothing of a few little dishes of different preserves. Mrs. Dredge, +who was considered by the other ladies to have an appetite the reverse +of refined, had, in addition to these slight refreshments, a mutton +chop. This she was eating with appetite and relish, while Miss Slowcum +languidly tapped her egg, and remarked as she did so that it was +hollow, but not more so than life. Mrs. Mortlock, since the +commencement of her affliction, always sat by Mrs. Flint's side, and +when she imagined that her companions were making use of their sight +to some purpose she invariably requested Mrs. Flint to describe to her +what was going on. On this particular evening the whole party were +much excited and impressed by the unexpected return of Poppy, alias +Sarah.</p> + +<p>"It took me all of a heap!" said Mrs. Flint; "I really thought the +girl was saucy, and had gone—but never a bit of it. If you'll believe +me, ladies, she came in as humble as you please, and quite willing to +go back to her work in a quiet spirit. 'Sarah,' I said to her in the +morning, 'you'll rue this day,' and she did rue it, and to some +purpose, or she wouldn't have returned so sharp in the evening. She's +a good girl, taking her all in all, is Sarah, and being my own niece, +of course I put up with a few things from her which I would not take +from a stranger."</p> + +<p>"She spoke pretty sharp this morning about you, Mrs. Flint, to my +continual reader," said Mrs. Mortlock; "I wouldn't take no airs, if I +was you, from Sarah Maria. Miss Slowcum, I'll trouble you for the +pepper, please. Seeing that I'm afflicted, and cannot now use my +eyesight, I think there might be a little consideration in the small +matter of pepper shown to me, but feel as I will I can find it in no +way handy. Thank you, Miss Slowcum; sorry to trouble you, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"She grows more snappish each day," whispered Miss Slowcum to Mrs. +Dredge; but just then the attention of all the good ladies was +diverted by a ringing peal at the hall door-bell, followed by eager +voices in the hall, and then by the entrance of Poppy, alias Sarah, +who broke in upon the quiet of high tea with a red and startled face.</p> + +<p>"An awful trouble has happened," she began, breathlessly. "Oh, ladies, +you'll pardon me, but this is no time for standing on ceremony, when +my own darling little lady, Miss Daisy Mainwaring, has gone and left +her sheltering home."</p> + +<p>"Good gracious! my continual reader's little sister!" exclaimed Mrs. +Mortlock. "Left her home! you must be mistaken, Sarah Jane."</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am, it's a most sorrowful fact," said poor Poppy, who looked +terribly dejected, and nearly sobbed as she spoke; "the other two dear +young ladies has come for me, and I must go back with them. I'm +sorry, Aunt Flint, to part again so soon, but this is unexpected, and +my duty lies with my young ladies."</p> + +<p>"Your duty lies with your aunt, miss," here exclaimed the exasperated +Mrs. Flint. "Sarah, I was taking your part, but your airs are now past +standing. Ladies three, I feel convinced that this story is all a +make-up. I don't believe for a moment the child has gone away. It's a +make-up of Sarah's, who is turning into a most wicked girl."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe it," here exclaimed Miss Slowcum. "Sarah Bertha has +spoken the truth, I feel convinced. I had a warning dream last night. +I dreamt of white horses, and that always signifies very great +trouble. It's my belief that the poor dear innocent little child has +been murdered!"</p> + +<p>"Murdered!" almost screamed Mrs. Mortlock. "Miss Slowcum, I'll thank +you to come and take the seat next me, my dear, and tell me all your +reasons in full for making this most startling remark. My dear, I +don't object to holding your hand while you're pouring forth the tale +of woe. How and where, Miss Slowcum, did the child meet her death?"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, during this wrangling and fierce disputing, Mrs. Dredge, +more kind-hearted than the others, had left the room. She had gone +into the hall, where Primrose and Jasmine stood side by side. She had +listened to their bewildered and agitated little story, and then +asking them to sit down and wait for her, she had returned to the +parlor.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Flint," she said, "I have been talking to the two elder +Mainwaring girls; they are in the hall. No, Mrs. Mortlock, you can't +see Miss Primrose at present. The girls are in great trouble, for the +little one has gone away, and there seems to be a mystery about it +all. Your niece Sarah seems to be the last person who has seen the +child, Mrs. Flint, and, of course, Miss Primrose and Miss Jasmine want +to talk to her, and she had better go home with them. The friend they +live with, a Miss Egerton, left home this very afternoon to spend a +week in the country, and so the girls are quite defenceless, and have +nobody to consult. That being the case, I'm going back with them also +to their lodgings in a four-wheeler. Sarah Ann, go and fetch a +four-wheeler this instant, and don't stand gaping. Mind, a +four-wheeler, girl, and don't bring a hansom on no account near the +place. Yes, ladies, it's my duty to go with the poor orphans, and go I +will."</p> + +<p>While Mrs. Dredge was speaking Mrs. Mortlock ceased to hold Miss +Slowcum's very thin hand. Miss Slowcum's face looked decidedly +jealous, for she would have dearly liked to have been herself in Mrs. +Dredge's interesting and sympathizing position. Mrs. Mortlock raised +her almost sightless eyes to the fat little woman's face, and remarked +in a slightly acid voice—</p> + +<p>"I'm obliged to you, Mrs. Dredge, for thinking that in the moment of +trial the sight of me and a sympathizing squeeze from my hand would +have done my continual reader any harm. It's very good-natured of you +to go with the orphan girls, Mrs. Dredge, and I'm glad to think you've +just had the support of your chop to sustain you under the fatigue. +Please remember, Mrs. Dredge, that we lock up the house in this home +at ten o'clock, and no latch-keys allowed. Isn't that so, Mrs. Flint?"</p> + +<p>"Under ordinary circumstances, quite so, ma'am," answered Mrs. Flint, +who would not have minded snubbing Miss Slowcum, but was anxious to +propitiate both the rich widows; "under ordinary circumstances that is +so, but in a dire moment like the present I think the ten minutes' +grace might be allowed to Mrs. Dredge's kind heart."</p> + +<p>"Here's the four-wheeler!" exclaimed Mrs. Dredge.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, ladies. If I'm not in at ten minutes past ten don't look +for me until the morning."</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Dredge, Primrose, Jasmine, and Poppy got back to the girls' +pretty sitting-room the good-natured little widow proved herself a +very practical friend. First of all, she listened carefully to Poppy's +account of all that had transpired that day. She then got Primrose to +tell her as much as possible about Daisy. All the child's distress and +nervousness and unaccountable unhappiness were related, and the sage +little woman shook her head several times over the narrative, and said +at last, in a very common-sense voice—</p> + +<p>"It's as clear as a pikestaff to Jemima Dredge that that sweet little +child has been tampered with. Somebody has been frightening the bit of +a thing, Miss Primrose, and it's for you to find out who that somebody +is. As to where she's gone? Why, she has gone back to where she was +born, of course, and you and me will follow her by the first train in +the morning, my dear."</p> + +<p>"She was taking care of a cheque of mine for seventeen pounds ten +shillings," exclaimed Primrose, "and in her little note she speaks of +the money being lost. I think nothing of the loss of the money beside +Daisy, but, Mrs. Dredge, Jasmine and I cannot afford even a +third-class ticket to Rosebury just at present."</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut, my dear," said Mrs. Dredge, "what's the good of a full +purse except to share it? My poor husband Joshua was his name—we was +two J's, dear—he always said, 'Jemima, thank God the chandlery is +prospering. A full purse means light hearts, Jemima. We can shed +blessings with our means, Jemima.' Those was Joshua's words, Miss +Mainwaring, and I hear him now telling them to me from his grave. You +and me will go down to Rosebury in the morning, dear, and Miss +Jasmine will stay at home with Sarah Mary for company, for there's no +sense in waste, and one of you is quite enough to come."</p> + +<p>While this conversation was going on Bridget knocked at the girls' +door, and presented Jasmine with a thick parcel, which had just +arrived for her by post. It was some of the manuscript, and the first +proofs of her story. The parcel came to hand at a sorrowful moment, +and Jasmine laid it on the sofa, made no comment about it, and did not +attempt to open it. Primrose scarcely raised her head from her hands, +and was not the least curious, but Poppy's eyes gleamed brightly, for +sharp Poppy guessed what the parcel contained, and she sincerely hoped +that whatever happened this story would prove a great success, and +that it would bring in so many gold coins to her young lady that she +would become not only rich herself, but able to pay back what she had +borrowed from her. For although Poppy was the soul of generosity, she +<i>did</i> want her wages back.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id="CHAPTER_XLII"></a>CHAPTER XLII.</h2> + +<h3>A NEW EMPLOYMENT.</h3> + + +<p>At an early hour the next morning Mrs. Dredge and Primrose started for +Rosebury, and poor Jasmine and Poppy prepared to have a long and +lonely time by themselves. Poppy hoped that Jasmine would cheer up, +and look at that lovely printed story of hers, and perhaps read it +aloud to her; but poor Jasmine was really nearly broken-hearted, and +said once almost passionately—</p> + +<p>"How can I look at it, Poppy, when I don't know where our little +darling is? Did she not share my secret? And she was so proud of me +and she always would believe I was a genius. I can't look at it, +Poppy—no, I can't; but if you like to open the manuscript, and read +what is printed of the story, why you may. Yes, I expect you will find +it exciting. Sit down and read it, Poppy, and I will go to the window +and look out. Oh, dear! oh, dear! Primrose promised to send me a +telegram when she got to Rosebury. Oh, what shall I do if I don't soon +hear some news of my darling little Daisy?"</p> + +<p>"Seeing as I can't comfort you, Miss Jasmine, I may as well take to +reading the mysterious, lovely story," answered Poppy. "Maybe when +you're having your dinner bye-and-bye, miss, you won't object to me +telling you what I thinks of it."</p> + +<p>"Only I shan't care in the least what you think to-day, dear Poppy," +answered poor little Jasmine, in a tone of deep melancholy.</p> + +<p>She went and stood by the window, and Poppy ensconced herself +comfortably on the sofa, and began to enjoy herself as best she could +under the circumstances.</p> + +<p>In about an hour there came a tap at the door, and Arthur Noel came +in. Jasmine gave a little pleased exclamation when she saw him; then +she ran forward, took his hand in hers, and burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"Daisy is lost," she said; "our sweet little Daisy, who loved you so +much, is lost."</p> + +<p>"It's inferred that she's gone down with a single third to Rosebury, +sir," here interposed Poppy.</p> + +<p>"Come and tell me all about it, Jasmine," said Noel, in his most +sympathizing tones. He led the poor little girl to the sofa, and, +sitting down by her, listened attentively to her story.</p> + +<p>"But the Ellsworthys are in London," he said, when he heard that Daisy +had gone to them.</p> + +<p>On hearing this news poor Jasmine burst into floods of fresh weeping.</p> + +<p>"Oh, then she's sure to be quite lost!" she said. "Oh, Mr. Noel, if +you are in any sense a true friend, won't you try to find her?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jasmine; I will never rest until I find her. I am glad I came in +to-day. I came to ask you to do something for me, but I find you want +my help instead. I will come here this evening, about the time your +sister is likely to be back, and I will then go and look for Daisy, in +case she is not found. Don't be frightened, Jasmine, I am quite sure +we shall soon get tidings of the dear little girl."</p> + +<p>"And do you know," said Jasmine, who felt a little comforted, "that we +have not only lost Daisy, but all our quarter's money. It is most +mysterious. Primrose gave Daisy a check to take care of for her, and +Daisy says she has gone away because the cheque is lost. We have no +money now that the cheque is lost, except just what Primrose earns +from Mrs. Mortlock."</p> + +<p>"There's a likelihood of some more earnings presently, Miss Jasmine," +here interposed Poppy, in a cheerful voice; "there's a likelihood of a +good bit more money when this powerful and thrilling romance is +published."</p> + +<p>"Your story, Jasmine?" said Noel, "and in type? Who did you get to +publish it, my dear child? Oh, you must let me read this."</p> + +<p>"Another time, please, Mr. Noel. I don't think I could quite bear it +to-day," said Jasmine.</p> + +<p>Noel looked at her earnestly.</p> + +<p>"I wonder, Jasmine," he said, "even though you are in such trouble, if +you would be brave enough to help <i>me</i>, and to earn a little money to +day? I want you to do quite a simple thing, and something you will +probably enjoy. I have never read any of your romances, but I have +often noticed that you possess rather remarkable artistic tastes, and +that you have a very correct eye for the arrangement of color. I have +been struck with this even in this little room, and I happened to +mention my observations one day to a lady who is a friend of mine. +That lady is giving a dinner-party to-night, and she wants some one to +arrange the flowers on her table in as fresh and new a style as +possible. Will you come with me to her house now, and see what you can +do? She will provide you with the flowers and the glasses to put them +into, and you can arrange them on the table just as you like best. She +will give you a guinea for the work, and I think you will find it +light and pleasant."</p> + +<p>Jasmine's eyes began to sparkle.</p> + +<p>"Oh! at another time it would be delightful," she said.</p> + +<p>"But don't you want a guinea very badly now? Don't you think you had +better put on your hat and come away with me, and try to earn it?"</p> + +<p>"I will," said Jasmine, with sudden enthusiasm. "Oh, Mr. Noel, how +good you are! How I wish I had a brother, and that you were he!"</p> + +<p>Noel took Jasmine to his friend's house, where the little girl began +by being almost frightened, but soon forgot herself in the strong +interest of her pleasant work. Noel was right when he said Jasmine had +true artistic instincts. Certainly, hers was untaught genius, but her +unerring taste came to her aid, and Mrs. Daintree's dinner-table never +looked prettier or fresher than when the little maiden had completed +her work. The room was bright and sunny, but Jasmine gave the table a +bower-like and cool effect, and she not only dressed the dinner-table +but placed flowers here and there about the room. Mrs. Daintree was +delighted, and asked the pretty little girl to come again to arrange a +dinner-table for her the following week.</p> + +<p>With her golden sovereign and her shilling tucked tightly away in her +glove Jasmine did not feel altogether miserable as she went home; even +though Daisy might still be lost, those first earnings were sweet. She +rushed upstairs and told her tale to Poppy, who sympathized most +warmly with her. Very soon after her arrival a four-wheeler was heard +to draw up to the door, and Mrs. Dredge alone returned.</p> + +<p>"I have left Primrose at Rosebury," she said; "we have made inquiries, +and there is no doubt a child resembling Daisy went down by the night +train yesterday. We have searched high and low, however, but cannot at +present get any trace of her. Don't look so pale, Jasmine, she must +soon be found. Primrose is staying with Miss Martineau, and they are +not leaving a stone unturned to find her. Most likely they have done +so by now. Don't cry, Jasmine; take example by your sister—she's a +fine plucky bit of a lass, and does not waste her time in tears when +there's something to be done."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's just it," said Jasmine; Primrose has got something to do, +but I haven't—I can do nothing to find my little darling! Oh, Mrs. +Dredge, are not you awfully frightened about her?"</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut, my dear, not a bit of it! Of course, when a little lass +runs away all by herself there are most times difficulties in getting +trace of her, but don't you be in a way, for they won't last long."</p> + +<p>Poor little Jasmine sighed, and all her deep depression returned. She +was soothed again, however, by the sight of Noel, who came in very +soon afterwards. He said he had seen the Ellsworthys, and meant to go +down to Rosebury by the night train.</p> + +<p>"I'm pleased to hear it, young man," said Mrs. Dredge; "you're doing +just what my Joshua would have approved of had he been alive. Even +though Joshua was in the chandlery line he had a truly noble heart, +and one of his mottoes was that the strong should help the weak, and +if shoulders are made broad they should carry big burdens, so you go +down to Rosebury, young man, and prosper in your work."</p> + +<p>Noel smiled.</p> + +<p>"I will certainly do my best," he said; "I quite agree with your +husband's sentiments."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, young man, Joshua would have liked to know you in his +day. Dear, how stupid I am! but I didn't rightly catch your name. What +are you pleased to call yourself, sir?"</p> + +<p>"My name is Arthur Noel."</p> + +<p>"Well, what a small world we live in; it was only to-day I heard talk +of you. When Miss Primrose and I were down at Rosebury we came across +a gentleman of the name of Danesfield, and he came straight up to Miss +Primrose and said he had had a letter from you which he had not been +able to answer, because he was away. He said a lot to Miss Primrose +about the letter you wrote him; it seems that somebody must have +stolen three five-pound notes, which Mr. Danesfield put into a closed +envelope, and gave Miss Primrose for a kind of emergency fund when +she left her home. The poor lassie turned as white as a sheet when he +talked to her. Well, young man, you look white enough yourself at the +present moment, but I'll tell you, now, what has struck me, that +whoever took the three five-pound notes helped himself or herself to +that cheque of Miss Primrose's, and that poor little Daisy knows about +it."</p> + +<p>"I should not be the least surprised if you were right, Mrs. Dredge," +answered Noel. "Well, I must go now if I want to catch my train. +Good-bye, Jasmine keep up your heart—expect good news soon, and get +all the orders you can for dressing dinner-tables."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id="CHAPTER_XLIII"></a>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2> + +<h3>IN THE FIELD.</h3> + + +<p>Poor little Daisy, very faint and tired, and with a feeling of almost +despair in her little heart, presently crept through a gap in one of +the hedges, and sat down on the grass in a large field. She was so +foot-sore she could not walk another step; she was also terribly weak +from long fasting, and as she now had no hope at all of bringing +Primrose back her money, she felt disinclined to walk another step.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I'll soon die," she said to herself. "I wonder if God will +take me to heaven? I know I was very selfish about the dungeon. I +might have gone to the dungeon, and dear Primrose would have had her +money, and she and Jasmine would not have starved; but Mr. Dove did so +terrify me I really had not courage. Please, dear Jesus, I had not +courage. I'm only a very weak, frightened little girl, and I gave Mr. +Dove Primrose's money, and now I can't get it back from him, and I +think my heart is broken. I know, Jesus, you are angry with me, but +please don't go on being angry; please forgive me, for I am all alone +now without Primrose and Jasmine, and I think I'll soon die, for I +feel so very weak. I didn't tell a lie, either, Jesus; I never told +any one about Mr. Dove and the sticky sweetmeats—no, though I am a +coward about the dungeon, I would not go so far as to break my word. I +often longed to tell the Prince, for I felt he would deliver me from +the ogre, but I couldn't tell a lie even to be saved. Please, Jesus, +forgive me for being such a cowardly little girl."</p> + +<p>By this time the drizzling mist of the early morning had passed away, +the sun had come out, and the robins and thrushes in the hedge close +to Daisy began to sing. They poured out full notes of thrilling +sweetness and their music comforted the child, and she began to smile +very faintly to herself, and to hope that as God had let the sun come +out, and the birds sing, so He had forgiven her.</p> + +<p>The poor little Pink began to mew loudly in her basket, and Daisy let +her out of her prison, and when kitty rubbed her soft head against her +little mistress's sleeve the child felt some fresh thrills of comfort. +She felt terribly disinclined to move, however, and was really more +weak and exhausted than absolutely hungry. The day wore on, and the +little girl and her cat remained unnoticed in their corner of the +large field. There was a right of way through the field, and +foot-passengers came and went, but Daisy in her sombre little black +dress failed to attract any attention. She was quite in the shade +under her hedge-row, and it is to be doubted if any one saw her. At +last from utter weariness she sank down on the ground and fell asleep. +The Pink curled herself up by her little mistress's side and slept +also. It was then that the sun, slowly travelling across the heavens, +found them out in their shady corner, and kissed them, and made +pussy's soft little grey coat shine. The child and the cat were thus +made visible, and attracted the attention of a woman who was walking +across the field with a market-basket on her arm. She came up at once +to examine the little group; then she bent down close, then she gave +an exclamation half of horror, half of delight, and then she took the +sleeping child up in her arms, and covered her with passionate kisses.</p> + +<p class="figcenter"><img src="./images/illus001.jpg" alt="SHE CAME UP TO EXAMINE THE LITTLE GROUP." title="SHE CAME UP TO EXAMINE THE LITTLE GROUP." /></p> +<p class="figcenter"><b>SHE CAME UP TO EXAMINE THE LITTLE GROUP.</b> Palace B.</p> + +<p>"Oh! my own little Miss Daisy—my own little darling precious lamb! +And is it thus you have come back to your poor old Hannah again!"</p> + +<p>Nothing could have comforted Daisy more under present circumstances +than to find herself in her old nurse's arms. She quite gasped with +the joy and relief, and putting up her little hand to Hannah's face, +she stroked it fondly.</p> + +<p>"Now, my darling, where have you come from? and what are you doing? +and—why, if that isn't the little Pink, I declare! Now, my pet, tell +me, have you all three come back to Rosebury again?"</p> + +<p>"No, Hannah, I'm the only one who has come back. Oh Hannah, will you +please take me to our little cottage for a few hours—I should so like +to die there—I was born there, wasn't I, Hannah?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, love, but you're not going to die there, nor nowhere else. I +can't take you back to the cottage, dearie, for it's let, and I'm not +living there. I've a little bit of a place of my own in the village of +Teckford and I keep a small shop, and don't do so bad. You must come +home now with me, darling. Oh, yes, you must—not a word must you say +against it; then, when you've rested, and have had some nice bread and +milk, you shall tell old Hannah your story; and if so be as you're in +any trouble, why, your old nurse Hannah will set her wits to work to +find a way out of it. Now, my darling, I'm going to carry you to my +cottage."</p> + +<p>Daisy was certainly very weak. She tried to expostulate with +Hannah—she tried to say that her one and only duty was to try and get +tidings of Mrs. Ellsworthy's whereabouts, and then to follow her on +foot if necessary; but if the little spirit was willing, the flesh was +weak. The comfort of seeing her nurse again was too much for +Daisy—the knowledge that those were the very arms which had carried +her as a baby, and soothed her and tended her as a little child, was +quite too cheering to be resisted. Daisy made a valiant effort to say +"No," but instead, her lips formed a faint "Yes, Hannah, take me to +your home," and then Hannah, who was a strongly-built woman, lifted +the slight little girl in her arms, and carried her across the fields +to her tiny cottage at Teckford. All the time, while she was being +carried in those kind arms, Daisy kept repeating to herself, "I'll +have some bread and milk, for I am a little hungry, and I'll rest for +perhaps an hour, and then I'll go away on foot with my dear Pink to +find Mrs. Ellsworthy."</p> + +<p>But when the child and the woman reached the house in the village +Daisy was too faint and weary to take more than a spoonful or two of +bread and milk, and long before the night arrived she had forgotten +that she meant to undertake any journey, and lay with burning cheeks +and bright, feverish eyes on Hannah's bed in her little home.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id="CHAPTER_XLIV"></a>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2> + +<h3>TOO MUCH FOR DOVE.</h3> + + +<p>Mrs. Dredge's remarks had by no means been lost on Noel. When he left +Miss Egerton's house he consulted his watch, and found that he had +still an hour to spare before he need try to catch his train. He +thought for a moment or two, recalled certain expressions on Daisy's +face, certain words which dropped from her lips, and, above all, a +look which had filled her pretty eyes on the one and only occasion +when they had met Dove together.</p> + +<p>Noel began to feel more and more certain that this man, to whom he had +taken a great dislike, had something to say to all the child's misery. +Noel knew, however, that suspicion in such a case would be of little +avail—he must have certainty, and certainty could only be his by +cautious and wary movements.</p> + +<p>Again he consulted his watch, and now he determined on a bold course. +He remembered that the girls had once told him that Dove was a painter +by trade, but that he seldom or never had anything to do. Noel was +extremely fastidious, and, if possible, almost over-refined in the +arrangements of his own home. He made his little plan with a sigh, but +he would have done more than this for the sake of pretty little Daisy.</p> + +<p>Walking quickly, he soon found himself at the Doves' address in Eden +Street. His knock at the hall door was answered by Tommy Dove, who +assured him that both his father and mother were having high tea with +shrimps and watercresses in the back parlor.</p> + +<p>Noel said he wanted to see Dove on business, and Tommy, remarking that +the back parlor was as good a place as any other for this purpose, +ushered the visitor in direct.</p> + +<p>"I believe you are a painter," said Noel—"I have chambers at +Westminster, and want to have my balcony and front windows painted. +I've heard of you through the Miss Mainwarings, and as I'm in a hurry +to get the job completed at once, I have called round to know if you +are disengaged."</p> + +<p>"Of course you are, Dove," said his wife.</p> + +<p>"Softly, my only love," replied her husband. "Sir, be pleased to take +a seat. I shall be glad to do my best for you, and any recommendation +from the young ladies you mention is most gratifying to me. Sweet +young ladies they was, and ever will be—and my wife and me, we +mourns unceasing for their departure."</p> + +<p>"Speak for yourself, Dove," said the wife—"we are doing better with +our present attics than we ever did with our late attics. Sir, you'll +excuse me, but truthful I ever will be at all costs."</p> + +<p>"Can you paint my windows or not?" said Noel, rising to his feet, and +speaking with some asperity. "If you are too busy to undertake the +work pray say so, and let me seek some one else, for my time is +precious."</p> + +<p>"Of course he'll do it, sir," said Mrs. Dove. "Say yes to the +gentleman, Dove, and thank him, and have done with it."</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, I am very busy," said Dove. "I haven't a moment to call my +own for weeks to come, but all the same, I wouldn't disoblige the late +attics for a good deal, so I'll just put off the Cooks, who are wild +to get their house-cleaning through, and Mr. Martin, who keeps the +bacon and 'am shop, must wait. Yes, sir, I wait your pleasure, sir—I +can come."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow morning, then, early," said Noel, "this is my address. Ask +for my servant when you arrive, and he will show you what you are to +do, and will also give you directions as to the colored paint I wish +used. I must hurry off now, for I'm going down to the country on some +very sad business. You will be sorry to hear, Mr. Dove, that Miss +Daisy Mainwaring has lost a considerable sum of money, and the poor +little child is in such trouble about it that she has run away. Of +course, I don't believe for a moment that she has really lost the +money—of course it was stolen from her. Well, good-bye, I'm going to +seek her, and to try to catch the thief. Be sure you arrive at my +house in good time in the morning, Dove."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, very sorry to hear your bad news," said Dove, in a +self-possessed voice, but Arthur saw that his color had changed, and +he wanted no stronger clue to confirm his suspicions. When he got into +the street he not only consulted his watch, but a time-table. A later +train than he had intended to travel by would take it to Rosebury +early in the morning. He would go by this train. Now he jumped into a +hansom and drove to his chambers. His servant came to him, to whom he +gave hasty directions.</p> + +<p>"You're to buy the paint yourself, Lawson; see that it is properly +mixed, and the right shade. Move the plants from the balcony early in +the morning—the man will arrive in good time, and listen, Lawson, I +don't want him to be too closely watched."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that, sir?" said Lawson.</p> + +<p>"Only that you need not stay in the room all the time—come in and +out, of course—but don't imagine the man to be a thief until he is +proved such."</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, your commands must be obeyed, of course, but you have many +articles of virtue and elegance about."</p> + +<p>"Never mind that, Lawson—do as I tell you."</p> + +<p>When his servant left the room Noel took a five-pound note out of his +pocket, and enclosing it in an open envelope laid it carelessly on the +chimney-piece. There was no writing on the envelope, and the note +might well have been slipped into it by mistake. Noel also slipped a +ring of some value from his finger, and dropped it into a little tray, +which contained odds and ends of different descriptions.</p> + +<p>"Now I've laid my trap," he said to himself. "My poor little Daisy, I +hope I may ensnare your ogre to his destruction."</p> + +<p>The next morning early Dove, well pleased with his job, and never +guessing that the smallest suspicions had attached themselves to him, +arrived at Noel's rooms. He was a most idle man, and seldom cared for +work, but he was pleased at Noel's singling him out, and imagined that +notwithstanding her running away, he owed this visit to little Daisy.</p> + +<p>"She's a pert little thing," he said to himself, "and if she's so true +to me as all this, why I suppose I must leave her alone in the future. +I made a nice little haul out of her the other day, and I've got +several of them sovereigns about me still; but lor, wasn't she in a +piteous fright when I took that cheque away with me!"</p> + +<p>Dove was highly pleased with the appearance of Noel's rooms. He could +see no beauty in the simplicity of the girls' Palace Beautiful, but +although he was quite incapable of judging of the value of the +pictures and exquisite little statuettes which adorned the walls, he +was judge enough of the depth and richness of the Turkey rugs, and of +the wealth which must have been expended over the very select +furniture of Noel's sitting-room.</p> + +<p>Lawson, wondering much at his master's directions but supposing that +Dove must be a very special <i>protégé</i>, received him with much +cordiality, gave him directions with regard to his work, and then left +him alone. Dove painted and cleaned, and whistled as he worked; he +felt quite cheerful and virtuous, and began to consider that the +position of British workmen was not such a bad one after all. He felt +more and more pleased with Daisy Mainwaring for having put him in the +way of such agreeable and profitable occupation, and more and more +resolved to leave her alone for the future.</p> + +<p>"Maybe if I was to talk to the pretty little dear she'd find me a deal +more jobs of this yere sort," he said to himself. "A little lady she +is, and no mistake, and she keeps very genteel friends, as any one can +see with half an eye."</p> + +<p>After Dove had worked for two or three hours he began to feel thirsty, +for he was quite unaccustomed to any continuous labor. The sun was +shining brightly on the balcony, and he was also a little hot, and the +inside of Noel's room looked deliciously cool and inviting. He had +just seen Lawson walking down the street, too, so he was quite sure of +having the premises to himself. Slipping off his shoes he stepped into +the room and began to look about him with an appreciative air. He +handled some of Noel's choicest books, and looked through a portfolio +of rare engravings but neither books nor engravings were quite in +Dove's way, and after a time he strolled over to the mantel-piece, as +he said, to see how he looked reflected in the over-mantel glass. +There were letters there directed to Noel. Dove would have dearly +liked to acquaint himself with their contents, but he was a slow and +deficient reader. Some cigars lay in a little cigar-case at one end. +Dove, as a matter of course, and without weighing the question at all, +slipped a couple into his pocket. After doing this he did not feel +quite so virtuous, nor so like the proverbial British workman; he +jingled some of Daisy's sovereigns in his pocket, and laughed when +they made a pleasant sound. Still eagerly peering at all the articles +on the mantel-piece his quick eyes presently detected amongst a heap +of rubbish and odds and ends Noel's valuable signet-ring; it was of +heavy workmanship, and its gold alone made it worth money.</p> + +<p>"Why, Isaacs the Jew would give me two pound ten, or perhaps three +pounds for this," queried Dove. "It has plainly been forgotten here, +and if the gent does miss it he'll lay the blame on that fine fellow +Lawson."</p> + +<p>It took a very small parley with Dove's seared conscience to make him +pocket the ring, and by the time Lawson returned to the house the +five-pound note had also been appropriated. Dove whistled more +cheerily than ever over his work that afternoon, and in the evening he +went home quite unsuspecting any little trap which might have been set +for him.</p> + +<p>He had scarcely gone before a boy arrived with a telegram directed to +Lawson, and with a reply pre-paid. Lawson read the following words:—</p> + +<p>"Look on the mantel-piece in my sitting-room for a blank envelope, +open, which contains a five-pound note—No. 11267. I also left my ring +in the cigar tray. Wire reply if note and ring are safe.—ARTHUR +NOEL."</p> + +<p>The address to reply to was added.</p> + +<p>Poor Lawson spent an agonized ten minutes in searching over the +contents of the mantel-piece. In the end he had to fill in the reply +telegram with the news that nowhere could the five-pound note nor the +ring be found.</p> + +<p>A little over two hours passed, and again the worthy servant was +startled by a telegraphic dispatch. This was what it contained:—</p> + +<p>"Have reasons to believe that the painter Dove is the thief. Go +instantly to the nearest police-station, give them the number of the +note, and go with one of their staff to Dove's house. His address is, +10, Eden Street, Junction Road, Holloway. The note and ring will +probably be found on his person. Get him apprehended if possible. Take +all necessary cabs.—ARTHUR NOEL."</p> + +<p>Thus it came to pass that when that evening Dove sat down tranquilly +to a luxurious supper of lobster salad, chops, and bottled stout, he +was unpleasantly interrupted. When two policemen, accompanied by +Lawson, came into his room, he was guilty of using very violent +language, and altogether conducted himself in a most excited manner; +but, notwithstanding his resistance, and Mrs. Dove's hysterics, and +some terribly distressing chuckles, really sounding more like laughter +than tears, which were heard to issue from the lips of that naughty +boy, Tommy, a strict search of his person was instituted, and in +consequence he was that very night locked up in jail.</p> + +<p>Oh, if only poor little Daisy, tossing on her hot and feverish pillow, +could have known!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id="CHAPTER_XLV"></a>CHAPTER XLV.</h2> + +<h3>THE PRINCE TO THE RESCUE.</h3> + + +<p>Hannah was doing well in her little shop at Teckford. She had always +been a most saving body, and although Mrs. Mainwaring had never been +able to pay her high wages, she had managed to put the greater portion +of what she received away. Hannah was one of those fortunate +individuals on whom even a shabby dress will look neat. Her boots +lasted twice as long as any one else's, her caps retained their starch +and their whiteness long after another servant's would have had to be +resigned to a fresh cleaning process. Hannah therefore required little +or no money to spend on dress, and in consequence, when the Mainwaring +girls went away, she had a little nest-egg laid by to stock a shop. +She found a suitable little house at Teckford, laid in her little +store of provisions with care, for she argued wisely that however poor +people were they required food, and was living very comfortably on the +proceeds of her sales. Hannah, as a rule, had a smooth and unruffled +brow; she was a careful woman, but not a troubled one. At the present +moment, however it could scarcely be said of this good soul that she +was without cares. The neighbors who came in to buy their bacon, and +fresh eggs, and candles, and tea, remarked that Hannah had no longer a +cheery word and a pleasant smile to give them, and the children, when +they tumbled out their halfpennies and asked for "a little piece of +taffy, please, ma'am," noticed that Hannah's eyes had red rims round +them, and they wondered if she was naughty, and that was why she +cried.</p> + +<p>Yes, poor Hannah had a troubled heart during those early summer days, +for Daisy lay so weak and languid, and indifferent to all external +things, on her tiny little bed, never giving Hannah any information as +to why she had wandered alone to Rosebury, never saying anything about +the weight of sorrow which rested on her little heart, only now and +then moaning out that she must get up and go to Mrs. Ellsworthy, and +now and then feebly saying that she wished so very much that the +Prince was there.</p> + +<p>Hannah knew all about Mrs. Ellsworthy, and how she had taken the girls +up, and tried to help them, after their mother's death; but who was +the Prince?</p> + +<p>Finding that the child continued slightly feverish, and most +unnaturally weak—finding that the dainties she prepared were only +just tasted by the little sufferer—Hannah looked well into her little +store of hardly-earned money, and finding that she had sufficient to +pay him, called in the village doctor.</p> + +<p>Of course, with his limited experience, this good man could little +understand Daisy's case. He ordered medicine for her, and plenty of +cooling drinks, and said that he could not find anything very much the +matter, only she was most unnaturally weak.</p> + +<p>"It's my thinking, sir," said Hannah, "that this is the kind of +weakness that ends in death. My little lady is all on the pine for +something or some one, and unless she gets what she wants soon she +will die."</p> + +<p>Hannah's view of the case was rather puzzling to the doctor, who +stared at her, and considered her from that day forward a very +fanciful woman. He repeated his injunctions to give Daisy plenty of +milk, and to see that she took her tonic three times a day; and then +he took his leave.</p> + +<p>When he was gone Hannah went to her next-door neighbor and asked her +if she would be so very kind as to go and sit in the child's room for +a couple of hours. Then she put on her bonnet and neat black cloak, +and started off on foot to Rosebury. She had made up her mind to get +Mrs. Ellsworthy's address from some one, and to write to her about +Daisy. In due time she arrived at the lodge, saw the woman who kept +the gates, obtained from her without much difficulty Mrs. Ellsworthy's +address, and then prepared to return home. Just as she reached the +stile, however, which led into the field where she had found Daisy, a +thought struck her—she had no writing-paper in the house, and what +could be bought at Teckford was almost too bad to use. Hannah made up +her mind to go to Rosebury, which was a much more important village +than Teckford, and get a few sheets of note-paper, and an envelope or +two. She walked very fast, for she did not like to leave Daisy so long +by herself, and, panting and hurried, she at last arrived at the +little stationer's shop. The stationer's wife knew Hannah, and greeted +her with effusion.</p> + +<p>"I'm truly pleased to see you, Mrs. Martin," she said. "Why you're +quite a stranger in these parts, and I did not expect to see you round +now, with one of your young ladies returned and all."</p> + +<p>Hannah heaved a profound sigh.</p> + +<p>"She's very, very ill, poor darling," she said. "Very dangerously weak +and ill; and I must trouble you to hasten with the paper, Mrs. Jones. +One penn'orth of your most shining note, and two envelopes to match. +Mind you, give me a paper with a good gloss on it, Mrs. Jones."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Jones stared at Hannah Martin; but fetching down a box of +note-paper, prepared to wrap some sheets in tissue paper.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't say Miss Primrose was ill," she remarked as she did so, +"though she do seem worried, dear young lady."</p> + +<p>When the shop-woman made this observation Hannah's pence tumbled down +on the counter with a crash.</p> + +<p>"Goodness gracious me, ma'am!" she exclaimed, "you don't mean to tell +me that Miss Primrose Mainwaring is at Rosebury?"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course, ma'am; why, don't you know? why you said but now how +weak and ill she was."</p> + +<p>"Never mind the paper," answered Hannah, "and never mind a word I said +about anybody; just have the goodness to tell me where I'll find Miss +Primrose."</p> + +<p>"She was staying with Miss Martineau but yesterday and there's a +gentleman come down, too—a very 'ansome, harristocratic-looking young +man, I call him, and for all the world as like our pretty Miss Jasmine +as if he was own brother to her—and they two and Miss Martineau are +fairly scouring the place for that poor little tot Miss Daisy, who it +seems 'as run away from home. Why, Hannah—Hannah Martin, woman! are +you daft?"</p> + +<p>For Hannah had rushed from the shop while Mrs. Jones was speaking, +leaving her neglected paper and two or three pence behind her on the +counter. A few moments later the good soul was knocking at Miss +Martineau's door, and very soon Primrose and Arthur Noel too were in +possession of all the facts that Hannah could give them.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Hannah! it is so good to think you were the one to save her and +find her," said Primrose, as she kissed her old nurse, and shed some +thankful tears.</p> + +<p>"You had better come back with me now, Miss Primrose," said Hannah, +"and perhaps the gentleman or Miss Martineau will send a telegraphic +message to poor Miss Jasmine."</p> + +<p>But Primrose's difficulties had not come to an end. She instantly +started to walk across the fields with Hannah; but when Daisy heard +she had come she absolutely refused to see her, and cried so +piteously, and got into such an excited state, that Primrose felt +herself obliged to yield to the child's caprice, and to keep out of +the room.</p> + +<p>"I can't see her, Hannah," poor little Daisy said. "Of all people in +all the world, I can't see my own Primrose. Oh, if only I were well +enough to go to Mrs. Ellsworthy, or if only the Prince would come!"</p> + +<p>Primrose heard Daisy's weak little voice through the thin walls of +Hannah's cottage.</p> + +<p>"Hannah," she said, "I know who Daisy means by the Prince. The Prince +is that kind Mr. Noel, who has been helping me to find the little +darling. If he has not gone back to London, for he said he would go +back at once after he knew we had found Daisy, he could come to her. +Oh, Hannah," continued poor Primrose, "I cannot think what has +happened to your dear baby, Daisy. I begin to believe what Mr. Noel +has been hinting to me—that some one has got a secret influence over +her."</p> + +<p>"We had better see and find this Mr. Noel at once, miss, now," said +practical Hannah. "We can think of secret influences and all that sort +of thing when we have found the gentleman whom the dear child is +pining to see. If Mr. Noel is still at Rosebury you had better put on +your hat, Miss Primrose, and walk across the fields to the village, +and bring him back with you. I'll stay with Miss Daisy and soothe her +the best way I can. She's dreadful agitated and very weak and +trembling ever since you came in, miss."</p> + +<p>Primrose said she would go back to Rosebury directly, and she was so +fortunate as to meet Noel as he was starting for London.</p> + +<p>"You must come with me," she said earnestly. "I fear our dear little +Daisy is even worse than Hannah represented her to be. She has +absolutely refused to see me, and talks only about you and Mrs. +Ellsworthy. I don't know what she can want with either of you, but it +is quite evident that she thinks you can help her and save her from +some great trouble. Poppy said she wanted Mrs. Ellsworthy to give her +money; I suppose to replace what she lost of mine. Well, Mrs. +Ellsworthy is not here; so can you come to see her to-night?"</p> + +<p>"I will come at once, Miss Mainwaring," answered Noel. "If we walk +down this street we shall pass the post-office, and I can send a +telegram to Mrs. Ellsworthy and also to my servant, Lawson. I must try +and get into town some time to-morrow, however, for I have got to +attend the trial of no less a person than your old landlord, Dove. He +was apprehended for stealing a bank-note and a ring from my +mantle-piece."</p> + +<p>"I never liked that man," said Primrose; "indeed, I never thought +either of the Doves quite honest. Mrs. Dove made a rule of keeping +back a little of the money she borrowed from me on all occasions."</p> + +<p>Then Primrose and Noel walked as quickly as they could down the +village street. Noel despatched his necessary telegram, and in a short +time they both found themselves in Hannah's humble cottage.</p> + +<p>"She is asleep," said Hannah, as she came out to meet them. "She is +moaning in her sleep, and she gives sighs enough to break your heart. +You had better, both of you, stay in my little sitting-room until she +awakes."</p> + +<p>"If you will allow me," said Noel, "I will go and sit beside her bed; +she is accustomed to me. I will promise to be very careful in my +dealings with her. I believe I can talk to her without startling her +in the least."</p> + +<p>Hannah looked dubious, but Primrose interposed in her gentle voice—</p> + +<p>"Yes, Hannah, Mr. Noel will not startle Daisy; he has always had a +most happy influence over her."</p> + +<p>Poor little Daisy! the sight of her wan face, the anxious expression +which seemed indelibly stamped on her childish brow, gave Noel so +strong a sense of pain and indignation that he sincerely longed to +secure for Dove as severe a punishment as the law would give. He sat +down gently by the humble little bed, and when the child moaned and +tossed in her sleep he laid his cool hand on her forehead. That hand +had a magnetic effect—even in her sleep Daisy seemed to know it. She +murmured, "The Prince, has he come?" and a moment after she opened her +dark blue eyes and fixed them on Noel, while a very faint smile +flitted across her little face.</p> + +<p>"You have come at last, Mr. Prince. I am very, very glad; I have +wanted you," she said.</p> + +<p>"I have wanted you, Daisy; I have been looking for you everywhere. I +have been in great trouble about you," answered Noel, in his gentlest +tones.</p> + +<p>"Have you?" said little Daisy; "I am sorry you have been in trouble. +Do you know that Primrose came to-day and I could not see her? I can +see you, but not Primrose. Please let me hold your hand. I don't feel +so dreadfully weak when I hold your hand. Will you stoop down, and let +me talk to you. I can't talk at all loud, for I'm dreadfully weak. Do +you know, Mr. Prince, that I'm going to die?"</p> + +<p>"No, Daisy, I don't think you are," answered Noel. I am the Prince who +delivers little girls from ogres. I never heard of a little girl dying +after she was delivered from the ogre."</p> + +<p>"Wicked little girls are not delivered," answered Daisy. "I was so +dreadfully cowardly. I was afraid of a dark dungeon, and so—and +so—but I mustn't tell you. I did lose Primrose's money, and I was a +coward, but I haven't been so bad yet as to tell a lie. You mustn't +ask me to tell you what it all means, Mr. Prince, for I can't. I hope +very much you'll forgive me for being a cowardly little girl; God has, +long ago, for I asked Him, and I am not really afraid to die. I +shouldn't feel a bit afraid or unhappy about it if I thought Primrose +and Jasmine could have their money."</p> + +<p>Here Daisy's voice quite failed her, and she looked so dreadfully +white and weak that Noel began to fear there was some truth in her +poor little words. He saw that their interview must not be prolonged, +and that he must give the child relief as soon as possible.</p> + +<p>"Daisy, you have got to listen to me," he said. "You need say very +little yourself, but you can listen to my words. I know why you want +to see Mrs. Ellsworthy—yes, dear, you can hold my hand as tightly as +possible. No, don't tremble; you want Mrs. Ellsworthy to give you some +money. She is not here; I know she would help you, and feel sorry for +you, but there are others who do that. Daisy, suppose I give you back +your money instead of Mrs. Ellsworthy? Give me your little hand, dear, +and let me put the money into it. Here; it makes quite a small +parcel—a ten-pound note, a five-pound note, two sovereigns and a +half. Now, Daisy, shall we keep this as a little secret between +ourselves? Primrose will ask no questions if you beg of her not, and +when you have put that money into her hand will you not be able to +have her with you again?"</p> + +<p>Daisy's little hot hand closed tightly over the money. She did not +speak, or even attempt to thank Noel, but her eyes, wider and wider +open each moment, were fixed intently on his face.</p> + +<p>"That is settled, then, Daisy," continued Noel, "and we need not think +of Mrs. Ellsworthy just at present, for you do not now need her +services. Of course a Prince is the right person to deliver a little +girl from a dreadful ogre. I don't see that Mrs. Ellsworthy should +have anything to do with it. Now, my dear, I'm going to say one or two +other things to you—you need not feel the least frightened."</p> + +<p>"May I really keep the money?" whispered Daisy at last.</p> + +<p>"Of course, I said so. We will not say any more on this subject at +present. I have given you the money to-night, because I want you to +have Primrose sitting by your side and nursing you and comforting you. +When Primrose is with you again you will cease to think those gloomy +thoughts about dying. Now I have something else to add before I leave +you."</p> + +<p>Noel had now taken a very firm hold of Daisy's little hand. She had +been trembling a good deal, but she had certainly grown calmer. +Perhaps the knowledge that she really did possess some money to give +to Primrose was comforting her. Noel felt a sense of distress at +disturbing even for her eventual good the child's present calm. It +must be done, however, and he thought a moment how he could most +gently deal with her.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to tell you a story, Daisy," he said—"a very sad story, +and, alas, a true one. There lives a little girl, I will not tell her +name, although I know it, who has been unfortunate enough to get into +the power of a very bad man. The man is very, very bad, but I will +not mention his name here, although I know it also. The man came to +the little girl and talked to her, and no doubt he threatened her, and +at last he made her promise him something—what, I cannot say. From +the moment this little girl made this promise she became thin and +white, and anxious and unhappy. She struggled against the terrible +promise which seemed to bind her with fetters of iron, but she could +never get away from it, and the man appeared like a terrible ogre to +her, and she longed for a Prince to come and deliver her from him. The +wicked man having terrified this poor little girl, did his best to use +his influence over her to his own ends. At one time she lived in the +house with him, but although she struggled against it her friends +induced her to go elsewhere. Even in the new palace, however, she was +not safe from the terrible ogre; he followed her, and, it is to be +feared, although nothing is absolutely known, that he used cruel +threats to induce her to give him some money which was not hers to +give. The poor little weak girl was afraid to consult any one on +account of her promise. It was quite natural she should think it right +to keep her promise, although it was very sad. She was so completely +under the power of the wicked man, or the ogre, as we will call him, +that she gave him her sister's money—the money that was to support +them all for some months, and then in her great despair she ran +away." Here Noel paused—Daisy's eyes were fixed on him. Her face was +white as death.</p> + +<p>"You see, dear, it is a painful story," he said, "but it is not quite +finished yet. The poor little girl ran away, but she never knew what +was happening to the ogre. That wicked man was not allowed to continue +his evil ways without punishment. At the present moment he is locked +up safely in prison, where he can hurt no one. He was put there +because he stole a five-pound note and a ring from the gentleman whom +the little girl used to call the Prince. It is believed, though of +course nothing is certainly known, nor will be until the little girl +is taken out of the thraldom of the ogre and confesses what has +happened, that this wicked man has also stolen a good deal of money +from an envelope which the elder sister used to consider her +'Emergency Fund' envelope. In short, it is thought that his one object +in frightening the poor little girl was simply to rob her and her +sisters. Now that he is in prison, however, and quite out of the way +of harming any one, it is greatly hoped by those who love her that the +poor little one, who was made to suffer so cruelly, will be released +from the thraldom of the wicked ogre, and be made to see that there +are times and circumstances during which even the most truthful little +girl would do better to break her word than to keep it. Now, Daisy, +that is the end of my story; I've got nothing more to say about it, +for at present I know nothing more. Good-night, dear—I will send +Primrose to you. I will come to you when you want me again."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id="CHAPTER_XLVI"></a>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2> + +<h3>DELIVERED FROM THE OGRE.</h3> + + +<p>"Here's the money, Primrose—here's all the money," said little Daisy, +in a weak, weak voice, when her sister came up to her bedside, and +bent over her. "It was lost and the Prince brought it back; you won't +ask me any questions about it, will you, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"No," exclaimed Primrose, in her very quiet and matter-of-fact +voice—the kind of voice which was most soothing to the excitable and +nervous child at the present moment.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to have it back, Daisy, dear, for I have missed it; but of +course, I shan't ask you any questions about it. I shall just put it +into my purse, and you shall see what a nice fat purse I have got once +more."</p> + +<p>Then Primrose held her little sister's hand, and shook up her pillows, +and tended her as only she knew how, but all that night Daisy grew +more and more restless. The drowsy state in which she had hitherto +been had changed to one of wakefulness. All through the long night +the little creature's bright eyes remained open, and her anxious face +had a question on it which yet she never spoke. At last, as the bright +summer's morning broke, she turned to Primrose and said eagerly—</p> + +<p>"Kneel down, Primrose, and ask God what a very ignorant, very unhappy +little girl ought to do. Oh, Primrose, it's all about a promise—a +promise that was most faithfully given. What shall I do about it?"</p> + +<p>"Do you want to keep it, or to break it?" asked Primrose.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me I ought to keep it, Primrose, because a promise, +faithfully given, ought always to be kept; but Mr. Noel says I ought +to break this promise; oh, I don't know what to do!"</p> + +<p>"Your heart won't be at rest, Daisy, and you won't really get better, +until you do know what to do," answered Primrose. "Of course, I will +kneel down and ask God to tell you."</p> + +<p>Then the elder sister prayed aloud a very few earnest words, and the +little one joined her in whispered sentences. The prayer was not long, +but in Daisy's case it was quickly answered. When the morning quite +broke, and the real working-day had begun, Primrose sent a message to +Noel to come at once to see the child. Daisy received him with a +touching little smile.</p> + +<p>"Was the little girl me?" she asked. "And was the wicked, wicked ogre, +Mr. Dove?"</p> + +<p>"It is clever of you to guess that much, Daisy," answered Noel.</p> + +<p>"Am I the little girl?" continued Daisy, "who made a promise which she +ought now to break? Will God forgive me for breaking a promise which I +made so very, very faithfully? Mr. Noel, I will tell you something. +That promise has nearly killed me. The old Daisy went away when that +promise was made, and such a poor, cowardly, wretched Daisy came in +her place. She'd have been selfish, too, but for you; but you taught +her a little bit about the Palace Beautiful, and she was trying to be +good in spite of the dreadful promise. Then the ogre came again, and +the second time he was so dreadful that she even became very selfish +to get rid of him. Oh, Mr. Noel, is it right for me—will God think it +really right for me—to break that dreadful promise?"</p> + +<p>"He will, Daisy. The promise ought never to have been made. Only an +innocent and ignorant little child would have made it; yes, Daisy, +dear, yours is one of the rare cases of a promise better broken than +kept. See, I am the Prince, and I'm going to take the spell of the +ogre from you. The wicked ogre is locked up in a dungeon instead of +you, and the Prince commands the poor little captive to tell him +everything."</p> + +<p>Then Daisy, with some broken sobs, and with a piteous light in her +blue eyes, told Noel the whole cruel story. He listened without once +interrupting the little narrator. When she had finished, he kissed +her, and told her that she now had nothing to fear, and then, bidding +her sleep away all her troubles, he left her to Primrose's care. By +the next train he himself went to London in full time to attend Dove's +trial.</p> + +<p>That worthy was at first inclined to brazen matters out, but when +Noel, primed with Daisy's confession, appeared on the scene, his face +underwent a remarkable change. Its rubicund tints quite deserted it, +an alarming pallor spreading over every feature. Tommy Dove, who might +have been seen in a foremost position amongst the crowd of spectators, +was heard audibly to exclaim—</p> + +<p>"Law, I guess there ain't no leg for my respected pa to stand on now!"</p> + +<p>This, although not expressed aloud, seemed also to be Dove's opinion, +for he then and there made a full confession of his wicked practices, +and of the cruel threats he had employed to terrify Daisy. He received +his sentence, which was a severe one, with much stoicism, and, as he +was led away from his place in the prisoner's dock, addressed a +parting word to his affectionate and hysterical spouse—</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Mrs. Dove, my only love, even fourteen years comes to an +end somehow, and when we meets again we'll make a rule for there being +no attic lodgers."</p> + +<p>"To the very end his was a poetic turn," his wife afterwards remarked +to her favorite cronies.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id="CHAPTER_XLVII"></a>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2> + +<h3>ALMOST DEFEATED.</h3> + + +<p>With the weight of her secret removed Daisy began slowly, very slowly, +to mend. The strain she had undergone had been too great for her +quickly to recover her strength; but little by little a faint color +did return to her white cheeks, she slept more peacefully, and began +to eat again.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing at all for you to do, Miss Primrose," said Hannah, +"but to give up that post of continually screaming out book and +newspaper stuff to a deaf old lady."</p> + +<p>"She isn't deaf, Hannah," interrupted Primrose. "She wants me to read +to her because her sight is very bad."</p> + +<p>"Well, well," replied Hannah Martin, in a testy tone, "whether she's +deaf or whether she's blind, it ain't no way a fit post for you, Miss +Primrose. You've got to stay here now, and take care of that precious +little lamb, and you had better send for Miss Jasmine to keep you +company."</p> + +<p>"I am certainly not going to leave Daisy at present," replied +Primrose. "I've got money enough to go on with, but I must go back to +town as soon as possible in order to earn enough to return Mr. Noel's +money to him. As to Jasmine, do you know, Hannah, she has got quite a +nice way of making a little income? You remember how cleverly she +always arranged the flowers in our drawing-room at dear Rosebury, and +how our mother always asked her to make bouquets for her? It now seems +that Jasmine has got rather remarkable taste, and some fine ladies in +London are employing her to arrange flowers on their dinner-tables. +They pay her very well indeed for this, and the labor is nothing at +all."</p> + +<p>"Hoot!" said Hannah; "I think it's rather demeaning of herself. Well, +Miss Primrose, I suppose the poor dear will want a holiday the same as +the rest of you. To tell the truth, Miss Primrose, my old eyes ache to +see the darling, she was always such a bonny one."</p> + +<p>Primrose smiled.</p> + +<p>"When the fine ladies go out of town, Hannah, we will have Jasmine +down, and you shall squeeze us all into that nice, cosy little bedroom +of yours. What a good thing it was, Hannah; that you did not follow us +to London, but that you started this nice shop in the country, for +now we three girls can have our change in the country at such small +expense."</p> + +<p>Tears started to Hannah's eyes.</p> + +<p>"I've been always saving up for this, Miss Primrose, and if you will +talk of paying me at all, I'll never forgive you; aren't you my +nurslings, all three of you, and the only creatures I have got to live +for?"</p> + +<p>In the meantime while things were mending for Primrose and Daisy, and +Daisy was beginning once more to get that soft pink in her cheeks +which gave her such a curious and touching likeness to her +name-flower, poor little Jasmine, left behind in her Palace Beautiful, +was not having quite so good a time.</p> + +<p>Jasmine was beset by several worries and anxieties; she was also +extremely lonely, for Miss Egerton, owing to the dangerous illness of +a near relation, was still absent from home, and Poppy, driven by the +dire necessity of earning bread to eat, had been obliged to return, as +little maid-of-all-work, to Penelope Mansion.</p> + +<p>Jasmine was alone, but she was a brave child, and her strong longing +now was to help Primrose, and above all things not to ask for any +money from her.</p> + +<p>For the first few days after Primrose had gone to the country the poor +little girl's resources were very meagre indeed. She had thought that +first sovereign she had earned simply inexhaustible, but it was +surprising how it melted in her inexperienced grasp, and how very, +very little it seemed capable of purchasing.</p> + +<p>In her first delight at finding herself capable of earning money she +had written an extravagantly hopeful letter to Primrose.</p> + +<p>"You need not think at all of me, dear Primrose," she wrote; "keep all +the money you can collect to buy nice nourishing things for dear +little Daisy. Perhaps I shall become quite famous as an arranger of +flowers on great London dinner-tables. If I do get orders, and I think +I am sure of them, I shall not only be able to pay my own London +expenses, but will save something towards our emergency fund. Oh, +Primrose, my heart burns with longings to earn lots of money, and to +be great and strong and famous!"</p> + +<p>This poor little enthusiastic letter reached Primrose when Daisy was +at her worst, and it so happened that it lightened her cares about the +little sister alone in London. She felt quite sure that Jasmine was +getting plenty of orders, and was earning sufficient money for her own +modest wants in the pretty way she spoke of; and in consequence she +did not send her any of the money which Daisy had returned to her.</p> + +<p>But poor little Jasmine was not receiving orders so fast as Primrose +anticipated. One or two other ladies did ask her to dress their +dinner-tables for them, and one or two more promised to do so, and +then forgot all about it; but no one paid her as well as Mrs. Daintree +had done. Noel was out of town, and was unable to interest himself in +her behalf, and so it came to pass that the slender purse could not +supply the modest needs, and Jasmine was much too proud, and too +determined to help herself, to write to Primrose for money.</p> + +<p>These were hard days for the little girl—days which were to prove the +stuff she was made of to the very uttermost—but doubtless they gave +her, as all anxious days of pain bravely borne do, a valuable +experience and a depth of character which she could not otherwise have +acquired.</p> + +<p>The lesson she was to learn, however, was a painful one, and its +sharpness was to be felt very quickly.</p> + +<p>Jasmine's hope of hopes lay in her beloved manuscript. That story, the +first-fruits of her young genius, must surely make her purse bulky, +and must wreathe her little brow with laurels. That story, too, was to +refund poor Poppy the money she had lent, and was to enable Jasmine to +live in comfort during her sister's absence.</p> + +<p>One day, about ten days after Primrose had gone to Rosebury, Jasmine +stood by the windows of the Palace Beautiful to watch the postman. He +was coming up the street, and Jasmine greatly, greatly hoped he would +stop at Miss Egerton's and drop into the letter-box, perhaps, a letter +from Primrose, and more delightful still, a roll of proofs of her dear +story. The postman, however, passed on his way, and gave his loud +rat-tat at the doors to right and the doors to left, but neither +sounded the bell nor gave his double-knock at Miss Egerton's door. +Jasmine sighed deeply, and retiring from the window, sat down to her +frugal breakfast. She looked pale, and her eyes were not as bright and +starry as usual. Presently she took out her purse and looked at its +contents. This was Thursday. She had dressed a dinner-table on Monday, +and had received seven and sixpence. Her purse now contained three +shillings, and she certainly could not accuse herself of any +extravagance in the matter of diet.</p> + +<p>"This will never do," she said to herself. "I believe if I do not get +any more money I shall be obliged to apply to Primrose, and it was +only last night I heard from dear old Rose saying how glad she was +that I was able to support myself. She said Daisy's illness had cost a +great deal, and we must all economize in every possible manner for +some time. Dear darling old Primrose, I will not ask her to help me—I +will manage for myself. Now how shall I do it? I am afraid those +ladies did not care for the star arrangement of flowers which I made +at that last house. I thought them lovely, peeping out through their +dark green leaves, but I heard Mrs. Lee whispering to Mrs. Mansell, +'How peculiar! <i>do</i> you quite like it?' and then Mrs. Mansell said +nothing more about my dressing her dinner-table. Her dinner-party was +to have been to-day, and she <i>almost</i> promised to have me when I +arrived in the morning. Well, there is no use thinking of that; I +cannot swell my purse in that manner this day, that is very evident. +Oh, dear! oh, dear! what shall I do?"</p> + +<p>Here a sudden thought came to Jasmine. Under its influence her cheeks +flushed, and her eyes began to shine.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course," she exclaimed; "how very silly of me to forget!—my +hundred copies of <i>The Joy-bell</i> ought to have arrived by now. Yes, of +course they ought, and perhaps I shall be able to sell some of them. I +have no doubt Mrs. Dredge would buy a couple if Poppy asked her and +perhaps Mrs. Mortlock and Miss Slowcum would also like to see my first +story in print. Yes, of course, I can sell a few copies. Bridget said +she would buy one, and she said she had two cronies who would be sure +to take a copy each. Yes, I expect I shall make a few shillings by the +sale of <i>The Joy-bell</i> to-day, and that will keep me going fine. Oh, +dear! the very moment I have earned a little money by them I must +send a copy down to Daisy. Won't the darling like to show my words of +genius to Primrose? I'll run downstairs this minute, and ask Bridget +if she has not got a parcel for me."</p> + +<p>But alas! no <i>Joy-bells</i> had arrived for Jasmine, and after the little +girl had wondered a great deal, and talked the matter over with +Bridget she determined to put on her hat and go off to consult with +Poppy.</p> + +<p>She was not long finding her way to Penelope Mansion, and Poppy opened +the door for her, but greeted her in a sad voice, and looked decidedly +depressed.</p> + +<p>"I have come about <i>The Joy-bell</i>" began Jasmine at once, in an +excited voice. "It ought to have come—my hundred copies, you know, +and they haven't. I must go to inquire about it at once; and, Poppy, +dear, could you come with me?"</p> + +<p>Poppy turned very red.</p> + +<p>"No, Miss Jasmine, darling, I couldn't," she said, in the meekest +voice.</p> + +<p>Poppy's tones were so unlike those she usually employed that Jasmine +glanced at her in some surprise.</p> + +<p>"Why, Poppy, how funny you are!" she exclaimed. "Is anything the +matter?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you notice it, Miss Jasmine, but I'm a bit low-like," said +Poppy. "I has my low fits and my high fits same as t'other folks, and +this is a low fit day—that's all, miss."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I am so sorry. Poor Poppy! And is the swimming in your head as +bad as ever?"</p> + +<p>"It's continual, Miss Jasmine. It seems to have become a kind of +habit, same as the smuts and the Sarah Janes. A swimming head is most +certain the London style of head for a girl like me. Yes, I am sorry I +can't go with you, Miss Jasmine, darling, but I can't this morning. I +hope you will get safe to the City, miss, and that you will see the +editor, and give it to him sharp for not sending you your <i>Joy-bells</i>. +Oh, my, Miss Jasmine! to think that your beautiful words is in print +at last! Most likely the whole of London is flooded by them now, and +the editor will be asking you for more of your words of beauty and +wisdom. You make a sharp bargain with him, Miss Jasmine, and before +you put pen to paper again for him, you get your money down. There's +nothing so safe in clinching a bargain as money down. Oh, dear! I wish +I could go with you. And, Miss Jasmine, if you could find it +convenient to pay me back say one and sixpence of the little loan, +I'll be for ever obliged, darling."</p> + +<p>At this moment Mrs. Flint's voice was heard calling Poppy, and +demanding who she was standing gossiping with. Mrs. Flint's voice +sounded quite sharp, and Jasmine guessed that something unusual must +have occurred to disturb her, for Mrs. Flint was known on principle +never to excite herself.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with her?" she inquired of Poppy, who flushed up +at her tones.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing, miss. She's only a bit put out about the broken boots. +There, I must run."</p> + +<p>Poppy almost shut the door in Jasmine's face. She was certainly very +unlike her usual self.</p> + +<p>Jasmine walked down the steps of the Mansion, and slowly, very slowly, +went up the street to meet the omnibus which was to convey her +Citywards.</p> + +<p>She was quite a clever little Londoner now, and knew which were the +right omnibuses to take, and, in short, how to find her way about +town. She hailed the City omnibus, and hastily and humbly took her +place amongst its crowded passengers. She was the unlucky twelfth, and +her advent was certainly not hailed with delight. The bright morning +had turned to rain, and the passengers, most of them women, were +wrapped up in waterproof cloaks. Jasmine, when she entered the +omnibus, looked so small, so timid, and unimportant, that no one +thought it worth while even to move for her, and at last she was +thankful to get a little pin-point of room between two very buxom +ladies, who both almost in the same breath desired her not to crowd +them, and both also fiercely requested her to keep her wet dress from +touching their waterproofs.</p> + +<p>At another time Jasmine would have been quite spirited enough to +resent the unfriendly behavior of the inmates of the City 'bus; but +her interview with Poppy had depressed her greatly, and she had a kind +of terrified little fear that she knew the reason of Mrs. Flint's +sharp tones, that she could guess why Poppy's bright face should look +so dismal, and why she was obliged so earnestly to beg of her to +return her one and sixpence.</p> + +<p>"She wants her own money—her wages, that she earned with a swimming +head and all," thought poor Jasmine. "How selfish of me not to +remember before that of course, poor Poppy would want her wages; it is +perfectly dreadful to think of her doing without them. Why, of course, +Mrs. Flint would be likely to scold her if she went about with her +ragged boots when she earns such good wages. Poor, dear, brave Poppy! +she would never tell what she did with her money. Well, she must have +it all back to-day. Yes, I am determined about that, she shall have it +back, to-day."</p> + +<p>Jasmine was thinking so hard, and so absorbing was her theme, that she +leaned unconsciously against the fat neighbor on her right. This good +person immediately pushed her with some vigor into the arms of the +portly neighbor on her left, who exclaimed, in a cross voice—</p> + +<p>"Lor' sakes! my dear, sit upright, do."</p> + +<p>"I hope the young person will soon get out," exclaimed the other +neighbor. "I call it downright unconscionable to crowd up Christian +women like this. Might I make bold to inquire, miss, when you are +thinking of alighting?"</p> + +<p>"I am going to Paternoster Row," said Jasmine, in a meek voice. "I do +not think I am very far from there now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, miss! we have only to go down Newgate Street, and there you +are. It's a queer place, is Paternoster Row, not that I knows much +about it."</p> + +<p>"A mighty bookish place," took up the other neighbor "they say they +are all bookworms that live there, and that they are as dry as bits of +parchment. I shouldn't say that a bright little miss like you had any +call to go near such a place."</p> + +<p>Jasmine drew herself up, and her face became sunshiny once more.</p> + +<p>"You would not think," she began, with an air of modest pride, "that I +belong to the booky and the parchmenty people, but I do. I am going +down the Row to inquire about one of my publications, perhaps I ought +to say my first, so I am anxious about it."</p> + +<p>"Lor', who would have thought it!" exclaimed both the ladies, but they +instantly fell back and seemed to think it better to leave so +alarmedly learned a little girl alone. For the remainder of the ride +they talked across Jasmine about the price of onions, and where the +cheapest bacon was to be purchased, and they both breathed a sigh of +relief when she stepped out into the rain and they could once more +expand themselves in the space which she had occupied.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the forlorn little adventurer walked down the narrow path of +this celebrated Row. It was still raining heavily, and Jasmine's +umbrella had several rents in its canopy. Now that she was so close to +her destination she began to feel strangely nervous, and many fears +hitherto unknown beset her. Suppose, after all, <i>The Joy-bell</i> which +contained the first portion of her story had not had a large success; +suppose, after all, the public were not so delighted with her flowing +words. Perhaps the editor would receive her very coldly, and would +tell her what a loss her story had been, and how indisposed he felt to +go on with it. If this was the case she never, never would have +courage to ask him to give her Poppy's wages. If the editor scolded +her she felt that she would be incapable of saying a word in her own +defence. Nay, she thought it extremely probable that then and there +she would burst into tears. Undoubtedly, she was in a very low frame +of mind to-day. She, as well as Poppy, had her low fit on, and she +greatly trembled for the result of the coming interview. Since that +pathetic little last speech of Poppy's about her broken boots Jasmine +had quite forgotten how sorely she needed money for herself. Her one +and only desire just now was to restore Poppy's money.</p> + +<p>"I must do it," she said to herself; "I must do it, and I will. I have +made up my mind, and I really need not be so frightened. After all, +Poppy and Daisy are both quite sure that I am a genius. Daisy says +that I have got the face of a genius, and Poppy was in such great, +great delight at my story. It is not likely that they would both be +wrong, and Poppy is a person of great discernment. I must cheer up and +believe what they told me. I daresay Poppy is right, and London is +half-flooded with my story. Ah, here I am at the entrance of the court +where the editor of <i>The Joy-bell</i> lives. How funny it is to be here +all alone. I really feel quite like a heroine. Now I am at the +office—how queer, how very queer—I do not see any <i>Joy-bells</i> +pressed up against the window. No, not a single one; there are lots of +other books and papers, but no <i>Joy-bells</i>. Dear, dear! my heart does +beat, for I am thinking that perhaps Poppy is right, and that all the +copies of <i>The Joy-bells</i> are bought up; that, of course, is on +account of my story." Then Jasmine entered the house, and went into a +little office where a red-haired boy was sitting on a high stool +before a dirty-looking desk. The boy had a facetious and rather +unpleasant face, and was certainly not remarkable for good manners.</p> + +<p>"I want to see the editor of <i>The Joy-bell</i>," asked Jasmine, in as +firm a tone as she could command.</p> + +<p>The red-haired boy raised his eyes from a huge ledger which he was +pretending to occupy himself over, and said, "Can't see him," in a +laconic tone, and dropped his eyes again.</p> + +<p>"But why?" asked Jasmine, somewhat indignantly. "I have particular +business with him; it is most necessary that I should see him. Pray, +let him know that I am here."</p> + +<p>"Very sorry," replied the boy, "but can't."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"'Cause he ain't in town."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>Poor Jasmine fell back a pace or two; then she resumed in a different +tone—</p> + +<p>"I am very much disappointed; there is a story of mine in <i>The +Joy-bell</i>, and I wanted to speak to him about it. It was very +important, indeed," she added, in so sad a voice that the red-haired +boy gazed at her in some astonishment.</p> + +<p>"My word," he said, "then you do not know?"</p> + +<p>"Don't know what?"</p> + +<p>"Why, we has had a funeral here."</p> + +<p>"A funeral—oh, dear! oh, dear! is the editor of <i>The Joy-bell</i> dead?"</p> + +<p>Here the red-haired boy burst into a peal of irrepressible laughter.</p> + +<p>"Dead! he ain't dead, but <i>The Joy-bell</i> is; we had her funeral last +week."</p> + +<p>Poor Jasmine staggered against the wall, and her pretty face became +ghastly white.</p> + +<p>"Oh, boy," she said, "do tell me about it; how can <i>The Joy-bell</i> be +dead, and have a funeral? Oh, please, don't jest with me, for it's so +important."</p> + +<p>The genuine distress in her tones touched at last some vulnerable +point in the facetious office-boy's breast.</p> + +<p>"I'm real sorry for you, miss," he said, "particular as you seems so +cut up; but what I tell you is true, and you had better know it. That +editor has gone, and <i>The Joy-bell</i> is decently interred. I was at her +birth, and I was at her funeral. She had a short life, and was never +up to much. I never guessed she'd hold out as long as she did; but the +editor was a cute one, and for a time he bamboozled his authors, and +managed to live on them. Yes, <i>The Joy-bell</i> is in her quiet grave at +last, and can't do no more harm to nobody. Lor', miss, I wouldn't +take on if I was you, you'd soon get accustomed to it if you had a +desk at an office like this. In at the births, and in at the deaths am +I, and I don't make no count of one or t'other. Why, now, there was +<i>The Stranger</i>—which went in for pictorial get up, and was truly +elegant—it only lasted six months; and there was <i>The Ocean Wave</i>, +which did not even live as long. And there was <i>Merrie Lassie</i>—oh, +their names is legion. We'll have another started in no time. So you +must be going, miss? Well, good morning. If I was you, miss, I +wouldn't send no more stories to this yere office."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2> + +<h3>ONE SHOE OFF AND ONE SHOE ON.</h3> + + +<p>"I must see you, Poppy—I must see you, and I can't come into the +house. I could not face Mrs. Mortlock, nor Mrs. Dredge, nor Miss +Slowcum. I am a dreadful failure, Poppy, a dreadful, dreadful failure, +and I cannot look any one in the face. Do come out with me, dear +Poppy, and at once; for if I can't speak to you at the present moment +my heart will break."</p> + +<p>"They're teaing just now," said Poppy, in a reflective tone; "they are +all in the dining-room as snug as possible over their high tea. They +have shrimps for tea, and a wonderful new kind of paste that Aunt +Flint brought in to-day. It's called Gentlemen's Relish, and eats well +on hot toast, and I made a lot. Oh, my! won't the ladies go in for it! +Though Miss Slowcum always is so bitter against gentlemen, she will +eat their relish, and no mistake. Well, Miss Jasmine they are all +engaged over the pleasures of the social board, and what's to hinder +you and me going down to the back scullery and having our talk there? +You see, miss, if I went out with you I'd have to tidy up a bit first, +and that would take time."</p> + +<p>"You are quite sure they won't hear me, Poppy, if I walk across the +hall. Miss Slowcum is dreadfully curious, and if she heard my step in +the hall she would run out even though she was eating Gentlemen's +Relish. I do not want any one to see me now that I am a failure."</p> + +<p>"Step on this mat," said Poppy—"now on this; now make a spring here. +There you are. Now we'll be down in my scullery long before Miss +Slowcum can get to the dining-room door. Now, miss, let me put a seat +for you. The scullery ain't so damp to-day, is it, Miss Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Jasmine, who looked very tired, and almost ill. +"Poppy, dear, I have not brought the one and sixpence."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it don't matter," said Poppy. "One and sixpence never fretted me +yet, and it ain't going to begin. You'll pay me when you can, Miss +Jasmine, and there ain't no hurry."</p> + +<p>But Jasmine noticed that Poppy moved her little feet out of sight, and +in spite of her brave words Jasmine observed a look of dismay creeping +into her bright eyes.</p> + +<p>This slight action on Poppy's part—this little lurking gleam of +disappointment—were as the proverbial last straw to poor Jasmine. Her +fortitude gave way, and she burst into the bitterest tears she had +ever shed.</p> + +<p>Poppy was much alarmed, and stood over her dear little lady, and +brought her cold water, and tried to comfort her by every means in her +power.</p> + +<p>When Jasmine had a little recovered herself she told the whole bitter +story of her morning's adventure to Poppy. That young person's +indignation knew no bounds.</p> + +<p>"The editor must be put in prison," she said; "he must be caught and +put in prison. Mrs. Jones the charwoman has a second cousin once +removed, whose first cousin is married to a policeman, and Mrs. Jones +is coming here to-morrow, and I'll get her to see her second cousin, +and the second cousin shall see her first cousin who is married to a +policeman, and he will tell us what is to be done. That's going to the +fountainhead, ain't it, Miss Jasmine? Never you fear, miss, darling, +that editor shall be locked up in prison, and be made to give back +your money. Never you fear, dear Miss Jasmine, it will all come right +when Mrs. Jones sees her second cousin who has a first cousin who is +married to a policeman!"</p> + +<p>Poppy became quite cheerful when she remembered Mrs. Jones's +remarkable means of getting at a policeman, but Jasmine could not be +comforted; she shook her head almost petulantly.</p> + +<p>"It's all most puzzling for me," she said, "about Mrs. Jones and her +policemen; it sounds exactly like the House that Jack Built, and I +shall have a swimming head myself if I listen to you. No, Poppy, that +policeman will never lock the wicked editor up in prison; he is a +great deal too clever to allow himself to be locked up. Oh, dear! +Poppy, what shall I do? All your money is gone, and my story is gone, +and I know you are wanting boots as badly as possible. You are a dear, +brave Poppy, but I know you have not a boot to your foot."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss Jasmine, I has, I has one boot and one shoe; the shoe is an +out-door one, and heavy, and the boot is a light one. Worn together, +they make one walk a little one-sided, and the ladies, in particular +Miss Slowcum, don't like it, but, lor', that don't matter nothing to +speak of; they can't do nothing to me except tack on a few more names +to Sarah. It don't fret me, Miss Jasmine, and it needn't fret you."</p> + +<p>"All the same, I am going to get you your money, Poppy. I have +absolutely made up my mind. I don't know how to do it, but do it I +will. I had to come here to-night to tell you what had really +happened; but now I am going home. You won't have to wear that +dreadful boot and shoe together much longer."</p> + +<p>After this Jasmine managed to walk through the hall without being +detected by Miss Slowcum; and very tired and weary, in process of time +she found her way back to the Palace Beautiful. She drank a glass of +milk which Bridget had laid ready for her, and ate two or three slices +of bread and butter. Then she went into the little bedroom, with its +three pretty white beds, and opening her own special trunk began to +examine its contents. She was dreadfully frightened at what she was +about to do, but all the same she was determined to do it. She would +pawn or sell what little valuables she possessed to give Poppy back +her wages.</p> + +<p>When the girls left Rosebury, Primrose made a very careful division of +her mother's possessions. To Jasmine's share had come some really +beautiful Spanish lace. Jasmine had not particularly admired it, but +Primrose fancied that it would some day suit her speaking and +vivacious face better than it would herself or Daisy. Jasmine had +jammed the lace into a corner of her trunk, and but for the memory of +dear mamma which it called up, would have made it a present to +anybody. But one day it so happened that Miss Egerton caught sight of +it; she exclaimed at its beauty, and said that it was really worth a +considerable sum of money.</p> + +<p>The lace consisted of a handsome shawl of black Spanish, and what was +more beautiful, and also rarer, two very lovely flounces of white.</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton was quite right when she spoke of the lace as valuable, +but her ideas of value and Jasmine's were widely different. Jasmine +would have thought herself well repaid if any one had given her +Poppy's wages for the old lace; she would indeed have opened her eyes +had she known at what sum Miss Egerton valued it. In addition to the +lace Jasmine had a little thin gold ring which Mrs. Mainwaring had +worn as a guard to her wedding-ring. Jasmine much preferred the ring +to the lace, but she slipped it on her finger, intending to part with +it also, if the lace did not fetch enough money. She knew that +Primrose would be deeply hurt at the lace being sold, for she had over +and over said that come what might, they would not part with their few +little home mementoes; but Jasmine was past caring even for what +Primrose said to-night. With her lace wrapped up in an untidy parcel +she slipped downstairs. Bridget came into the hall to speak to her.</p> + +<p>"Look here, missie, is it not a little late for you to be going out?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not at all, Biddy, dear. I am going a little way. I won't be +long."</p> + +<p>Then Jasmine went up to the old servant and spoke in her most coaxing +and fascinating tones.</p> + +<p>"Biddy, what did you say was the sign of a pawnshop?"</p> + +<p>"A pawnshop, Miss Jasmine? Why, bless us and save us, miss, what have +you got to say to such places?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing in particular, Bridget, only I thought I would like to +know. I am always trying to get information on every kind of subject. +Is the pawnshop the sign of the three balls, Biddy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, miss—what a curious young lady! There, run out and take +your walk quick, and come back as soon as possible, for though it's +close on Midsummer Day we'll have the night on us before you return if +you are not quick."</p> + +<p>Jasmine left the house, nodding brightly to Bridget as she did so, and +the old servant returned to her interrupted work.</p> + +<p>"She's a bright bonnie girl," she said to herself, "and hasn't she got +a winsome way? I hope she drank up her milk, for she is looking a bit +pale, and I hope she won't stay out late, for it may turn damp when +the dew begins to fall."</p> + +<p>Bridget was busy over her work, and was thinking of Jasmine after all +in only a very lazy and comfortable fashion when a cab drew up to the +door, and Miss Egerton most unexpectedly returned. She was not in the +house a moment before she asked for Jasmine.</p> + +<p>"She's just gone out, ma'am," answered Bridget. "She had a parcel in +her hand, and she said she was going out for a run. No, ma'am, I don't +say she's looking at all particularly well. She's very white and +worried looking, and she is scarcely ever in the house. She says she +must improve her mind, and that is why she is out, and she do ask the +funniest questions. Just now it was to know what was the sign of a +pawnshop."</p> + +<p>"The sign of a pawnshop?" echoed Miss Egerton; "and did you tell her, +Bridget?"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course, ma'am. She said she wanted to know for the improving +of her mind. She had a little parcel in her hand, and she said she +would be back again in no time. Shall I get you a cup of tea, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"No, thank you, Bridget. I cannot eat until I find out about Miss +Jasmine. I do not like her asking you those questions, Bridget, and I +do not like her taking a little parcel with her. The child may be in +want or trouble. I must see to it at once. Bridget, have you any idea +which is the nearest pawnshop to this?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, ma'am, there's Spiller's round the corner, and there's Davidson's +in the main road. Now, Miss Egerton, I am most certain Miss Jasmine +wanted to hear about the pawnshop for the sake of improving her mind, +and for that reason only. I wish you would stay, ma'am, and have your +cup of tea, for you look real tired."</p> + +<p>But Miss Egerton was gone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIX" id="CHAPTER_XLIX"></a>CHAPTER XLIX.</h2> + +<h3>SPANISH LACE.</h3> + + +<p>She walked quickly down the street, hoping every moment to overtake +Jasmine. Miss Egerton had old-fashioned ideas about many things, and +nothing could exceed her horror at the thought of this pretty and +refined-looking child finding her way alone to a pawnshop.</p> + +<p>"Poor little girl!" she said to herself. "She must be really in +absolute want. What has she taken to pawn? Oh, dear! this anxiety is +terrible—and yet, and yet, how glad I am to know those orphan girls."</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton was very tired, had just returned from the death-bed of +her dearest friend, had certainly heaps of worries of her own; but +that did not prevent her whole heart from going out to Jasmine with an +affection which was almost motherly.</p> + +<p>When at last she found the little girl just coming out of Spiller's +pawnshop she laid a trembling hand on her arm.</p> + +<p>"Jasmine, oh, my dear child, you have been in there! You have been +pawning something."</p> + +<p>Jasmine was in such a depressed state of mind that even Miss Egerton's +unexpected return failed to astonish her. She said, raising two sad +eyes to the good lady's face—</p> + +<p>"It was only that old Spanish lace. I always knew it was not worth +much. The man only laughed when I asked for Poppy's wages for it. He +has given me ten shillings, and I am going off with it to Poppy +to-night. Yes, Miss Egerton, I must, I really must."</p> + +<p>"What have you tried to pawn, Jasmine?" asked Miss Egerton, when she +could find her voice. "Surely not that lovely, valuable Spanish lace. +My dear child, come back with me into the shop this moment."</p> + +<p>"But I must keep my ten shillings," exclaimed Jasmine "Oh! Miss +Egerton, don't, don't! You don't know what has happened to me!"</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton took Jasmine's little hand in hers.</p> + +<p>"My poor child, you shall tell me all. Jasmine, dear, that lace is +worth pounds. I shall redeem it at once, for my sake, if not for +yours. There, poor little girl, keep your ten shillings, if it makes +you happy."</p> + +<p>The man who had lent Jasmine half a sovereign on the Spanish lace of +course knew little or nothing of its true value, and the good lady had +therefore small difficulty in getting it back. She walked home holding +Jasmine's hot little hand, took her into her own pretty drawing-room, +feasted her on many good things, which she had brought from the +country, and finally made her tell her all her sorrowful little story.</p> + +<p>"You always said that my writing was not up to much," said Jasmine, in +conclusion. "I did not like you to say it, and I was most anxious to +prove you wrong, but now I know that you are right."</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton looked quietly at the excited child.</p> + +<p>"My dear," she said, in her gentle tones, "I do not know—no one +knows—whether in the future you will be able to write. Our writers +ought to be our teachers. Do you think you are fit to teach, Jasmine?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know," said Jasmine, hanging her head.</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton got up, and laid her hand tenderly on the pretty little +curly head.</p> + +<p>"This day has taught you a grand though painful lesson, dearest. You +will be better able to write in the future for and because of the +suffering you have gone through to-day. Now, Jasmine, I will say no +more—you must go straight to bed and to sleep. In the morning you can +take your ten shillings to Poppy. Yes, dear, of course it is yours, +and for the present the Spanish lace is mine."</p> + +<p>Jasmine, notwithstanding all her troubles, slept soundly that night, +but Miss Egerton lay awake.</p> + +<p>"The time has come," she said to herself, "when energetic measures +must be taken. The girls—dear, brave, sweet girls—have undoubtedly +to a certain extent failed. Poor little Jasmine! she might have had a +worse experience than the loss of that silly manuscript. But what +terrible dangers sweet little Daisy ran! Yes, I shall go and have a +talk with Mrs. Ellsworthy to-morrow—I know she is in town."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, when Jasmine went off to see Poppy holding her +half-sovereign firmly inside her glove, and dimly wondering if she +would have any money of her own left to buy some dinner with +presently, Miss Egerton stepped into an omnibus which presently put +her down in the vicinity of Park Lane. She was fortunate in finding +Mrs. Ellsworthy at home, and also disengaged.</p> + +<p>The good little lady received her with delight, for Miss Egerton was a +prime favorite with her.</p> + +<p>"Arthur tells me that you know my girls," she said presently. "He +hints to me that you and he have a secret knowledge of the address of +my naughty, troublesome girls."</p> + +<p>"I do know where they are to be found," said Miss Egerton in her +gravest tones; "but before I begin to talk about them I want to +transact a little business with you. I know how kind you are, and how +fond of helping people in distress. At the present moment a lady of my +acquaintance is in great poverty; she has got some valuable Spanish +lace. I should like to sell it for her."</p> + +<p>"I adore Spanish lace," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, her eyes sparkling.</p> + +<p>"I thought I once heard you say you did, so I have brought it with me. +May I show it to you?"</p> + +<p>"How good of you, dear Miss Egerton; let me see it at once. Real +Spanish lace is of great value. Oh, and white, too! What lovely +flounces!"</p> + +<p>"The lady to whom they belonged know nothing of their real value; she +was disposing of both shawl and flounces yesterday evening for ten +shillings."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Egerton! oh, poor, poor thing! I will gladly give her fifty +pounds for them."</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton coughed, and colored slightly.</p> + +<p>"The fact is," she said, "I do not think she ought to sell them; they +are mementoes, and belonged to her mother. Mrs. Ellsworthy, I won't +deceive you any longer. This lace is now the property of Jasmine +Mainwaring. She took it to a pawnshop last night, and but for me would +have absolutely given it away; I was just in time to redeem it. Now +the fact is, I happen to know that Primrose does not wish this lace to +be sold; I offered, long ago, to find a purchaser for it, but she +looked terribly distressed at the idea. What I should like to do would +be this; in short, in short—I do not quite know how to put it—"</p> + +<p>"I know, I know," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, clapping her hands, "you want +me to be a pawnbroker, and to lend money on it. I will, I will, with +pleasure; oh, this is quite a fresh and delightful idea."</p> + +<p>"Give me ten pounds to help the poor child over her present +difficulties," said Miss Egerton, tears in her eyes. "Yes, ten pounds +is quite enough. I will not take a penny more."</p> + +<p>"Now, Mrs. Ellsworthy, as we have comfortably disposed of this little +matter, I want to talk to you most seriously about the girls."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy bent her head to listen with rapt attention; and the +two women were engaged for a couple of hours in most earnest +conversation.</p> + +<p>That afternoon, when Jasmine, very weary and very depressed, toiled up +the stairs to her Palace Beautiful, she found two letters awaiting +her. One was from Primrose, containing very cheerful news about Daisy. +Daisy was really getting better, and had even been out for a few +minutes. The other letter had not come by the post, and Jasmine +wondered who her correspondent could be. She opened it eagerly. It +contained a folded sheet of paper, out of which dropped two crisp Bank +of England notes for five pounds each. The sheet of paper itself +contained the following words:—</p> + +<p>"DEAR JASMINE:—I have found a pawnbroker who better understands the +value of your old lace. I have borrowed ten pounds for you on it, with +liberty for you to redeem the shawl and flounces at your convenience. +You can pay me back the ten shillings I lent you last night when you +get change; but there is no hurry. Come and have tea this evening at +six, dear. I have much to talk over with you.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"Your affectionate friend,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"AGNES EGERTON."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Poor little Jasmine's delight can scarcely be conceived. She found it +an easy matter to change one of the notes, and Poppy was in possession +of the balance of her money long before the evening. Her radiant face +seemed scarcely to belong to the same girl when she entered Miss +Egerton's room in time for that good lady's tea.</p> + +<p>"Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, when the meal was over, and Jasmine had +exhausted her many expressions of rapture, and astonishment, and +gratitude, "I have news to tell you. That dreadful man Dove has +received a long term of imprisonment. He won't trouble our dear little +Daisy again."</p> + +<p>"And Daisy is beginning to get better," said Jasmine. "I heard from +Primrose to-day, and she wrote quite hopefully about her. Yes, I +suppose I am glad that Mr. Dove is locked up; it was so very wicked +of him to frighten our little pet."</p> + +<p>"I also had a letter from Primrose," said Miss Egerton. "She is +unhappy because she thinks that I am at personal inconvenience for the +money which I lent her instead of that which Dove stole. I am not +inconvenienced for it—I can never regret making matters a little +smooth for you poor children. I am going to write to Primrose +to-night; but before I do so I should like to have a little talk with +you, Jasmine."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Jasmine, "I feel very humble to-night, and very +thankful. I am in the kind of humor to-night when I could listen to +any amount of good advice."</p> + +<p>"Notwithstanding, Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, with a slight smile, +"that advisers are never considered the most agreeable people. +Jasmine, dear, I have seen Mrs. Ellsworthy to-day."</p> + +<p>"Our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy," said Jasmine, flushing brightly; "and +how was she? Does she know that I still care for her?"</p> + +<p>"I think she does, Jasmine, and undoubtedly she cares for you. She +again offers to help you, and, Jasmine, dear, I think the time has +come when you must accept her help."</p> + +<p>Jasmine smiled, and flushed brightly.</p> + +<p>"I do not mind," she said; "I mean I do not mind as Primrose minds, +but I know, I fear that it will go very hard with Primrose."</p> + +<p>"It is often very hard to do right, Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, "and +I can quite believe that Primrose will find it difficult to accede to +our plan. At the same time I feel convinced that although she will +have a great struggle, in the end she will yield to it. This is like +the 'Hill Difficulty' to Primrose, but she is not the sort of girl to +turn away from it without conquering its steepness and its toils. +Jasmine, dear, you three have tried bravely to help yourselves, and +you have—yes, I must say it, dear—you have failed. Primrose cannot +spend her life as continual reader to Mrs. Mortlock; you see now, my +dear little girl, that you are much too young to earn anything by your +pen, and little Daisy—ah! Jasmine, how thankful we ought to be that +we have our little Daisy still with us—but Daisy must never again +have her peace of mind so seriously imperilled. Jasmine, you three +girls want two things—you want education, and you want protection. +You want to be thoroughly educated, first of all, in those general +matters which all cultivated women ought to know about; and secondly, +in the special matter which each of you has a taste for. That special +taste or talent ought to be developed to the very uttermost, so that +bye-and-bye each of you girls can take up a profession and earn her +living usefully to others, and with ease and comfort to herself. If +Primrose feels that she can after a time paint very exquisitely and +very beautifully on porcelain, she ought to be apprenticed to one of +the best houses, and there properly learn her trade; and you, Jasmine, +whether you eventually earn your bread by writing beautiful stories, +or lovely poems, or whether the artist within you develops into a love +for making painted pictures instead of word pictures, you must for +many years to come be taught to think and have your little mind and +vivid imagination fed on the wise and great thoughts of others. +Daisy's future we none of us can talk about, but I have no doubt she +also has her special gift.</p> + +<p>"Now, Jasmine, what a long, long lecture I am giving you, only the sum +and substance of it all is, dear, that I want to protect you, and Mrs. +Ellsworthy is willing and anxious to advance a sufficient sum of money +to have you all properly educated. When you go to bed to-night I am +going to write very fully to Primrose on the subject."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if she will refuse," said Jasmine, speaking in a very +thoughtful tone; "she is very, very determined. You think she will +regard it as a 'Hill Difficulty' which she ought to climb. I think she +will regard it as a fearful, dreadful temptation which she ought to +put away."</p> + +<p>Miss Egerton smiled, for Jasmine's sunny little face looked so grave +and anxious, and there was such a disturbed frown between her brows.</p> + +<p>"At any rate, dear," continued the governess, "you will not oppose my +scheme. You will see, dear, that the greatest strength sometimes shows +itself in yielding. Jasmine, dear, are you not quite tired of having +your own way?"</p> + +<p>"A little," answered Jasmine. "I mean," she added, "that I never again +will offer my stories to papers recommended by people like Mr. and +Mrs. Dove."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_L" id="CHAPTER_L"></a>CHAPTER L.</h2> + +<h3>A DAZZLING DAY.</h3> + + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy felt very much excited when Miss Egerton left her. She +paced up and down her pretty boudoir, her cheeks were flushed and her +pretty eyes bore traces of tears. Miss Egerton had told the good +little lady for the first time the sad story of Daisy's terrible +adventure with Mr. Dove. All the poor little child's terror, and her +final flight into the country, were graphically described by the good +woman.</p> + +<p>"She went to find me, little darling, little darling," repeated Mrs. +Ellsworthy, tears running down her cheeks. "Oh, my dear little girl! +to think of her being turned away from my very gates."</p> + +<p>When Miss Egerton at last took her leave Mrs. Ellsworthy felt too much +excited to stay quiet; and when her husband came into the room he +found her much perturbed.</p> + +<p>"Joseph," she said, running up to him, "I have such a story for you," +and then she once again repeated little Daisy's adventure.</p> + +<p>"And Joseph," she added, "Miss Egerton and I have quite agreed that +you and I are to educate the girls; and, Joseph, the dear good +creature is resolved that they shall stay with her in town, and that +you and I are only to have the pleasure of spending any amount of +money on them; but I will not have it. Joseph, I am resolved that they +shall come to us at Shortlands, and have the instructions of the very +best governess I can procure for them, and then in the spring the +darlings shall come up to town, and have masters for every conceivable +sort of accomplishment. Oh, Joseph, we shall have our Jasmine yet, as +our very own."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ellsworthy smiled, kissed his wife, patted her on the cheek, told +her to do just what she liked, and went downstairs to his beloved +books. But Mrs. Ellsworthy's excitement kept her on thorns for the +greater part of the evening.</p> + +<p>That night she dreamt of the Mainwarings; dreamt that she saw Daisy's +piteous little face when she was turned away from her gates; dreamt +again a brighter dream, that Jasmine had her arms round her neck, and +was calling her mother; that Primrose, with none of her sweet dignity +abated, was smiling at her, and saying gratefully, "I accept your +kindness; I will gladly take your money; I will come and live with you +at Shortlands, and be to you as a daughter." And Daisy was saying, in +that funny little sententious voice of hers which she sometimes used, +"Weren't we all naughty, and aren't we good now, and is it not a good +thing that our pride should have a fall?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy sighed deeply when she awoke from this beautiful +dream.</p> + +<p>"It was but a dream," she said to herself, and she went downstairs +sadly and soberly to her breakfast.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ellsworthy had breakfasted at a much earlier hour, and the little +lady had her beautifully-appointed table to herself.</p> + +<p>"Now, if the girls were all here," she thought, "how pleasant and +cheerful it would be! Primrose should sit just opposite to me, and +pour out the coffee; she would do it very nicely and deftly, and would +look so sweet and daughterly. And Jasmine—little witch!—I do not +suppose she would keep the same seat two mornings running, and I +should have to tell her over and over not to jump up every moment to +rush to the window. Daisy would sit near me, and, of course, I should +have to have a special chair made for that funny kitten of hers. I +would dress the three girls in white—white is so sweet for girls—and +how Jasmine and Daisy would chatter; their voices are very sweet in +tone, and they never talk too fast, so as to make one's head ache. I +often fancy I hear Jasmine talking to me now, her voice is so +bright—and—oh, dear! is not that very like her voice? Who is that +asking for me in the hall? Surely, surely, it must be Jasmine +Mainwaring. No other voice that I know has such a ring about it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy half rose from her seat, half sat down again, and the +color of eager anticipation flushed her cheeks.</p> + +<p>The eager voice outside came nearer, light steps sounded in the hall, +and the next moment Jasmine had her arms round her friend's neck, and +was kissing her, while both woman and girl wept.</p> + +<p>"I had to come to you," said Jasmine, while she wiped some bright +falling tears away. "I have not come to stay, nor to give you our +address, nor to do anything of which Primrose would not approve; but +after Miss Egerton told me last night all that you wanted to do for +us, and how you still loved us, I just had to run round and thank you +and kiss you. Primrose and Daisy are still in the country, and Daisy +is better. Aren't you glad she will be all right again soon?"</p> + +<p>"Have breakfast with me, Jasmine," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "I was +thinking so much about you, and so longing to see you, and to have you +in the room seems like a beautiful dream realized. Sit down now and +have some breakfast with me."</p> + +<p>"I did not have any at home, so I will," answered Jasmine. "I stayed +awake half the night thinking about you. Oh, you are a real, real +friend!"</p> + +<p>"And I spent the greater part of the night dreaming about you three +girls," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Have some buttered toast, Jasmine, and +some of this apricot preserve."</p> + +<p>"Did you dream about us last night?" asked Jasmine. "Did you really? +You must love us very much."</p> + +<p>"I believe I do. Now, Jasmine, I will not ask you for your address. I +will do nothing more to really help you until we get Primrose's +letter, but I want you all the same to spend this whole long day with +me."</p> + +<p>Jasmine smiled, and her cheeks flushed.</p> + +<p>"It would be very luxurious," she said, "and such a change from our +attics, although Daisy does call them a Palace Beautiful. Will you +take me for a drive, if I stay, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and will you let me +imagine myself quite a rich little girl all day long? You must not +give me any presents, you know, for Primrose would not like that; but +I can imagine I have got all kinds of things, and I wonder, oh! I +wonder, if we might call to see Poppy this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"We will take her too for a drive in the Park," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. +"I have heard a great deal of that Poppy of yours, and I think she is +quite a splendid kind of girl."</p> + +<p>Thus a very delightful programme was unexpectedly realized by two +little hard-working London girls, for Mrs. Ellsworthy gave herself up +to be enchanting, and took Poppy away from her work of drudgery, and +from the astonished ladies of the boarding-house.</p> + +<p>Poppy, in her dazzlingly brilliant hat, and with her cheeks quite +flaming with excitement, stepped into the carriage, and drove away, +facing Mrs. Ellsworthy and Jasmine, to the great scandal of the +footman, who was obliged, sorely against his will, to assist her to +her place.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy took the girls all round the Park, and then to a place +of amusement, and finally she presented Poppy with a very neat brown +dress and jacket, and hat to match, saying, as she did so, that really +Jasmine, even though she forbade her to offer her any presents, could +not lay a like embargo with regard to her friends.</p> + +<p>"It's of all the dazzlings, the most blindingly beautiful," was +Poppy's oft-reiterated comment. "Oh! won't I have something to tell +them ladies about bye-and-bye! Oh, my! Miss Jasmine, what a neat hat, +miss! I don't mind denuding this one now, for I has got a 'at from a +West End shop what beats anything that Miss Slowcum wears for +gentility."</p> + +<p>Finally, Jasmine and Poppy both returned to their respective homes, +tired, but wonderfully happy little girls.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy also laid her head that night on her pillow with a +wonderful sense of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Even if they do not come to me—although they must come," she +soliloquized, "I am glad—I shall all my life be glad that I gave +Jasmine a happy day."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LI" id="CHAPTER_LI"></a>CHAPTER LI.</h2> + +<h3>A LETTER.</h3> + + +<p>A morning or two after this, when Daisy had greatly advanced towards +convalescence, and was sitting up in Hannah's tiny little sitting-room +to partake of a very dainty little breakfast, Primrose received a long +letter from Miss Egerton. This was what it contained:—</p> + +<p>"MY DEAR PRIMROSE,</p> + +<p>"You of course know that that wicked man Dove has received the +sentence which he so richly deserves. Alas, we cannot get back all the +stolen money, but we must manage without it, dear, and you are never +even to talk of repaying me for the furnishing of dear little Daisy's +Palace Beautiful. It has been a joy to me to have you, dear, and I +hope you will be able to bring Daisy back with you, and to live here +in peace and comfort next winter. Dear Primrose, it is more and more +evident to me that young girls should not venture to come to London +alone. You showed much bravery in your undertaking; but, my dear +girl, the pitfalls you exposed yourselves to were awful to +contemplate. I don't want to make you unhappy, dear, after all you +have suffered with regard to Daisy, but I must now tell you of a +little adventure which our poor dear Jasmine has had. You know how +very anxious she has been to see herself in print. Of course, I could +not conscientiously encourage her, for although she may have talent +(this I am not prepared to say), yet she is a great deal too young to +have anything printed. All books worth anything should teach, and +surely our dear little girl is only at the age to be taught herself.</p> + +<p>"Well, Primrose, the little maid was fired with the strongest +ambition. She wrote her novel in secret, and one day, accompanied by +that good-natured Poppy Jenkins and sweet little Daisy, went +Citywards, and simply plunged—for I can use no other word—into the +unknown and to me rather awful realm of publishers.</p> + +<p>"Poor child, of course none of the good houses would even look at her +immature productions; but she was taken in by a man who professed +himself to be the editor of a monthly paper—<i>The Joy-bell</i> was its +silly title. On an understanding that her story was to be printed in +the pages of <i>The Joy-bell</i>—of course I've never seen the paper, and +should not dream of reading anything so rubbishy—poor Jasmine was +induced to subscribe two pounds five shillings, or, in other words, to +undertake to buy one hundred copies of <i>The Joy-bell</i>. Of course she +imagined that her printed words would immediately bring her fame. She +paid her money, and looked out for her story."</p> + +<p>"Where did she get the money from?" thought the anxious reader.</p> + +<p>"Primrose, how wrinkled up your brows are;" called out little Daisy.</p> + +<p>Primrose sighed, and resumed her perusal of the closely-written +sheets.</p> + +<p>"On the very evening our little Daisy ran away Jasmine received her +first proofs. They were barbarously printed on wretched paper, but the +poor child was in such trouble then that she scarcely noticed them. +Afterwards she did read them with care, and was surprised to find what +a very small portion of her story had been printed.</p> + +<p>"You know that I was unexpectedly detained in the country by the +serious illness and death of my poor cousin. Jasmine was not doing as +well as we supposed by her profession of dressing dinner-tables. The +dear child was determined not to ask help from any one, not even from +you, Primrose, and she made a valiant effort to support herself on her +tiny earnings. Alas, her purse was all too soon emptied, and she had +also upon her the awful load of debt, for Poppy Jenkins it seems, lent +her the money to get that rubbishy story published. In her despair she +thought of <i>The Joy-bell</i>, and went off to see the editor.</p> + +<p>"She was met at the office (poor child, how she could venture there +alone is a mystery to me) with the intelligence that <i>The Joy-bell</i> +had ceased to exist, and the editor had decamped with poor Poppy's +wages.</p> + +<p>"Luckily I came home that evening, and found your poor little sister +in sad trouble. I am thankful to say I have been able to relieve her +present necessities without the slightest inconvenience to myself. +Jasmine has been greatly shaken, but she is better again now, and is +most anxious that you should not be troubled. I only tell you this +much, dear Primrose, because I consider it my bounden duty that you +should know how matters really stand. Rest happy about Poppy; her +money has been returned to her, and Jasmine has sufficient for her +present necessities. On second thoughts, I had better perhaps let you +into my little secret. I have borrowed ten pounds for Jasmine on that +valuable Spanish lace of her mother's. Do not imagine that the lace is +gone; it will be returned to Jasmine whenever she can refund the +money. It was necessary, dear Primrose, to take it, and I acted as I +am sure you would think right in the matter. Poppy had to be paid her +wages.</p> + +<p>"Now, dear Primrose, I want to talk with you very seriously on another +matter. You must own, dear, that though you have tried bravely you +have not yet, any of you, succeeded in earning your living. It is +almost a year since you began to try, and you have made, I fear, but +small headway. You, Primrose, have done best, and have made fewer +mistakes than your sisters, but even you would not care to spend all +your life in continual reading to Mrs. Mortlock. Jasmine can only earn +a precarious and uncertain living by dressing dinner-tables. Of +course, no one even expects dear little Daisy to contribute to the +family purse at present, but at the same time she need not put us into +terrible frights, nor be in the power of wicked and designing people. +My dear girls have had a trial of their own way; and now I think they +ought to take the advice of those older and wiser than themselves.</p> + +<p>"If, dear Primrose, you want to earn your living well—and nothing +makes a woman braver and better than being able to support +herself—you must be educated to take up some one profession in an +efficient manner. Money must be spent for this purpose, and you must +not be too proud to accept money from those who really love you. I +have been to see Mrs. Ellsworthy, and she and I had a long, long talk +about you girls. She is full of kindness, and she really and truly +loves you. It would be worse than folly, it would be wicked, to throw +such friendship away. Mrs. Ellsworthy tells me that she has been +consulting your old friend Mr. Danesfield about you. Both he and Mrs. +Ellsworthy are arranging plans which they trust you will all listen to +with patience. These plans shall be fully disclosed to you on your +return to town, but I may as well mention here that it will be +absolutely necessary that you should give up your present lives, and +should enter seriously on the great work of education. Money must be +spent for this object; but when you are able to earn well, bye-and-bye +it will be in your power to repay the money to the kind friends whose +happiness it is now to lend it to you.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">"Dear Primrose,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"I am, yours affectionately,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">"AGNES EGERTON."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>There was much in this letter to pain Primrose, and a year before she +might have torn it up and determined in no way to be guided by it; but +a year had brought her some very strange and some very sad +experiences. She was troubled and shocked to think that Jasmine should +have taken poor Poppy's hard earnings. She was deeply distressed at +owing herself so much to Miss Egerton, and now also so large a debt to +Arthur Noel. She had worked hard, and had done wonderfully well +considering, but nevertheless at the present moment, owing to adverse +circumstances, she was plunged in debt in many directions, and saw +little hope of repaying what she owed. Life seemed very difficult to +Primrose just then, and hot tears rose to her eyes.</p> + +<p>Should she go still farther in debt, and give up the great struggle to +be independent? Oh, no, she could not—she could not. Her pride rose +up in rebellion; her passionate longing to be free and her own +mistress, to be beholden to no one for the necessaries of life, was +too strong to be easily crushed. Better the dullest life, better be a +"continual reader" all her days than take the money of strangers. This +was her feeling, and it grew so strong moment by moment, that she +might have sat down to answer Miss Egerton's letter there and then but +for a rather innocent little remark made by Daisy.</p> + +<p>"Dear Primrose, I forgot it in all the other great trouble, but I do +want to send fifteen shillings as soon as possible to dear good Poppy. +She lent me fifteen shillings to buy a single third to come to +Rosebury, and I forgot all about it. Please, Primrose, try and spare +me fifteen shillings to send to Poppy."</p> + +<p>"So you too are in debt, Daisy," said Primrose. "Oh, dear, what shall +I do? Daisy, dear, forgive me, I ought not to mind anything now you +are growing better, but my heart is heavy, and I feel almost crushed. +Yes, Daisy, dear Poppy must have her money. I won't write to Miss +Egerton until to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Here Primrose wiped some tears from her sweet brown eyes, but she took +good care not to allow Daisy to see that she was crying.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LII" id="CHAPTER_LII"></a>CHAPTER LII.</h2> + +<h3>"I LOVE MRS. ELLSWORTHY."</h3> + + +<p>The next afternoon, to the surprise of both Primrose and Daisy, Noel +arrived. Daisy greeted her Prince with rapture, but refused to hear +any particulars of Dove's trial.</p> + +<p>"I want to forget him," she said. "You say he is in the dungeon now. I +don't want to think of it. If I think of it long I shall begin to be +so sorry for him."</p> + +<p>"We will talk of something better and pleasanter," said Noel. "How +soon are you coming back to your Palace Beautiful, little Princess?"</p> + +<p>Daisy looked anxiously across the room at Primrose. Primrose was +bending over some needlework, and a ray of sunlight was shining on her +fair head. She did not raise her eyes or respond in any way to the +little sister's glance.</p> + +<p>"We did think of coming back to Miss Egerton's in the autumn," said +Daisy, "but last night Primrose—May I tell, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>Primrose put down her work suddenly and came up to where Noel and +Daisy were sitting.</p> + +<p>"It is just this," she said; "Daisy did not know she had such a proud +and obstinate sister. We had made our plans for the autumn—at least +we simply intended to struggle on, and hope and watch for brighter +days—but yesterday I had a letter from Miss Egerton, and some of its +contents troubled me a good deal. Daisy saw that I was unhappy, and I +told her what Miss Egerton wanted. I thought the dear little one would +object, but she only said, 'Oh, let us be brave, Primrose; our Palace +Beautiful will be all the brighter if we really earn it.' Then she +added, 'I am beginning to wish to earn a little money myself, for I +want to give a very kind person back what he gave me.'"</p> + +<p>Noel gave Daisy's thin little hand a squeeze. Primrose looked at the +two, and stopped speaking. After a moment's pause she said suddenly—</p> + +<p>"I don't like the plan; I never can like it. Mrs. Ellsworthy is all +that is kind, but she is no relation of ours. She lived in the same +place with us for years, and she never even called on our mother. Oh, +I don't blame her; she naturally thought that people who lived in an +humble little cottage at Rosebury were not ladies, but you see we are +ladies, and we cannot help feeling sore. I may agree to the plan—I +may be forced to agree to it for Jasmine's and Daisy's sakes—but I +can never, never like it."</p> + +<p>Here Primrose went out of the room.</p> + +<p>"She was crying for a long time last night," whispered Daisy; "it +hurts her dreadfully to take Mrs. Ellsworthy's money. I don't suppose +I mind it so much, because I was coming to Mrs. Ellsworthy to ask her +for some money. I did not find her, and I was miserable until you +found me and helped me, Prince. Then I love Mrs. Ellsworthy, and so +does Jasmine."</p> + +<p>"That is it, Eyebright," answered Noel; "we do not mind receiving +kindnesses and favors from those we love. Yes, I am very sorry for +Primrose; I wish matters could be differently arranged for her."</p> + +<p>While Noel was speaking Hannah came into the room with a cup of +beef-tea for the little invalid.</p> + +<p>"You have done her a sight of good already, sir," she said, peering +with her short-sighted eyes into the young man's face. "I don't know +what we'd have done for her if you hadn't come that day, and talked to +her, and got her to tell you what that most villainous person in +London was after."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't, Hannah," said Daisy, "he's in a dungeon now—poor, poor +Mr. Dove; I must not think about him if I mean to get well."</p> + +<p>Here Daisy shivered, and added under her breath, with her little pale +face working—</p> + +<p>"I did promise it very faithfully that I would never tell about the +sweetmeats."</p> + +<p>"He was a bad man, Daisy, and he richly deserves his punishment," said +Noel, in an almost stern voice, for he wished to check any unhealthy +sentimentality on the part of the delicate child. "You must think of +what you and your sisters have suffered, and be glad he has been +prevented doing any more mischief."</p> + +<p>"Drink up your beef-tea, missy," said Hannah. "Please, Mr. Noel, sir, +will you hold the cup for little miss? Oh, my heart alive, what—what +is that?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see anything," said Noel, "what has frightened you, Hannah?"</p> + +<p>But Hannah had grown white, and looked very queer, and a moment after +she hurried out of the room.</p> + +<p>"I never knew your servant was nervous," said Noel to Daisy.</p> + +<p>"Nervous?" she repeated, laughing merrily. "Is it Hannah? why she +always says she hasn't a nerve in her whole body. She's sometimes +almost cross with me for being nervous, Mr. Prince."</p> + +<p>Noel stayed some little time longer with the sisters, and then +returned to Rosebury in time to catch the evening train to London. +When he got there he went straight to Mrs. Ellsworthy's house. That +little lady was anxiously expecting him, and plied him with many +questions on the spot.</p> + +<p>"How is she taking it, Arthur?" she asked. "I have been forming and +maturing my plans, and I now think a resident governess at Shortlands +would be the nicest arrangement for the girls. They cannot be parted, +that is very evident, and as Primrose must be more than eighteen she +would not care to go to school. Yes, a resident governess seems the +plan of plans. I would take them up to London early in the spring, and +give them the advantage of the very best masters."</p> + +<p>"Primrose seems very unhappy about it," replied Noel. "She may in the +end consent to some scheme for perfecting her education, but I'm quite +sure she will not go, nor allow her sisters to go to Shortlands to +live a life of simple luxury. I am sorry for you, Mrs. Ellsworthy, but +I know Primrose will never consent to that."</p> + +<p>"I don't think you are sorry for me, Arthur," answered the pretty +little lady. "In your heart of hearts you quite agree with that +naughty, bad Primrose. You had rather the girls lived in their attic, +and encountered another dreadful Mr. Dove, and fell into the hands of +another designing publisher, than have them safe and happy at +Shortlands. Oh, it is a plot between you all to deprive me of my great +pleasure. Oh, why will girls, and young men, too, be so perverse?"</p> + +<p>Noel smiled.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for both you and Primrose," he said. "I am convinced she +will never agree to your present scheme, although she may allow you to +help her to perfect her education."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIII" id="CHAPTER_LIII"></a>CHAPTER LIII.</h2> + +<h3>TELEGRAPH WIRES.</h3> + + +<p>Daisy was quite right when she said that Hannah was not subject to +nervous attacks. Hannah scorned nerves, and did not believe in them. +When she was told that the human body was as full of nerves as an +electric battery was full of electricity, that nerves, in short, were +like numberless telegraphic-wires, prevailing the whole human frame, +she stared at the speakers, and pronounced them slightly daft.</p> + +<p>Yet Hannah went out of her own little sitting-room on that summer +afternoon with, as she expressed it, trembling sensations running down +her back, and causing her fingers to shake when she handled her cups +and saucers.</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear," she said to herself, "one would think I had some of +those awful telegrams in me which Miss Primrose said was the nervous +system. Why, I'm all upset from top to toe. I never had a good view of +him before, for I didn't pay no heed to nobody when my dear little +Miss Daisy was so ill; but I do say that the cut of the hand and the +turn of the head is as like—as like as two peas. Now I do wonder—no, +no, it can't be. Well, anyhow, my name ain't Hannah Martin if I don't +find out where he comes from, and who he really is. Well, well, +well—why this trembling won't leave me, and I don't dare go back into +the room. I suppose I have got a few telegraphs, and I mustn't never +laugh at poor little Miss Daisy again when she says she's nervous."</p> + +<p>Hannah sat and rested for about half an hour—then she drank off a +glass of cold water—then she washed her face and hands—then she said +aloud that the telegrams should not get the better of her, and then +she prepared as nice a little dinner as she could for Noel and the two +sisters.</p> + +<p>That evening, after Daisy was in bed, she came into the room where +Primrose was quietly reading.</p> + +<p>"You haven't never come across no one the least like that brother of +yours in the London streets, Miss Primrose?" she asked. "London's a +big place, and strange things happen there—yes, very, very strange +things."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Hannah, how you startle me!" said Primrose. "I come across my +poor little brother Arthur? How could I? Why, he must be dead for many +and many a year."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of him," said Hannah; "I don't believe he's dead. He was a +fine, hearty, strong child, and nothing ever seemed to ail him. Oh, it +rises up before me now what a beautiful picture he made when he stood +in his little red velvet dress by your mamma's knee, and she so proud +of him! There's no mistake, but he was the very light of her eyes. She +took him up to London, and a nursemaid—not me, you may be quite +sure—took him out. She went into a big shop, and the child was by her +side. She kept him standing by her as she ordered some things across +the counter, and, I suppose, she turned her head for a minute, for +when she looked round again he was gone. From that day to this he was +never heard of, though everything you can think of was done. Oh, my +poor, poor mistress, what she did suffer!"</p> + +<p>"Hannah, how excited you look!" said Primrose. "Why, you are all +trembling. It is a terrible story, but as I say to Daisy about Mr. +Dove, don't let us think of it."</p> + +<p>"Right you are, honey," said Hannah; "what can't be cured, you know. +If you don't mind, Miss Primrose, I'll just sit down for a minute. I'm +not to say quite myself. Oh, it ain't nothing, dearie; just a bit of +the trembles, and to prove to old Hannah that she is getting on in +years. I nursed you all, darling—him, my beautiful boy, and you +three. Miss Primrose, dear, how old would you say that Mr. Noel was. +I didn't have a fair look at him until to-day, and he seems quite a +young sort of man."</p> + +<p>"Miss Egerton says that he is twenty-six, Hannah."</p> + +<p>"Twenty-six," answered Hannah; "don't interrupt me for a minute, dear. +I'm comparing dates—twenty-six—twenty-six. Law, goodness gracious +me! You haven't never noticed, Miss Primrose, that he have a kind of a +mole—long-shaped, and rather big, a little way up his left arm? Have +you, now, dearies?"</p> + +<p>"No, really, Hannah, I've never seen Mr. Noel's arm without his +coat-sleeve. How very queerly you are speaking, Hannah."</p> + +<p>"Not at all, dearie; it's only because I've got the trembles on me. +Well, love, and so you don't want to be under no compliments to that +Mrs. Ellsworthy, who never took no notice of your poor dear ma?"</p> + +<p>Primrose sighed.</p> + +<p>"I feel sore about it, Hannah," she said. "But I must try not to be +too proud. I will ask God to help me to do what is really right in the +matter."</p> + +<p>"That's it, honey, and maybe you won't have to do it after all. I +wonder, now, dear, if Mr. Noel is well off."</p> + +<p>"Really, Hannah, I think you have got Mr. Noel on the brain! Yes, I +have heard Miss Egerton say that he is a rich man. He was the adopted +son of a very wealthy person, who left him all his property."</p> + +<p>"Adopted, was he?" said Hannah. "On my word, these tremblings are +terrible! Miss Primrose, dear, I have come in to say that I may be +going a little journey in the morning. I'll be off by the first dawn, +so as to be back by night, and the shop needn't be opened at all +to-morrow. There's a nice cold roast fowl for you and Miss Daisy, and +a dish of strawberries which I gathered with my own hands not an hour +back, so you'll have no trouble with your dinner. You see that Miss +Daisy eats plenty of cream with her strawberries, dear, for cream's +fattening; and now good-night."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIV" id="CHAPTER_LIV"></a>CHAPTER LIV.</h2> + +<h3>A DISCOVERY.</h3> + + +<p>Hannah Martin had never been much of a traveller. It was years since +she set her foot inside a railway carriage. She often boasted of her +abnormal lack of nerves, but she was also heard to say that accidents +by rail were fearful and common, and likely to happen at any moment. +She sighed for the old coaching days, and hated the thought of all +locomotives propelled by steam. Nevertheless, early in the morning of +the day following her interview with Primrose, Hannah, in her usual +neat print dress, was seen to enter the little railway station at +Rosebury, was observed to purchase for herself a third-class return +ticket, and after carefully selecting her carriage, to depart for +London.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon of that same day Hannah reached her destination, and +securing the first porter whose attention she could arrest, she placed +a bit of paper in his hand, and asked him to direct her to the address +written upon it. The man screwed up his eyes, stared at the paper, +and suggested that Hannah should place herself in a hansom, and direct +the driver to take her to Park Lane. Hannah had not an idea what a +hansom meant; she had never visited London since her early days. She +stared with horror at the proposed vehicle, and finally selecting the +creakiest and most uninviting of the four-wheelers, drove off to her +destination.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ellsworthy was enjoying some very fragrant tea in her little +boudoir when a servant announced that a person of the name of Martin +had come up from the country in a four-wheeler, and would be glad to +see her as soon as possible.</p> + +<p>"What kind of person, Henry?" asked the little lady. "I am very tired +just now, and I must go out to dinner in less than two hours. A person +from the country in a four-wheeler? What can she want with me?"</p> + +<p>"She seems a respectable sort of body, ma'am," answered the footman, +"but nervous and shaky, and mortal afraid to step out of the cab; the +cabby and me we had both to lend her a hand in alighting, ma'am. She's +sitting now in a chair in the hall, and I can see she's upset with her +journey, but <i>respectable</i>; there's no word for the neatness of her +person, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"She is probably poor, and wants me to help her," replied Mrs. +Ellsworthy. "I hate seeing beggars, for I find it absolutely +impossible to say <i>no</i> to them. Show her up, Henry, and give her a +hint that I'm going out to dinner, and can only spare her a very few +moments."</p> + +<p>Hannah could not certainly be accused when she entered Mrs. +Ellsworthy's room, of any want of nerves. Her hands were shaking, her +lips were tremulous, and her face, as she entered the room, became +perfectly white.</p> + +<p>"You'll excuse me, ma'am," she said. "I'm most sorry to trouble you, +but I'm that anxious, I scarce know what I'm doing. I undertook a +railway journey—which I don't think right—and I came here through +most crowded streets in a dreadful vehicle, for I just wanted to ask +you a single question, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Sit down, my poor woman," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, who, the moment she +looked at Hannah, began to have a dim sort of idea that she had seen +her before, and also became full of pity for her. "Sit down. How you +tremble! I am sorry to see you are so nervous."</p> + +<p>"Nervous, ma'am!" echoed Hannah. "That I should hear that said of me! +No, ma'am, it ain't nervous I am, but I'm rather worried with the +tremblings during the last few hours. I've come to ask you a plain +question, ma'am, plain and direct. It's about the young man Mr. Noel. +Have he, ma'am, or have he not, a mole on his left arm? I'd like yes +or no, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"A mole on his left arm!" echoed Mrs. Ellsworthy. "My good woman, what +a very extraordinary question; you really quite startle me. Has Arthur +Noel a mole on his left arm? Yes, of course he has; I used to notice +it when he was a child. I suppose people don't outgrow moles, so he +probably has it still. Why, Mrs. Martin—I am told your name is +Martin—how very white you are. Would you—would you like a glass of +wine?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, ma'am—no wine, thank you, ma'am. I'm a bit upset. Yes, +I'm a bit upset, for I believe Mr. Arthur Noel is my long-lost baby."</p> + +<p>The footman downstairs had given Mrs. Martin careful directions not to +occupy more than a moment or two of his mistress's valuable time; but +though he waited on the stairs and lingered about in the +entrance-hall, no bell summoned him to show out this remarkable +visitor. An hour passed away, an hour and a half, and still Mrs. +Martin remained in close conversation with Mrs. Ellsworthy. At the end +of the hour and a half Henry looked earnestly at the clock, sighed, +and felt that it was his duty to go into the room to let Mrs. +Ellsworthy know that she would be late for her dinner-party. He found +that good lady sitting by her writing-table with very flushed cheeks +and tearful eyes, and Hannah standing in quite a familiar attitude by +her side.</p> + +<p>"Give this note to Mr. Ellsworthy when he comes in, Henry, and order +the carriage to be brought round directly. I am not going to dine out +to-night. I will just go upstairs to change my bonnet. And Henry, take +Mrs. Martin down to the servants' hall, and give her some dinner. She +is coming out with me in the carriage, so be quick, please."</p> + +<p>As Mrs. Ellsworthy stood before her glass re-arranging her toilet her +maid saw her wiping some tears from her pretty eyes.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my bonny Arthur," she said under her breath. "Oh, what your poor, +poor mother must have suffered."</p> + +<p>When the carriage came to the door Mrs. Ellsworthy gave the coachman +Noel's address, and the two women drove there at once. They were +fortunate in finding the young man within. He too was engaged to dine +out that night, but he did not go. Hannah, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and he had +a long conference, which lasted until late in the evening, and when +Mr. Ellsworthy joined them he was told a very wonderful story. Hannah +returned to Devonshire on the following morning very well pleased with +her successful expedition.</p> + +<p>"If there had been any doubt," she said to herself, as she was being +whirled homewards in her third-class carriage, "if there had been any +doubt after the sight of that mole on his dear, blessed arm, why, the +little shirt which Mrs. Ellsworthy showed me, and which she took off +his back herself after them horses had all but killed him, would prove +that he's my own boy. Could I ever forget marking that shirt in +cross-stitch, and making such a bungle over the A, and thinking I'd +put Mainwaring in full, and then getting lazy, and only making the +mark A.M.? Well, I was served out for that piece of laziness, for my +boy might have been brought back to his mother but for it. Dear, dear! +Well, there's no mistaking my own A.M., and when I peered close with +my glasses on I could even see where I unpicked the A. and did it over +again. Dear, dear, shall I ever forgive myself for not doing the +surname in full—his poor, poor mother! Well, I mustn't think of +that—it's a merciful Providence that has led me to him now, and he's +as darling and elegant a young man as ever I clapped eyes on, and as +fond of the young ladies as can be even now.</p> + +<p>"'I always felt somehow as if they were my sisters,' he said to me. +Well, well, God be praised for his mercies."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LV" id="CHAPTER_LV"></a>CHAPTER LV.</h2> + +<h3>AN INVITATION FOR THE LADIES OF PENELOPE MANSION.</h3> + + +<p>"There are limits to all things," said Mrs. Mortlock; "there's a time, +as the blessed Bible says, to sorrow, and a time to rejoice, and what +I say too is, that there is a time when a woman's patience may be +exhausted. Yes, Mrs. Dredge, you may look at me with as round eyes as +you please—I know they are round though I can't see them, but I will +say, if it's my last dying breath, that the moment for my 'continual +reader' to return has arrived. Miss Slowcum, no doubt you'll +corroborate what I say, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"It's hot weather for young bright flowers to shed their fragrance on +the London streets," replied Miss Slowcum; "it's the kind of weather +when flowers fade. I should imagine, Mrs. Mortlock, that your +'continual reader' was doing better for herself in the country."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortlock's face became very red.</p> + +<p>"Better for herself, is she?" she said, "and is that all the thanks I +get for keeping my post vacant, and living through days the weariness +of which none may know. If Miss Primrose Mainwaring is doing better +for herself in the country she is welcome to stay there. The post is a +good one, a light and an easy one, and I can get many another lass to +fill it."</p> + +<p>"I think, ma'am," said Mrs. Dredge, whose face had grown wonderfully +smooth and pleasant of late, "that the dear girls will all be in town +this week, and most likely Miss Primrose will come to pay you a visit. +Oh, they are nice girls, pretty, elegant girls, just the kind of girls +my good man would like to have been papa to. I can't help shivering, +even now when I think of that wicked man Dove, and what a state he put +dear little Daisy into."</p> + +<p>"If praises of the Mainwarings is to begin," answered Mrs. Mortlock in +her tartest voice, "what I say is, let me retire. It's all very well +for them as has right to talk well of the absent, but when one of the +absent ones is neglecting her duty the lady who has weak eyes feels +it. Miss Slowcum, ma'am, have you any objection to moving with me into +the drawing-room? I can lend you that pattern you admired so much for +tatting if you read me the latest gossip from the evening papers, +ma'am."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortlock rose from her chair, and, accompanied by Miss Slowcum, +left the room. Miss Slowcum took a ladylike interest in all kinds of +needlework, and the desire to possess the tatting pattern overcame +her great reluctance to read aloud to the very tart old lady.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortlock placed herself in the most comfortable arm-chair the +room afforded, and having secured her victim, began instantly to +tyrannize over her.</p> + +<p>"Now, Miss Slowcum, read up chirrupy and cheerful please. None of your +drawling, by way of genteel voice, for me—I like my gossip crisp. I +will say this of that dear girl Primrose Mainwaring, that she did her +gossip crisp."</p> + +<p>"You really are a very unaccountable person, Mrs. Mortlock," replied +Miss Slowcum. "You begin by abusing Primrose Mainwaring, and then you +praise her in the most absurd manner. I hope the refined reading of a +cultivated lady is not to be compared to the immature utterances of a +school-girl. If that is so, Mrs. Mortlock, even for the sake of the +tatting pattern, I cannot consent to waste my words on you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my good creature," said Mrs. Mortlock, who by no means wished to +be left to solitude and herself, "you read in a very pretty style of +your own—obsolete it may be—h'm—I suppose we must expect +that—mature it certainly is; yes, my dear, quite mature. If I praise +Primrose Mainwaring, and a good girl she was when she was with +me—yes, a good, painstaking girl, thankful for her mercies—it's no +disparagement to you, Miss Slowcum. You're mellow, my dear, and you +can't help being mellow, and Primrose Mainwaring is crisp, and she +can't help being crisp. Oh, goodness gracious me! what sound is that +falls on my ear?"</p> + +<p>"An old friend's voice, I hope, Mrs. Mortlock," said a pleasant +girlish tone, and Primrose Mainwaring herself bent down over the old +lady and kissed her.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all her grumbling Mrs. Mortlock had taken an immense +fancy to Primrose. She returned her embrace warmly, and even took her +hand and squeezed it.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to see you, dear," she said, "but I'm getting blinder and +blinder. Have you come back to your continual reading, dear? I hope +so, for you do the gossip in a very chirruping style."</p> + +<p>While Mrs. Mortlock was speaking to Primrose Miss Slowcum had taken +Daisy in her arms, and covered her sweet little face with kisses, for +Miss Slowcum was not all sour and affected, and she had shed some +bitter tears in secret over the child's unaccountable disappearance. +Mrs. Dredge and Mrs. Flint had both surrounded Jasmine, who, in a +white summer frock, was looking extremely pretty, and was entertaining +them with some animated conversation.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Primrose to Mrs. Mortlock, "I will come to read to you as +often as ever I can. I shall know my plans better after to-morrow. We +three girls returned to London a couple of days ago, and we received a +letter from our kind friend Mrs. Ellsworthy. You don't know her, +perhaps, but she is a very kind friend of ours. She is making some +plans for us, but we don't quite know what they are. She has written +us a letter, however, and it is on account of that letter that we have +all come to you to-night. She has invited us to come to her to-morrow, +and she wants all the friends who were kind to us, and who helped us +in every way during our year in London, to come in the evening to hear +what the plans are. Even if you can't see, Mrs. Mortlock, it will +amuse you to come, and I hope so much you will do so. I will try to +stay close to you myself when you do come, so you need not feel +lonely."</p> + +<p>"My dear, you are very kind," said Mrs. Mortlock, and the other ladies +also said the Mainwarings were kind, and they sent their dutiful +respects to Mrs. Ellsworthy and were pleased to accept. Accordingly, +Primrose gave them full directions with regard to the right address, +and the hour at which they were to be present; and finally the girls +left Mrs. Flint and her three lady boarders in a state of considerable +excitement and so deeply interested in what was about to occur that +they forgot to grumble at each other.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LVI" id="CHAPTER_LVI"></a>CHAPTER LVI.</h2> + +<h3>A PALACE BEAUTIFUL.</h3> + +<p>Hannah Martin had come up with her young ladies to London, and she +also was invited by Mrs. Ellsworthy to come to her house. The girls +all thought Hannah very much altered; they could not understand her +queer illusions, or her mysterious little nods, or in particular the +way she used to stare at Jasmine, and say under her breath, "Yes, yes, +as like as two peas. What a blind old woman I was not to see it when I +clapped eyes on him."</p> + +<p>"I cannot make out what Hannah is always muttering," Jasmine said to +her sisters. "Who is it I am so remarkably like. To judge from the way +Hannah frowns and shakes her head, and then smiles, the fact of this +accidental likeness seems to have a very disturbing effect upon her."</p> + +<p>"I know whom you are like, Jasmine," said little Daisy. "I've seen it +for a long time. You are the very image of my dear Prince. You have +got just the same colored eyes, and just the same curly hair, and +both your foreheads are broad and white. It's perfectly natural," +continued Daisy, "for you are both geniuses, and all geniuses must +have a look of each other."</p> + +<p>Hannah had old-fashioned ideas on many subjects. One of these was that +people could not remain too long in mourning. She liked very deep +black, and wished those who had lost relations to wear it for a long, +long time. The girls, therefore, were quite amazed when she suggested +that they should all go to Mrs. Ellsworthy in white. They began to +consider her quite an altered Hannah; but Jasmine took her advice, and +bought many yards of soft flowing muslin, which the old servant helped +her dear young ladies to make up.</p> + +<p>At last the day and hour arrived when, as Primrose said sorrowfully, +"Our fate is to be sealed and we are to bid 'Good-bye' to dear +independence."</p> + +<p>The girls, looking as sweet as girls could look, arrived at Mrs. +Ellsworthy's at a fairly early hour in the afternoon. The good little +lady received them with marked tenderness, but said, in an almost +confused manner, and by no means with her usual self-possession that a +slight change had been found necessary in the afternoon's programme, +and that the meeting of friends and acquaintances to hear their future +plans was not to take place at her house after all.</p> + +<p>"We are to go to another house not far from this," she said, "indeed, +only a stone's throw away. It is so close that we will walk it. Come, +Daisy, I see a number of questions in your eyes, but they shall all be +answered presently. Take my hand now, and let us lead the way. The +other house is very pretty, but it is smaller than mine."</p> + +<p>The other house was quite close to Mrs. Ellsworthy's luxurious +mansion. It was built more in the cottage shape, was much smaller, and +had a charming little garden and grounds round it. The hall door +opened into a porch, which was covered with roses, so that though the +house was really in London, the effect was quite that of the country. +Standing in the porch, and looking extremely pretty in its flickering +light and shade, stood Poppy Jenkins, in the neatest of handmaiden's +attire, and as the girls all came into the shade of the cool porch, +Noel himself, looking somewhat pale, and with a curious agitation in +his manner, came out to meet them.</p> + +<p>"This is my house," he said, "and Poppy is engaged as one of the +servants. I thought we might all meet here to discuss the new plans. +Poppy, will you take the young ladies to their room? I've had a room +prepared," he continued, blushing slightly, "for I thought Daisy might +like to rest a little."</p> + +<p>Poppy instantly tripped forward, and in quite a demure manner took +the girls up some broad stairs, and into a long, rather low-ceilinged +room on the first floor. There were three little white beds in the +room, and three toilet tables, and, in short, three sets of +everything. It was the prettiest, the brightest, the most lovely room +the girls had ever seen. It contained luxury, and neatness, and +comfort, and refinement, for beautiful pictures were placed on the +walls, and flowers peeped in at the windows, and the furniture was of +that sort which can best accommodate girls' pretty dresses and +knick-knacks.</p> + +<p>"What a room!" said Jasmine. "Why, it's just like a girls' room! Any +one would suppose Mr. Noel had sisters."</p> + +<p>Daisy began to skip about, and to poke her little fingers amongst the +curiosities and treasures which were scattered broadcast. Primrose +became silent, and walked over to one of the windows, and Poppy, +suddenly dropping her demure air, said in a voice of ecstasy—</p> + +<p>"He's a lovely young man, and I'm engaged here permanent, and it's no +more Sarah Ann, nor Sarah Jane, but Poppy I'm to be from this time and +for ever. Oh, Miss Primrose, don't it make you real happy even to take +off your bonnet in a room like this?"</p> + +<p>"I do feel happy," said Primrose, in that slow voice of hers. "I feel +happy, and I can't tell why. I am just going to give up my +independence, and I ought to be miserable, but at the present moment I +have a peculiar sense of rejoicing."</p> + +<p>"And so have I," said Jasmine, "I could skip all day long; and as to +Eyebright, she looks fit to dance this very moment."</p> + +<p>"I'm happy because I'm with the Prince," said Daisy; "that's always +quite enough for me."</p> + +<p>Then the three sisters linked their arms round one another, and went +downstairs.</p> + +<p>In Noel's very lovely drawing-room many friends were assembled. Mr. +and Mrs. Ellsworthy, of course, were present; also Mr. Danesfield, +Miss Martineau, and Miss Egerton. Old Hannah stood in the background +and when the three pretty sisters came into the room they were +surrounded by eager and loving faces, and were most warmly welcomed. +Mrs. Ellsworthy, it is true, still appeared much agitated; she had an +intense longing to take Jasmine in her arms and cry over her, but she +had, of course, too much sense to do anything so unsuitable and silly. +The girls were asked to sit down, and Mr. Ellsworthy, who had been +elected spokesman, stood up, cleared his throat, and looked at his +wife. Twice he made an attempt at utterance; finally he said in a +voice which trembled—"My dear, I can't manage it—you had better do +it yourself."</p> + +<p>"I presume you are addressing me, Joseph," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. +"I—I—this is unexpected; but anything to get it over. My dear girls, +you have come here to-day to hear what we have arranged for you. We +felt you could not go on as you have been doing."</p> + +<p>"Impossible," here interrupted Mr. Danesfield. "They were the victims +of thieves and rogues. The thing could not have gone on a day longer."</p> + +<p>"So we made plans—very nice plans," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy. "It +never occurred to us that they would be knocked on the head, crushed, +obliterated. Oh, I am very happy, of course, but I could cry at having +my plans spoiled a second time."</p> + +<p>"I don't think they are really spoiled," said Primrose who had grown +very white, and now rose to her feet. "I know I was proud about +accepting help. I had such a longing to be independent. Perhaps I feel +sore about accepting help still, but I have made up my mind; for all +our sakes it is best. I submit—I give in—I am very grateful."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, Primrose," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, whose bright eyes were now +full of tears, "I may convince you yet that you have no cause to feel +sore, and that proud heart of yours will not be pained. I believe the +help you need is coming to you three sisters in such a guise that you +cannot fail but to accept it gladly, and as your natural right."</p> + +<p>"It cannot quite be our natural right," said Primrose. "There are no +possible circumstances under which it can be quite natural for girls +to take money help from even the kindest friends who are not related +to them."</p> + +<p>"In this case there may even possibly be a relationship," proceeded +Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose, suppose that little brother who was lost +long ago—little Arthur your mother called him—suppose he came here +to-day, and said, 'I am grown up, and rich—I am the right person to +help my sisters,' you would feel no soreness of heart at accepting +help from your own brother, Primrose?"</p> + +<p>"My own brother," repeated Primrose in a wistful and longing voice; +"it is cruel to remind me of my brother. He was lost many, many years +ago; he has probably long been dead."</p> + +<p>"I should be the happiest girl in all the world if I could find my +brother," here interrupted Jasmine; "I often dream of him at night; he +must have been a darling little boy."</p> + +<p>"But if he were to come here twenty times," said Daisy, "I could never +love him better than I love the Prince."</p> + +<p>There was quite a little buzz of admiration through the room when +Daisy made this innocent little speech, and all eyes were turned on +Arthur Noel. Then there was a pause. Mr. Ellsworthy was again heard +to clear his throat, and no one seemed quite to know what to do next. +Suddenly Hannah Martin broke the spell—</p> + +<p>"Goodness gracious me!" she said, "how long are the darling young +ladies to be kept in suspense? Miss Primrose, why, you have got a +brother, and there he stands. Mr. Arthur, come and kiss your sisters, +my dear. Oh, my darling, darling girls, it's perfectly, perfectly +true; he's the boy your mother broke her heart about long ago."</p> + +<p>The confusion and agitation which followed can scarcely be +described—the joy of the sisters can scarcely be painted. Daisy took +this wonderful and important discovery more coolly and calmly than the +others.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't make a bit of difference in my love to him," she said, +"for I always loved him as if he were my brother."</p> + +<p>"And now, Primrose," said Arthur, "you are mistress of this house, and +please remember that visitors are coming here presently, and that you +are to entertain them."</p> + +<p>"Are we always to live with you, Arthur?" asked Jasmine. "It seems +better than a dream. Oh, Arthur," she continued, not waiting for her +brother's reply, "don't you remember how we made friends the very +first moment we met? we must have always known, deep down in our +hearts, that we were brother and sister."</p> + +<p>"And this is to be our new Palace Beautiful," said Daisy, "and Poppy +is to live here too. Oh, Primrose, do you not feel almost too happy?"</p> + +<p>"I've given up my independence," said Primrose, "and yet I never felt +more happy or more thankful."</p> + +<p>The party that evening was a success. The astonishment of the good +ladies from Penelope Mansion when they heard the wonderful news passed +all bounds. Mrs. Dredge sat plump down on a chair, placed her fat +hands on her lap, and fairly cried.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if only my poor dear husband had lived to see this beautiful +day," she said. "Young man, I have liked you from the first; you're +the kind of young man whom my good husband would have rejoiced to be +papa to."</p> + +<p>Miss Slowcum sighed most deeply when she heard the news. "It's a +touching romance," she said, "quite worthy of the olden times. I could +imagine Mr. Noel—Mr. Mainwaring, I suppose we must call him now—as +belonging to the old knights of chivalry. Yes, I am a person of +discernment, and I long ago saw that the dear girls belonged to the +upper ten."</p> + +<p>"It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," said Mrs. Mortlock. "In +this case, ladies and gentlemen, I beg to reverse the familiar words, +for amid all your joy I have lost my 'continual reader.' She had her +faults—no, I'm not going to deny that being young she had her +faults—but she was ever good-natured, and she did her gossip +chirrupy."</p> + +<p>Of course the girls' future was now assured, for Arthur was a very +rich man. Miss Egerton, at his earnest request, came to live with +them, and they are now known to possess one of the happiest and +brightest homes in London—in short, they live in a "Palace +Beautiful."</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Palace Beautiful, by L. T. Meade + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL *** + +***** This file should be named 15149-h.htm or 15149-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/4/15149/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Suzanne Lybarger and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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T. Meade + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Palace Beautiful + A Story for Girls + +Author: L. T. Meade + +Release Date: February 22, 2005 [EBook #15149] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Suzanne Lybarger and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL. + +A STORY FOR GIRLS. + +BY + +L.T. MEADE, + +_Author of "A World of Girls," "Scamp and I," "Daddy's Boy," &c., &c._ + + +NEW YORK: +WM. L. ALLISON CO., PUBLISHERS. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. Early Days + + II. The First Month of their Trouble + + III. Miss Martineau + + IV. To the Rescue + + V. The Contents of the Cabinet + + VI. Many Visitors + + VII. Shortlands + + VIII. Thirty Pounds a Year + + IX. A Strange Letter and a Proposed Visit to London + + X. Ways and Means of Earning a Living + + XI. Bread and Butter + + XII. They Would Not be Parted + + XIII. Mrs. Ellsworthy's Letter + + XIV. Quite Contrary + + XV. In Spite of Opposition + + XVI. Penelope Mansion + + XVII. Escorted by Miss Slowcum + + XVIII. In St. Paul's Cathedral + + XIX. A Bright Day + + XX. Getting Lost + + XXI. How to Paint China and How to Form Style + + XXII. Cross Purposes + + XXIII. Dark Days + + XXIV. Dove's Joke + + XXV. Daisy's Promise + + XXVI. A Delightful Plan + + XXVII. The Poor Doves + + XXVIII. A Startling Discovery + + XXIX. A Blessing + + XXX. Voice of the Prince + + XXXI. A "Continual Reader" + + XXXII. Jasmine Begins to Soar + + XXXIII. Visiting the Publishers + + XXXIV. A Plan + + XXXV. Their Quarter's Allowance + + XXXVI. _The Joy-Bell_ + + XXXVII. Endorsing a Cheque + + XXXVIII. Daisy's Request + + XXXIX. The Journey + + XL. A Bitter Disappointment + + XLI. Mrs. Dredge to the Rescue + + XLII. A New Employment + + XLIII. In the Field + + XLIV. Too Much for Dove + + XLV. The Prince to the Rescue + + XLVI. Delivered from the Ogre + + XLVII. Almost Defeated + + XLVIII. One Shoe Off and One Shoe On + + XLIX. Spanish Lace + + L. A Dazzling Day + + LI. A Letter + + LII. "I Love Mrs. Ellsworthy" + + LIII. Telegraph Wires + + LIV. A Discovery + + LV. An Invitation for the Ladies of Penelope Mansion + + LVI. A Palace Beautiful + + + + +THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL. + +_A STORY FOR GIRLS._ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY DAYS. + + +The three girls were called after flowers. This is how it came about: + +When Primrose opened her eyes on the world she brought back a little +bit of spring to her mother's heart. + +Mrs. Mainwaring had gone through a terrible trouble--a trouble so dark +and mysterious, so impossible to feel reconciled to, that her health +had been almost shattered, and she had almost said good-bye to hope. + +The baby came in the spring-time, and the soft, velvety touch of the +little face, and the sight of the round baby limbs, had made Mrs. +Mainwaring smile: had caused her to pluck up heart, and to determine +resolutely to take this new blessing, and to begin to live again. + +The baby came in the month of March, just when the primroses were +beginning to open their pale and yet bright blossoms. Mrs. Mainwaring +said that the child was a symbol of spring to her, and she called her +Primrose. + +The next girl was born in Italy, in the middle of a rich and brilliant +summer. Flowers were everywhere, and the baby, a black-haired, +dark-eyed little mite, had a starry look about her. She was called +Jasmine, and the name from the very first suited her exactly. + +The third and youngest of the sisters also came in the summer, but she +was born in an English cottage. Her mother, who had been rich when +Jasmine was born, was now poor; that is, she was poor as far as money +is concerned, but the three little daughters made her feel rich. She +called the child from the first her little country wild flower, and +allowed Primrose and Jasmine to select her name. They brought in +handfuls of field daisies, and begged to have the baby called after +them. + +The three girls grew up in the little country cottage. Their father +was in India, in a very unhealthy part of the country. He wrote home +by every mail, and in each letter expressed a hope that the Government +under which he served would allow him to return to England and to his +wife and children. Death, however, came first to the gallant captain. +When Primrose was ten years old, and Daisy was little more than a +baby, Mrs. Mainwaring found herself in the humble position of an +officer's widow, with very little to live on besides her pension. + +In the Devonshire village, however, things were cheap, rents were low, +and the manners of life deliciously fresh and primitive. + +Primrose, Jasmine, and Daisy grew up something like the flowers, +taking no thought for the morrow, and happy in the grand facts that +they were alive, that they were perfectly healthy, and that the sun +shone and the sweet fresh breezes blew for them. They were as +primitive as the little place where they lived, and cared nothing at +all for fashionably-cut dresses; or for what people who think +themselves wiser would have called the necessary enjoyments of life. +Mrs. Mainwaring, who had gone through a terrible trouble before the +birth of her eldest girl, had her nerves shattered a second time by +her husband's death; from that moment she was more ruled by her girls +than a ruler to them. They did pretty much what they pleased, and she +was content that they should make themselves happy in their own way. + +It was lucky for the girls that they were amiable, and had strength of +character. + +Primrose was delightfully matter-of-fact. When she saw that her mother +allowed them to learn their lessons anyhow she made little rules for +herself and her sisters--the rules were so playful and so light that +the others, for mere fun, followed them--thus they insisted on their +mother hearing them their daily tasks; they insisted on going +regularly twice a week to a certain old Miss Martineau, who gave them +lessons on an antiquated piano, and taught them obsolete French. +Primrose was considered by her sisters very wise indeed but Primrose +also thought Jasmine wise, and wise with a wisdom which she could +appreciate without touching; for Jasmine had got some gifts from a +fairy wand, she was touched with the spirit of Romance, and had a +beautiful way of looking at life which her sisters loved to encourage. +Daisy was the acknowledged baby of the family--she was very pretty, +and not very strong, was everybody's darling, and was, of course, +something of a spoilt child. + +Primrose had a face which harmonized very well with her quaint, sweet +name; her hair was soft, straight, and yellow, her eyes were light +brown, her skin was fair, and her expression extremely calm, gentle, +and placid. To look at Primrose was to feel soothed--she had a +somewhat slow way of speaking, and she never wasted her words. Jasmine +was in all particulars her opposite. She was dark, with very bright +and lovely eyes; her movements were quick, her expression full of +animation, and when excited--and she was generally in a state of +excitement--her words tumbled out almost too quickly for coherence. +Her cheeks would burn, and her eyes sparkle, over such trivial +circumstances as a walk down a country lane, as blackberry-hunting, as +strawberry-picking--a new story-book kept her awake half the +night--she was, in short, a constant little volcano in this quiet +home, and would have been an intolerable child but for the great +sweetness of her temper, and also for the fact that every one more or +less yielded to her. + +Daisy was very pretty and fair--her hair was as yellow as Primrose's, +but it curled, and was more or less always in a state of friz; her +eyes were wide open and blue, and she was just a charming little +child, partaking slightly of the qualities of both her elder sisters. + +These girls had never had a care or an anxiety--when they were hungry +they could eat, when they were tired sleep could lull them into +dreamless rest--they had never seen any world but the narrow world of +Rosebury, the name of the village where they lived. Even romantic +Jasmine thought that life at Rosebury, with perhaps a few more books +and a few more adventures must form the sum and substance of her +existence. Of course there was a large world outside, but even Jasmine +had not begun to long for it. + +Primrose was sixteen, Jasmine between thirteen and fourteen, and Daisy +ten, when a sudden break came to all this quiet and happy routine. +Mrs. Mainwaring without any warning or any leave-taking, suddenly +died. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE FIRST MONTH OF THEIR TROUBLE. + + +There are mothers and mothers. Mrs. Mainwaring was the kind of mother +who could not possibly say a harsh word to her children--she could not +be severe to them, she could never do anything but consider them the +sweetest and best of human beings. The girls ruled her, and she liked +to be ruled by them. After her husband's death, and after the first +agony of his loss had passed away, she sank into a sort of subdued +state--she began to live in the present, to be content with the little +blessings of each day, to look upon the sunshine as an unmitigated +boon, and on the girls' laughter as the sweetest music. She had been +rich in her early married life, but Captain Mainwaring had lost his +money, had lost all his large private means, through a bank failure, +and before Daisy came into the world Mrs. Mainwaring knew that she was +a very poor woman indeed. Before the captain went to India he insured +his life for L1000, and after his death Mrs. Mainwaring lived very +placidly on her small pension, and for any wants which she required +over and above what the pension could supply she drew upon the L1000. +She did not care, as a more sensible woman would have done, to invest +this little sum as so much capital; no, she preferred to let it lie in +the bank, and to draw upon it from time to time, as necessity arose. +She had no business friends to advise her, for the few acquaintances +she made at Rosebury knew nothing whatever of the value of money. Like +many another woman who has been brought up in affluence, neither had +Mrs. Mainwaring the faintest idea of how fast a small sum like L1,000 +can dwindle. She felt comfortable during the latter years of her life +at the knowledge that she had a good balance in the bank. It never +occurred to her as a possibility that she who was still fairly young +could die suddenly and without warning. This event, however, took +place, and the girls were practically unprovided for. + +Mrs. Mainwaring had never really worked for her children, but a mother +who had worked hard for them, and toiled, and exerted all her strength +to provide adequately for their future, might not perhaps have been +loved so well. She died and her children were broken-hearted. They +mourned for her each after her own fashion, and each according to her +individual character. Primrose retained her calmness and her common +sense in the midst of all her grief; Jasmine was tempestuous and +hysterical, bursting into laughter one minute and sobbing wildly the +next. Little Daisy felt frightened in Jasmine's presence--she did not +quite believe that mother would never come back, and she clung to +Primrose, who protected and soothed her; in short, took a mother's +place to her, and felt herself several years older on the spot. + +For a month the girls grieved and shut themselves away from their +neighbors, and refused to go out, or to be in any measure comforted. A +month in the ordinary reckoning is really a very short period of time, +but to these girls, in their grief and misery, it seemed almost +endless. One night Jasmine lay awake from the time she laid her head +on the pillow till the first sun had dawned; then Primrose took +fright, and began to resume her old gentle, but still firm authority. + +"Jasmine," she said, "we have got our black dresses--they are made +very neatly, and we have done them all ourselves. Staying in the house +this lovely weather won't bring dear mamma back again; we will have +tea a little earlier than usual, and go for a walk this evening." + +Jasmine, whenever she could stop crying, had been longing for a walk, +but had crushed down the desire as something unnatural, and +disrespectful to dear mamma, but of course if Primrose suggested it it +was all right. Her face brightened visibly, and as to Daisy, she sat +down and began to play with the kitten on the spot. + +That evening the three desolate young creatures put on their new black +dresses, and went down a long, rambling, charming country lane. The +air was delicious--Jasmine refused to cover her hot little face with a +crape veil--they came back after their ramble soothed and refreshed. +As they were walking up the village street a girl of the name of +Poppy, their laundress's child, stepped out of a little cottage, +dropped a courtesy, and said, in a tone of delight-- + +"Oh, Miss Mainwaring, I'm glad to see you out; and Miss Jasmine, +darling, the little canary is all reared and ready for you. I took a +sight of pains with him, and he'll sing beautiful before long. Shall I +bring him round in the morning, Miss Jasmine?" + +"Yes, of course, Poppy; and I'm greatly obliged to you," answered +Jasmine, in her old bright tones. Then she colored high, felt a good +deal ashamed of herself, and hurried after Primrose, who had pulled +down her crape veil, and was holding Daisy's hand tightly. + +That night the sisters all slept well; they were the better for the +fresh air, and also for the thought of seeing Poppy and the canary +which she had reared for Jasmine in the morning. + +Sharp to the hour Poppy arrived with her gift; she was a pretty little +village girl, who adored the Misses Mainwaring. + +"The bird will want a heap of sunshine," she said; "he's young, and my +mother says that all young things want lots and lots of sun. May I +pull up the blind in the bay window, Miss Primrose; and may I hang +Jimmy's cage just here?" + +Primrose nodded. She forgot, in her interest over Jimmy, to remember +that the bay window looked directly on to the village street. + +"And please, miss," said Poppy, as she was preparing to return home, +"Miss Martineau says she'll look in this evening, and that she was +glad when she saw you out last night, young ladies, and acting +sensible again." + +Primrose had always a very faint color; at Poppy's words it deepened +slightly. + +"We've tried to act in a sensible way all through," she said, with +gentle dignity. "Perhaps Miss Martineau does not quite understand. We +love one another very much; we are not going to be foolish, but we +cannot help grieving for our mother." + +At these words Jasmine rushed out of the room and Poppy's round eyes +filled with tears. + +"Oh, Miss Primrose--," she began. + +"Never mind, Poppy," said Primrose; "we'll see Miss Martineau +to-night. I am glad you told us she was coming." + +The neighbors at Rosebury were all of the most sociable type; the +Mainwaring girls knew every soul in the place, and when their mother +died there was quite a rush of sympathy for them, and the little +cottage might have been full from morning till night. Primrose, +however, would not have it; even Miss Martineau, who was their +teacher, and perhaps their warmest friend, was refused admittance. The +neighbors wondered, and thought the girls very extraordinary and a +little stuck-up, and their sympathy, thrown back on themselves, began +to cool. + +The real facts of the case, however, were these: Primrose, Jasmine and +Daisy would have been very pleased to see Poppy Jenkins, or old Mrs. +Jones, who sometimes came in to do choring, or even the nice little +Misses Price, who kept a grocery shop at the other end of the village +street; they would also have not objected to a visit from good, hearty +Mrs. Fry, the doctor's wife, but had they admitted any of these +neighbors they must have seen Miss Martineau, and Miss Martineau, once +she got a footing in the house, would have been there morning, noon +and night. + +Poor Jasmine would not have at all objected to crying away some of her +sorrow on kind Mrs. Fry's motherly breast; Primrose could have had +some really interesting talk which would have done her good with the +Misses Price; they were very religious people, and their brother was a +clergyman, and they might have said some things which would comfort +the sore hearts of the young girls. Little Daisy could have asked some +of her unceasing questions of Poppy Jenkins, and the three would +really have been the better for the visits and the sympathy of the +neighbors did not these visits and sympathy also mean Miss Martineau. +But Miss Martineau at breakfast, dinner, and tea--Miss Martineau, with +her never-ending advice, her good-natured but still unceasingly +correcting tone, was felt just at first to be unendurable. She was +sincerely fond of the girls, whom she had taught to play incorrectly, +and to read French with an accent unrecognized in Paris, but Miss +Martineau was a worry, was a great deal too officious, and so the +girls shut themselves away from her and from all other neighbors for +the first month after their mother's death. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MISS MARTINEAU. + + +Primrose was the soul of hospitality; having decided that Miss +Martineau was to be admitted that evening, it occurred to her that she +might as well make things pleasant for this angular, good-humored, and +somewhat hungry personage. Primrose could cook charmingly, and when +dinner was over she turned to her sisters, and said in her usual +rather slow way-- + +"I am going to make some cream-cakes for tea; and Jasmine, dear, you +might put some fresh flowers in the vases; and Daisy--"; she paused as +she looked at her sister--the child's blue eyes were fixed on her, she +noticed with a pang that the little face was pale, and the dimpled +mouth looked sad. + +"Daisy," she said, suddenly, "you can go into the garden, and have a +romp with the Pink." + +"The Pink" was Daisy's favorite kitten. + +Daisy laughed aloud, Jasmine started up briskly from the dinner-table, +and Primrose, feeling that she had done well, went into the kitchen to +consult with Hannah, the old cook, over the making of the +cream-cakes. + +The result of all this was that when Miss Martineau, sharp at four +o'clock (the hours were very primitive at Rosebury), arrived at the +Mainwarings' door, the outward aspect of the house bore no tokens of +violent grief on the part of its inmates--the blinds were drawn up, +not quite to the top, for that would have been ugly, and Jasmine was +full of artistic instincts, but they were drawn up to let in plenty of +sunlight, the white muslin curtains were draped gracefully, some pots +of fresh flowers could be seen on the window-ledge, and a canary in a +rather battered cage hung from a hook above, and disported himself +cheerfully in the sunlight. + +Miss Martineau was very old-fashioned in her ideas, and she did not +much like the look of the bay window. + +She comforted herself, however, with the reflection that even under +the direst afflictions blinds must be drawn up some time, and that she +would doubtless find the poor dear girls in a state of tempestuous +grief within. She imagined herself soothing Jasmine, holding +Primrose's hand, and allowing Daisy to sit on her knee. Miss Martineau +was most kind-hearted, and would have done anything for the three +girls, whom she dearly loved, only, like many another good-hearted +person, she would wish to do that anything or something in her own +way. + +"Good evening, Hannah," she said, as the old cook opened the door; +"you have had a sad affliction--a terrible affliction. I hope the dear +young ladies are--" Miss Martineau paused for a word, then she +said--"tranquil." + +"Oh yes, miss," answered Hannah. "Walk in, please, Miss +Martineau--this way--the young ladies is hoping you'll take a cup of +tea with them, miss." Miss Martineau found herself the next instant in +one of the most cheerful sitting-rooms to be found at Rosebury--it had +always been a pretty room--furnished daintily with the odds and ends +of rich and choice furniture which had belonged to Mrs. Mainwaring in +her wealthy days. Now it was bright with flowers, and the western sun +poured in at one angle of the wide bay window. The three girls, in +their very simple black dresses, with no crape, came forward in a +little group to meet her. In their hearts they were slightly excited +and upset, but rather than give way they put on an air of extra +cheerfulness. Miss Martineau, fond as she was of them, felt absolutely +scandalized--to keep her out of the house for a whole month, and then +to admit her in this fashion--such a lot of sunlight--such a heap of +flowers, no crape on the black dresses, and Jasmine's face quite +bright and her hair as curly as usual. Miss Martineau began a little +set speech, but Jasmine interrupted her. + +"Do come, and have some tea," she said. "Primrose has made some +delicious cream-cakes, and we are all so hungry, aren't we, +Eyebright?" turning to her little sister as she spoke. + +"Yes," replied Daisy; "Pink is hungry, too--I chased Pink about fifty +times round the garden, and she's quite starving. May Pink have some +cream in a saucer for her tea, Primrose?" + +Primrose nodded, took Miss Martineau's hand, and led her to the place +of honor at the table, and sitting down herself, began to pour out the +fragrant tea. + +If Miss Martineau had a weakness, it was for really good tea and for +cream-cakes. She took off her gloves now, arranged her bonnet-strings, +put back her veil, and prepared to enjoy herself. Instead of talking +common-place condolences, she chatted on little matters of local +interest with the sisters. Jasmine took care to supply Miss Martineau +with plenty of cream-cakes--Primrose saw that her cup was well +replenished. Miss Martineau was poor and very saving, and it occurred +to her, as she partook of the Mainwaring's nice tea, that she might do +without much supper by-and-by. This reflection put her into an +excellent humor. + +When the tea was over Primrose led her to a comfortable seat by the +window. + +"My dear," she said, "it is well that I should sit just here, within +full view of the street?--your window is, well, a little too like +seeing company, my loves, and if my bonnet is seen by passers-by +you'll have everybody calling directly." + +"Oh, we mean to see everybody now," said Jasmine "we--we--we think it +best, don't we, Primrose?" + +"Yes," said Primrose, in her gentle tones. "It does not make us think +less of dear mamma to see people--and--and--we have decided to go on +much as usual now." + +"You might have admitted me before, dears," replied Miss Martineau--"I +felt so intensely for you--I could never get you out of my head. I was +a good deal hurt by your refusing to admit me, my dear girls, for in +all respects I would have wished to be a mother to you." + +"Please, don't," said Jasmine. + +"We _couldn't_ have another mother," said little Daisy, clinging close +to Primrose, and looking up into her sister's sweet face. + +Primrose stooped and kissed her. + +"You may run into the garden, darling, and take the Pink," she said. + +Miss Martineau had no intention of leaving the Mainwarings without +speaking out her mind. It was one of this good lady's essential +privileges to speak out her mind to the younger generation of the +Rosebury world. Who had a better right to do this than she? for had +she not educated most of them? had she not given them of the best of +her French and her music? and was she not even at this present moment +Jasmine's and Daisy's instructress? Primrose she considered her +finished and accomplished pupil. Surely the girls, even though they +had refused to admit her for a month, would turn to her now with full +confidence. She settled herself comfortably in the arm-chair in which +Primrose had placed her, and saying, in her high-pitched and thin +voice-- + +"Now, my dears, you will take seats close to me--not too close, loves, +for I dislike being crushed, and I have on my Sunday silk. My dear +girls, I want us now to have a really comfortable talk. There is a +great deal that needs discussion, and I think there is nothing like +facing a difficult subject resolutely, and going through it with +system. I approve of your sending Daisy into the garden, Primrose. She +is too young to listen to all that we must go into. I purpose dears, +after the manner of our school-hours, to divide our discourse into +heads--two heads will probably be sufficient for this evening. First, +the severe loss you have just sustained--that we will talk over, and +no doubt mingle our tears together over; take courage, my dear +children, such an unburdening will relieve your young hearts. +Second--Jasmine, you need not get so very red, my dear--second, we +will discuss something also of importance; how are you three dear +girls going to live?" + +Here Miss Martineau paused, took off her spectacles, wiped them, and +put them on again. She felt really very kindly, and would have worked +herself to a skeleton, if need be, for the sake of the Mainwarings, +whom she sincerely loved. Jasmine's red face, however, grew still +redder. + +"Please, Miss Martineau--yes, Primrose, I will speak--please, Miss +Martineau, we cannot discuss dear mamma with you. There is nothing to +discuss, and nothing to tell--I won't--I can't--Primrose, I won't +listen, and I won't talk." + +Miss Martineau shook her head, and looked really angrily at Jasmine. + +"Nothing to tell," she said, sorrowfully. "Is your poor dear mother +then so soon forgotten? I could not have believed it. Alas! alas! how +little children appreciate their parents." + +"You are not a parent yourself, and you know nothing about it," said +Jasmine, now feeling very angry, and speaking in her rudest tone. + +Primrose's quiet voice interposed. + +"I think, Miss Martineau," she began, "that the first subject will be +more than Jasmine and I can quite bear--you must forgive us, even if +you fail quite to understand us. It is no question of forgetting--our +mother will never be forgotten--it is just that we would rather not. +You must allow us to judge for ourselves on this point," concluded +Primrose, with that dignity that suited her so well. Primrose, for all +her extreme quietness and simplicity of manner and bearing, could look +like a young princess when she chose, and Miss Martineau, who would +have quarrelled fiercely with Jasmine, submitted. + +"Very well," she said, in a tone of some slight offence; "I came here +with a heart brimful of sympathy; it is repulsed; it goes back as it +came, but I bear no offence." + +"Shall we discuss your second subject, dear Miss Martineau?" continued +Primrose. "I know that you have a great deal of sense and experience, +and I know that you have a knack of making money go very far indeed. +You ask us what our plans are--well, I really don't think we have got +any, have we, Jasmine?" + +"No," said Jasmine, in her shortest tones. "We mean to live as we +always did. Why can't people leave us in peace?" + +Miss Martineau cleared her throat, looked with some compassion at +Jasmine, whom she thought it best to treat as a spoilt child, and then +turned her attention to Primrose. + +"My dear," she said, "I am willing to waive my first head, to cast it +aside, to pass it over, and consider my second. My dear Primrose, the +first thing to consider in making your plans--I take no notice of +Jasmine's somewhat childish remarks--is _on_ what you have to live." + +Primrose knit her brows. + +"I suppose," she said slowly, "we shall have what we always had--we +spent very little money in the past, and, of course, we shall require +still less now. We are fond of Rosebury; I think we shall do for the +present at least just what Jasmine says, and stay on quietly here." + +Miss Martineau cleared her throat again. + +"My dear girl," she said, "even to live here you must have something +to live on. Now, are you aware that your mother's annuity as a +captain's widow ceases with her death? I believe something very +trifling will still be allowed to you, as his orphans, but on that +point I'm rather in the dark." + +"Mother always did get ten pounds a year apiece for us," said +Primrose. + +"Well, yes, my dear, we will suppose, and trust, and hope that that +small sum will still be continued; but even at Rosebury you three +girls cannot live on thirty pounds a year." + +"But there is the money in the bank," said Jasmine speaking in a more +interested tone. "You remember Primrose dear, how whenever mother +wanted some money she just wrote a cheque, and we took it down to Mr. +Danesfield, and he gave us nice shining gold for it. Sometimes it was +ten pounds, sometimes it was five pounds, and sometimes it was only +two pounds; but whenever we went to Mr. Danesfield's bank with +mother's cheque he gave us the money. I suppose, Primrose, you can +have a cheque-book now, and Mr. Danesfield can give you the money." + +"Yes," said Primrose, in a cheerful tone, "I forgot about the money in +the bank; mother often told me there was plenty. Even if we can't +quite live on our thirty pounds a year, we can manage with what money +dear mamma had in the bank." + +Miss Martineau's face had become extremely lined and anxious. + +"My dears," she said, "I fear I've done a rude thing; I fear I've +taken a liberty; but the fact is, you are so alone, poor darlings, and +Mr. Danesfield is an old friend of mine--and--and--I took the liberty +of asking him what your mother's balance was. He said, my dears--my +poor dears--that it was not quite two hundred pounds." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +TO THE RESCUE. + + +Miss Martineau told her news with considerable agitation. She +considered it a terrible revelation. It seemed to her a very fearful +and disastrous thing that three girls brought up like the Mainwarings, +three girls still almost children, should be thrown on the world +without any means for their support. + +Simple and primitive as their lives had been at Rosebury, they still +had been tenderly nurtured and warmly sheltered--no cold blast of +unkindness or neglect had visited them--they had been surrounded ever +by both love and respect. The love came principally from their mother +and from one another, but the respect came from all who knew them. The +Mainwaring girls, in their plain dresses and with their +unsophisticated manners, looked like ladies, and invariably acted as +such. + +Soon after making her communication Miss Martineau took her leave; she +hurried home, and sitting down in her dingy little parlor, began to +think. + +"No, thank you, Susan," she said to her little maid-of-all-work, "I +shan't want any supper to-night. I have been at tea with my dear +pupils, the Misses Mainwaring. You may bring the lamp presently, +Susan, but not quite yet; it is a pity to waste the daylight, and +there is quite another quarter of an hour in which I can see to knit. +Yes, give me my knitting-basket; I can get on with Widow Joseph's +mittens." + +"And, if you please, ma'am," asked Susan, lingering for a moment at +the door, "may I ask how, all things considering, the dear young +ladies is?" + +"On the whole, tranquil, Susan--yes, I may say it with confidence; my +dear pupils may be considered in a resigned state of mind." + +Susan closed the door after her, and Miss Martineau took up her +knitting. Knitting woollen mittens is an occupation which harmonizes +very well with reflection and while the old lady's active fingers +moved her thoughts were busy. + +"Thirty pounds a year," she said softly to herself, "thirty pounds +certain, and a lump sum of two hundred in the bank. Doubtless they owe +some of that for their mother's funeral and their own mourning. They +probably owe quite thirty pounds of that, and to make it safe, I had +better say forty. That leaves a balance of one hundred and sixty; +just enough to put away for emergencies, illness, and so forth. My +dear girls, my dear Primrose, and Jasmine, and my pretty little pet +Daisy, you cannot touch your little capital; you may get a few pounds +a year for it, or you may not--Mr. Danesfield must decide that--but +all the money you can certainly reckon on for your expenses is thirty +pounds per annum, and on that you cannot live." + +Here Miss Martineau threw down her knitting, and began with some +agitation to pace up and down her tiny room. + +"What was to be done with these lonely and defenceless girls? how were +they to meet the world? how were they to earn their living?" + +Miss Martineau had never before found herself propounding so painful +and interesting a problem; her mind worked round it, and tried to +grapple with it, but though she stayed up far into the night, and even +had recourse to figures, and marked down on paper the very lowest sum +a girl could possibly exist on, she went to bed, having found no +solution to this vexed question. + +Even Miss Martineau, ignorant and narrow-minded as she was, could +scarcely pronounce Primrose fit to do much in the educational world; +Jasmine's, of course, was only a little giddy pate, and she required a +vast amount of teaching herself; and pretty Daisy was still but a +young child. + +Miss Martineau went to bed and to sleep; she dreamed troubled dreams, +but in the morning she awoke strengthened and restored, even by such +restless slumbers, and quite resolved to do something. + +"Sophia Martineau," she said--for living quite alone she was fond of +holding conversations with herself--"Sophia Martineau, those girls are +placed, to put it figuratively, at your door, and take them up you +must. Gold you have none to bestow, but you can give interest; you +can, in short, rouse others to help the helpless. This is your bounden +duty, and you had better see to it at once." + +Miss Martineau went briskly downstairs, ate her frugal breakfast, and +then made her plans. These plans were decisive enough. At Rosebury no +one thought of being so silly as to be over-educated. None of the +young brains of the rising generation were over-forced or +over-stimulated, and Miss Martineau felt no compunction whatever in +writing a short note to each of six little pupils, and telling them +that they need not come to her that morning, for she meant to give +them a holiday. + +Having done this, and sent Susan out with the notes, she went +upstairs, and once more put on her black silk dress, her old-fashioned +mantle, and her high poke bonnet. Thus attired, she started on an +expedition which she trusted would lead to many happy results for the +Mainwarings. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE CONTENTS OF THE CABINET. + + +The uneasiness Miss Martineau felt was by no means shared by the +girls. Primrose had in reality a very practical nature; she could +housekeep well, and no baker or butcher who ventured to show his face +in Rosebury would dream of cheating this bright young lady. No one +could make half-a-crown, or even a shilling, go farther than Primrose +could. No one could more cleverly convert an old dress into a new, but +her little experiences ended here. She had kept the house for her +mother, and been both thrifty and saving, but real responsibility had +never been hers. The overpowering sensation of knowing that she must +make so much money meet so many absolute necessities had never touched +her young life. Miss Martineau's words had made her a little +thoughtful, but by no means anxious. If she and her sisters could not +live on thirty pounds a year there was still the money in the bank. + +Primrose thought two hundred pounds, if not a large, at least a very +comfortable sum. The only real effect that her old governess's words +had on her was to make her a little extra saving. + +Jasmine never liked Primrose when she was in a saving mood, and she +grumbled audibly when, the morning after Miss Martineau's visit, her +elder sister suggested that they should do without some black cotton +dresses which the day before they had decided to buy and to make for +themselves. + +"Such nonsense!" said Jasmine, stamping her little foot impatiently; +"you know we want the dresses, Primrose. You know poor Daisy can't run +and play in the garden in her black cashmere frock, and I can't dig or +weed. You know, when we decided to go on just as usual, just as if +mamma--was--was--" + +Here Jasmine paused, gulped down a sob, and said, hastily, "We want +our print dresses, and we can't do without them. You are just +frightened, Primrose, by what Miss Martineau said." + +"I am not at all frightened," answered Primrose, calmly; "only I think +we ought to be careful." + +"And we are so rich, too," said Jasmine. "I never thought we had two +hundred pounds in the bank. Why it's heaps and lots of money. +Primrose, what are you so grave about?" + +"Only," said Primrose, in her slow voice, "only Miss Martineau thought +it very, very little money. She looked so grave when she spoke about +it--indeed, she seemed almost sad. Jasmine, I really think Miss +Martineau quite loves us." + +"Perhaps," said Jasmine, in an indifferent tone. "Well, Rose, if you +are quite determined to be shabby and saving, I may as well join Daisy +in the garden." + +Jasmine stooped down, kissed her sister lightly on the forehead, and +then ran out of the room. A moment or two later Primrose heard +laughing voices floating in through the open window. She was glad in +her heart that Jasmine and Daisy were beginning to do things just as +usual, and yet somehow their laughter gave her a pang. + +The little cottage was a tiny place; it consisted downstairs of one +long low room, with a bay window at the extreme end. This room the +Mainwarings called the drawing-room, and it was really furnished with +great daintiness and care. At one end was the bay window, at the other +were glass doors which opened directly into the garden. The kitchen +was at the other end of the narrow hall, and this also looked on the +garden. Hannah, the one servant, was often heard to object to this +arrangement. She gave solid reasons for her objections, declaring +roundly that human nature was far more agreeable to her than any part +of the vegetable kingdom; but though Hannah found her small kitchen +rather dull, and never during the years she stayed with them developed +the slightest taste for the beauties of Nature, she was sincerely +attached to the Mainwaring girls, and took care to serve them well. + +Upstairs were two bedrooms--one looking to the street, in which the +girls slept, the prettiest room with the garden view being reserved +for Mrs. Mainwaring. Hannah occupied a small and attic-like apartment +over the kitchen. + +When Jasmine ran into the garden Primrose slowly rose from her seat +and went upstairs. It occurred to her that this was a fitting +opportunity to do something which she longed and dreaded to +accomplish. + +Since her mother's death, since the moment when the three young girls +had bent over the coffin and strewed flowers over the form they loved, +the sisters had not gone near this room. + +Hannah had dusted it and kept it tidy, but the blinds had been drawn +down and the sun excluded. The girls had shrunk from entering this +chamber; it seemed to them like a grave. They passed it with reverent +steps, and spoke in whispers as they stole on tiptoe by the closed +door. + +It occurred, however, to Primrose that now was an opportunity when she +might come into the room and put some of her mother's treasures +straight. She unlocked the door and entered; a chill, cold feeling +struck on her. Had she been Jasmine she would have turned and fled, +but being Primrose, she instantly did what her clear common sense told +her was the sensible course. + +"We have made up our minds to go on as usual," she said to herself; +"and letting in the sunlight and the daylight is not forgetting our +dear mother." + +Then she pulled up the blinds, and threw the window-sashes wide open. + +A breath of soft warm air from the garden instantly filled the dreary +chamber, and Primrose, sitting down by an old-fashioned little +cabinet, slipped a key into the lock of the centre drawer, and opened +it. + +Mrs. Mainwaring had been by no means a tidy or careful person--she +hated locks, and seemed to have a regular aversion to neatly-kept +drawers or wardrobes, but this one little cabinet, which had belonged +to the girls' father, was a remarkable exception to the general rule. + +Mrs. Mainwaring never, even to Primrose, parted with the key of this +cabinet. Whenever the girls were present it was locked--even Daisy +could not coax mother to show her the contents of any of those +tempting little drawers--"only mementoes, darling--only mementoes," +the lady would say, but the girls knew that mother herself often in +the dead of night looked into the locked drawers, and they generally +noticed that the next day she was weaker and sadder than usual. + +On the top of the cabinet a miniature painting of Captain Mainwaring +was always to be found, and the girls used to love to keep a vase of +the choicest flowers close to father's picture. + +When Mrs. Mainwaring died, Jasmine cried nearly the whole of one night +at the thought of the little old-fashioned cabinet--for now she felt +quite sure that no one would ever dare to open it, "and I don't like +to think of the mementoes being never seen again," she sobbed: "It +seems cruel to them." + +Then Primrose promised to undertake this dreaded task, and here was +her opportunity. + +Primrose was not at all a nervous girl, and with the soft summer air +filling the chamber, and driving out all the ghosts of solitude and +gloom, she commenced her task. She determined to look through the +contents of the little cabinet with method, and she resolved to begin +with the large centre drawer. She pulled it open, and was surprised to +find that it was nearly empty. + +A few papers, on which verses and quotations from Books of Sermons +were copied in her mother's hand-writing, lay about; these, and one +parcel which was carefully wrapped up in soft white tissue-paper, were +the sole contents of the centre drawer. Primrose pulled the parcel +from where it lay half-hidden at the back of the drawer. She felt +self-possessed, but her fingers trembled slightly as she touched it. +It was folded up most carefully--the wrappings were kept in their +place by white satin ribbon, and on a slip of white paper which had +been placed on the top of the parcel, and secured by the ribbon, +Primrose read a few words: + +"Arthur's little desk--for Primrose now." + +She felt her color coming high, and her heart beating. Who was +Arthur?--she had never heard of him--her father's name had been John. +Who was the unknown Arthur, whose desk was now given to her? + +She untied the parcel slowly, but with shaking fingers. + +The little desk was a battered one, ink-stained, and of a slight and +cheap construction. Inside it contained one treasure, a thick letter, +with the words "For Primrose" written in her mother's writing on the +envelope. + +An unexpected message from those who are dead will set the strongest +nerves quivering. At sight of this letter Primrose laid her pretty +yellow head down on the little old cabinet, and sobbed long and +bitterly. + +How long she might have wept she could never say, but her tears were +suddenly brought to an abrupt termination. When she entered her +mother's room she had not locked the door, and now a voice sounded at +her elbow: + +"Eh!--my word--dear, dear, deary me! Now, Miss Primrose, to think of +you creeping up like this, and 'worriting' yourself over the secrets +in the little bit of a cabinet. Your poor mamma knew what she was +about when she kept that cabinet locked, and for all the good they'll +ever do, she might well have burnt the bits of fallals she kept there. +There, darling, don't spoil your pretty eyes crying over what's dead +and gone, and can never be put right again--never. Shut up the +cabinet, Miss Primrose, and put your hair a bit straight, for Mrs. +Ellsworthy, from Shortlands, is down in the drawing-room, and wanting +to see you most particular 'bad.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MANY VISITORS. + + +Miss Martineau's plans had been full of directness. Having made up her +mind, she wasted no precious moments. The girls must be helped; she +could only give them counsel, but others could do more. Miss Martineau +determined to go at once to the fountainhead. In short, she would +attack the one and only rich person who lived in the neighborhood of +Rosebury. Shortlands was a big place, and the Ellsworthys were +undoubtedly big people. Money with them was plentiful. They considered +themselves county folk; they lived in what the Rosebury people +believed to be royal style. + +Miss Martineau had for one short blissful week of her life spent the +time at Shortlands. She had been sent for in an emergency, to take the +place of a nursery governess who was ill. Her French had been of +little account in this great house, and her music had not been +tolerated. The poor old lady had indeed been rather snubbed. But what +of that? She was able to go back to her own intimate friends, and +entertain them with accounts of powdered footmen, of richly-dressed +London ladies, of a world of fashion which these people believed to be +Paradise. + +Twice during her week's sojourn she had been addressed by Mrs. +Ellsworthy. No matter; from that day she considered herself one of the +great lady's acquaintances. Miss Martineau could be heroic when she +pleased, and there was certainly something of the heroic element about +her when she ventured to storm so mighty a citadel at eleven o'clock +in the morning. + +Her very boldness, however, won her cause. The footman who opened the +door might look as supercilious as he pleased, but he was obliged to +deliver her messages, and Mrs. Ellsworthy, with a good-humored smile, +consented to see her. + +Their interview was short, but Miss Martineau, when she launched on +her theme, quite forgot that she was poor and her auditor rich. Mrs. +Ellsworthy, too, after a few glances into the thin and earnest face of +the governess, ceased to think of that antiquated poke bonnet, or the +absurdly old-fashioned cut of that ugly mantle. + +The two who talked so earnestly were women--women with kind and large +hearts, and their theme was engrossing. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy bound herself by no promises, but she contrived to +send the governess away with a heart full of hope. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy had never yet called on any of the people who lived in +the straggling village of Rosebury. Therefore, when her carriage, with +its prancing horses and perfect appointments, drew up at the +Mainwarings' door, the old-fashioned little place felt quite a flutter +through its heart. + +Poppy Jenkins, the laundress's pretty daughter, came out into the +street, and stared with all her eyes. The doctor's wife, who lived at +the opposite side of the street, gazed furtively and enviously from +behind her muslin blinds. The baker and the butcher neglected their +usual morning orders; and Hannah, the Mainwarings' servant, felt +herself, as she expressed it, all of a tremble from top to toe. + +"Let me brush your hair, Miss Primrose," she said, when she had at +last succeeded in inducing her young lady to dry her tears; "and are +your hands nice and clean, Miss Primrose? and your collar, is it neat? +It's very condescending of Mrs. Ellsworthy to call." + +"I wonder what she has come about," said Primrose; "she never knew my +mother." + +Primrose felt at that moment the great lady's visit to be an +intrusion. + +"I'll just run into the garden and stop Miss Jasmine and Miss Daisy +rushing into the drawing-room all in a mess," said Hannah. "Oh! sakes +alive! why, the young ladies will be seen anyhow from the French +window." + +Hannah hurried off, wondering if she could smuggle these troublesome +members of her flock out of sight through the kitchen. + +Alas! she was too late--when Primrose, slim and graceful, and with her +pretty eyes only slightly reddened by her crying fit, entered the +drawing-room, she saw the French doors open, and her guest pacing +tranquilly round the garden, hold the Pink in her arms, while Daisy +danced in front of her, and Jasmine, chattering volubly, walked by her +side. + +"I'm so glad you like those carnations," Jasmine was saying. "Mamma +was very fond of them. Shall I set some slips for you? I will with +pleasure." + +"If Pink ever has a kitten you shall have it," said Daisy solemnly. + +At this moment Primrose joined her sisters. + +"Oh, Primrose--something so delightful!" began Jasmine. + +"She thinks the Pink a perfect beauty. She wants another pussy just +like it," burst from Daisy's pretty dimpled lips. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy, still keeping the Pink in her arms, held out her +other hand to Primrose. + +"I have introduced myself to your sisters, dear Miss Mainwaring. I am +Mrs. Ellsworthy, of Shortlands--a near neighbor. You must not consider +my visit an intrusion." + +Before Primrose could reply Jasmine exclaimed volubly-- + +"Indeed we don't--we are quite delighted; we were feeling ourselves +awfully dull. Miss Martineau said every one would call now she had +been. We did not want to see every one, but you are different." + +"You are delightful," echoed Daisy. + +Primrose felt herself almost cross. "Girls, do stop chattering," she +said. "Mrs. Ellsworthy, I hope you will excuse my sisters; and won't +you come into the drawing-room?" + +"I am charmed with your sisters," answered the great lady--"they are +fresh, they are original. Dear Miss Mainwaring, why need we leave this +delightful garden? can we not have our little talk here?" + +"With pleasure," said Primrose, but her stiffness did not disappear; +she still had a slightly sore feeling at the bottom of her heart, and +the thought that Mrs. Ellsworthy never took the trouble to know dear +mamma kept recurring. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy was quite woman of the world enough to read Primrose, +and to guess what was in her heart. She saw at a glance that the girls +were ladies, and would not be patronized. Her task had seemed easy +enough when she assured Miss Martineau that the poor young Mainwarings +must be helped. When she ordered her carriage and drove into Rosebury +she made up her mind to discuss their affairs boldly with them, and to +offer them practical advice, and, if necessary, substantial +assistance. The eldest girl, if she was at all presentable, might be +got into some family as a nursery governess or companion, and she felt +quite sure that she had sufficient interest to procure admissions for +Jasmine and Daisy into some of the schools especially started to +educate the orphan daughters of army men. + +But in the garden, although it was a very shabby little garden, this +programme did not seem quite so easy. Jasmine and Daisy were +delightful children; they hailed her instantly as a comrade; they +thought nothing whatever of her wealth or her position. Shortlands +conveyed no meaning to their unsophisticated minds; they fully +believed that Mrs. Ellsworthy envied them their carnations, and would +have been made happy by the possession of a kitten similar to the +Pink. Primrose, on the contrary, was proud and shy, and had no idea of +treating any stranger in a confidential manner. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy chatted on, but she never got beyond commonplaces; she +invited the girls to visit her at Shortlands, and Primrose, reading a +great desire in Daisy's blue eyes, answered simply, "Thank you; we +shall like to come very much." + +"I'll manage it when I get them to my own house," thought Mrs. +Ellsworthy; "it's quite absurd to be baffled by three little chits, +but I'll settle everything in a satisfactory fashion when I get them +to Shortlands." + +Aloud she said, "My dears, I shall be very glad to see you--and can +you come to-morrow? To-morrow I shall be quite alone." + +"Primrose," burst from Daisy, "there's a Newfoundland dog, and a +mastiff, and two English terriers at Shortlands. The Newfoundland is +black and woolly and the mastiff is tawny, like a lion." + +"Will you really show us over your beautiful conservatories?" asked +Jasmine. "Primrose, she was telling us about her flowers; and they +must be lovely." + +"I'll show you everything, and take you everywhere," responded Mrs. +Ellsworthy, stooping down to kiss Jasmine's upturned face. "You'll +bring your sisters to-morrow, Miss Mainwaring," she continued, turning +to the grave Primrose. + +"Thank you--yes. It is kind of you to ask us," answered Primrose. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy drove away in state, and the sisters saw her off from +their door-steps. They made a pretty group as they stood +together--Daisy's arms clasped her elder sister's waist, and Jasmine +shaded her dark eyes from the full blaze of the sun with her little +white dimpled hand. + +As the great lady drove away Jasmine had actually the audacity to blow +a kiss to her. + +The neighbors at the opposite side of the street felt quite +scandalized, and said to themselves that surely the poor young ladies +had seen the last of Mrs. Ellsworthy, after such a piece of +impertinence. But the lady of Shortlands was really delighted. + +"To think of my being here all these years, and never knowing those +charming creatures," she soliloquized. Just then she saw Miss +Martineau crossing the street, and she ordered her coachman to draw +up. + +"I have been with them, dear Miss Martineau--they are delightful--so +fresh--and so--so pretty! They are coming to Shortlands to-morrow. +Good-bye--warm morning, is it not? Home, Tomlinson." + +The girls had entered the little house, cheered by Mrs. Ellsworthy's +visit. Primrose, it is true, did not share her younger sisters' +enthusiasm, but even she was pleased, and owned to herself that Mrs. +Ellsworthy was a very different neighbor from the village folk. + +Primrose's mind, however, was a good deal absorbed by what she had +discovered in her mother's little old-fashioned cabinet. A letter +directed to herself lay there unopened. She longed to break the seal, +and to acquaint herself with the contents of this message from the +dead. She longed to read the letter, but she knew she could only do so +at some quiet moment. She must peruse those beloved words when she was +alone and quite sure of being undisturbed. She thought she might slip +away into a little glade at the back of the house that afternoon, and +there read her letter, and ponder over its contents. + +Events, however, were to occur which would prevent Primrose carrying +out this scheme. + +Immediately after dinner Miss Martineau's well-known knock was heard +at the hall-door, and Miss Martineau herself, bristling with +excitement and curiosity, invaded the girls in their drawing-room. + +"Now, my dears, tell me all about her. Is she not fascinating? She is +greatly pleased with you three--you have made a most proper +impression; and you are to go to spend the day at Shortlands +to-morrow. Now, my loves, tell me what arrangements she has come to--I +am so _deeply_ interested, my poor darlings." + +Miss Martineau, as she spoke, kept her eyes fixed on Primrose; but +that young lady only gave her a puzzled look, and, after a short +pause, said quietly-- + +"I don't understand you. We have made no special arrangements. Mrs. +Ellsworthy was friendly, and she asked us to come and see her at +Shortlands; and we are going. Miss Martineau, I am so very busy this +afternoon; will you forgive me if I run away?" + +Primrose left the room, and Miss Martineau, turning to Jasmine, +clasped her hands in some excitement. + +"Oh, my dear!" she exclaimed, "I do hope Primrose won't spoil +everything by those little proud airs of hers; they really are--yes, I +am grieved to be obliged to say it--but they really are affected. Now, +Jasmine darling, a great deal depends on this visit--yes, a great +deal. You and Daisy must be on your very best behavior. You have never +been in a great house like Shortlands, and it is only right that I, +your instructress, should tell you how you are to behave. You must +take no liberties, dear; and you must not speak too much, or too fast; +and you must look _very_ grateful when Mrs. Ellsworthy notices you, +loves. Oh, my poor dears! I feel over anxious, for so much depends on +to-morrow." + +It was now Jasmine's turn to stare, and to begin to say--"I don't +understand you." But Daisy burst out volubly-- + +"We are going up to Shortlands to run about--she said so. She said we +were to see the dogs--the black woolly Newfoundland and the tawny +mastiff; and she has got a snow-white Persian kitten, only she likes +the Pink best; and I promised her that if ever the Pink had a little +kit of her own she should have it. Mrs. Ellsworthy didn't say a word +about being horrid, and proper, and waiting until you are spoken to. I +won't go to Shortlands if I have to behave like that, I won't," +concluded spoiled Daisy, pouting her lips. + +Jasmine bent forward and kissed her. "You may do just what you like, +darling little Eyebright," she said. + +"Oh, Miss Martineau, really Mrs. Ellsworthy is not at all what you +picture her. I should say she was the kind of lady who likes a real +romp. Anyhow, she does not at all want people to be stiff with her. +Daisy, and she, and I were as jolly as possible until Primrose came +downstairs, and I suppose Primrose agreed with you, and thought it was +manners to be formal. But, poor dear, she did not like it a bit. We +three were having such a chatter before Primrose came. She is going to +show me all her conservatories to-morrow, and she took a great fancy +to my carnations. I promised her some slips. Oh dear! oh dear! who is +that knocking at the hall door? Daisy, run and peep from behind the +curtain, and let me know." + +Daisy started off on the instant, and returned in a moment with the +intelligence that Mr. Danesfield, the manager of the bank, was +standing on the steps, and that his face was very red. + +On hearing this intelligence poor Miss Martineau's face also became +suffused with a deep flush, and she pushed her poke bonnet a little +backward in her excitement. An awful idea had suddenly darted through +her brain. + +Perhaps Mr. Danesfield had called to announce some misfortune. Perhaps +the two hundred pounds was lost; perhaps there was no balance at the +bank! + +When the good gentleman was ushered into the room she glanced at him +mysteriously, and even while he was shaking hands with Jasmine and +Daisy, began letting fall short, but mysterious sentences-- + +"Mrs. Ellsworthy has called--_much_ pleased--inclined to take them up. +They are to spend to-morrow at Shortlands." Mr. Danesfield raised his +eyebrows, pulled Daisy to stand between his knees; and, staring at +Miss Martineau over his gold-rimmed glasses, said-- + +"Eh! eh!--Shortlands--Ellsworthy's--worthy folk!" here he laughed, +pleased with his pun; "yes, Miss Martineau, a good opportunity, +undoubtedly!" + +At this moment Primrose came into the room, and Miss Martineau, +judging that she might best serve her cause by retiring from the scene +of action, went away. + +Mr. Danesfield did not pay a long visit. He had known the Mainwarings, +although not very intimately, for years. He was a good-hearted, kind, +and very busy man, and during their mother's lifetime he had taken but +little notice of the girls. + +To-day, however, he seemed to regard them with fresh interest. He +assured Primrose that if he could assist her in any business capacity +he would only be too pleased to do so. "Our good friend Miss Martineau +assures me that your means are likely to be a little straitened, my +dear. I am sincerely sorry, although there are worse troubles--yes, +assuredly, far worse troubles. It cannot do a healthy girl any harm to +work. Yes, come to me for advice if you care to, and look on me as an +old friend. And hark ye, Miss Primrose, I am glad Mrs. Ellsworthy has +called. Make the most of your opportunity at Shortlands, my dears. +Yes; I'll look in another day with pleasure. Good-bye, good-bye." + +When Mr. Danesfield went away the two elder sisters looked at each +other. What did it all mean? What mystery was there in the air? +Jasmine thought both Miss Martineau and Mr. Danesfield very +disagreeable but Primrose pondered these things and felt anxious. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SHORTLANDS. + + +"A most extraordinary thing has happened," said Mrs. Ellsworthy that +evening to her husband. "We have lived for several years at +Shortlands, and except when we have people in the house I have +actually been without any society. My dear Joseph, you will forgive my +counting you as nobody at all. Well, we have lived here, and I have +often been dull beyond words, and yet the nicest creatures have been +within a stone's throw of me." + +Mr. Ellsworthy was at least twenty years older than his wife--a +reserved individual, with a rather long and melancholy face. Mrs. +Ellsworthy was plump, and round, and pretty--kittenish some people +called her. + +She was certainly fond of emphasizing her words, and of going into +raptures, and her husband now only raised his eyebrows, and said, +"Well, Kate?" in a somewhat lethargic voice. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy left her seat, and drew a small easy-chair close to +the fire, for though the weather was hot Mrs. Ellsworthy always +insisted on indulging in this evening luxury. + +Planting herself luxuriously in this chair, the little lady began her +narrative. + +"Now, Joseph, I will tell you my story. Do you remember that +outlandish-looking governess who came up here for a week to try to +keep Frankie in order before we sent him to school? Oh, what a +blessing it is to have that boy at school! Do you remember Miss +Martineau, Joseph?" + +"There was an authoress of the name, my love; but surely she died +before we came to Shortlands?" + +"Joseph, how stupid you are! I mean a dear, obsolete creature in the +village. However, it is not the slightest matter whether you remember +her or not. She came here again this morning, and begged of me to +interest myself in the cause of three destitute orphans who lived in a +little house in the village. She spoke most kindly about them, but +said they were a little unfinished, and not, in her opinion, very +capable; but she described them as pretty and young, and, oh, so +appallingly poor! And somehow the good old creature touched my heart, +and I said I would certainly help them. I ordered the carriage and +drove into the village. I expected to see--well, you know, the sort of +girl who is likely to be found in a little village like Rosebury, +Joseph--the awkward and shy young miss. I imagined them as being so +grateful for my notice; indeed, a little overpowered; for, you know, I +don't know the Rosebury folk. Well, my dear, what do you think I +found?" + +"It is really difficult to tell, Kate. I should judge, however, from +your excited manner and your unusual enthusiasm, that you found young +ladies." + +"Joseph, you are a genius. I did. In the funniest, pokiest, queerest +little house that you can possibly imagine; I discovered three +charming, well-bred girls. The two youngest made friends with me in +their shabby little garden. They greeted me, I assure you, with the +most delightful frankness and ease. I told them who I was, and they +were not the least impressed; on the contrary, the one they called +Jasmine--oh! she is a pretty creature--fancied I was dying for some +carnations like hers, and the little one holds out hopes that some day +I may possess a kitten similar to the one she thrust into my arms. +They were as shabbily dressed as possible, but who could look at them, +dear pets, and think twice about their dresses? We got on most +pleasantly, and found we had many interests in common, for the little +one shared my love for animals, and the elder my passion for flowers. +On this scene the eldest sister made her appearance. I assure you, +Joseph, it is almost too absurd, but it is a fact; she actually +contrived to snub me. I read as plainly as possible in those pretty, +serene eyes of hers the question, 'How is it that you, who never +condescended to know my mother, intrude upon us now, in our loss?' She +was most gentle and most dignified, but I could as soon take liberties +with her as with--with--you, Joseph, when you choose to exert your +authority. After Miss Mainwaring came, I thought it best to run away; +but before I went I extracted a promise from the three darlings to +come and spend the day here to-morrow. Really, Joseph, I have had a +surprising day; but I remember now that Miss Martineau did say +something about these children being well born." + +Mr. Ellsworthy again raised his eyebrows. + +"I had an acquaintance once of the name," he said, "but I lost sight +of him years ago. It is a good name. Well, Kate, you will do what you +can for your _protegees_. I am glad you have found some objects of +interest close to your own gates." + +Here Mrs. Ellsworthy dropped her slightly frivolous tone, and rising +from her seat, went up to her husband. + +"Joseph," she said, "I want you to contrive to be at home for lunch +to-morrow. I want you to see my girls, and to advise me how best to +help them. Primrose is so proud and so inexperienced; the two younger +ones, of course, know nothing of either poverty or riches; they live +as the flowers live, and are happy for the same reason. Do you know, +Joseph, that the eldest of these sisters is not seventeen, and the +youngest only ten; that they seem to be absolutely without relations, +almost without friends, and that between them they have only a +Government grant of thirty pounds a year." + +Here Mrs. Ellsworthy's pretty bright blue eyes filled with tears, and +her husband, stooping down, kissed her. + +"I will make a point of seeing those girls to-morrow Kate," he said. +"I am glad you have come across them." + +Then he went off to his library, where he sat, and read, and lost +himself in great thoughts far into the night. It is to be feared that +during these hours he forgot the Mainwarings and their troubles. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy had appointed noon the next day to receive her young +guests, and punctual to the moment the three walked into her +drawing-room. + +Daisy instantly commented on this fact. "There's the last stroke of +twelve striking from the church clock," she exclaimed. "Oh, please! +where's the Persian kitten?" + +"I have brought you all the carnations that were in flower," said +Jasmine. "Smell them; aren't they delicious? Mamma used to love them +so--I would not give them to any one but you." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy stooped and kissed Jasmine, and taking her hand, gave +it a little squeeze. "Thank you, my love," she said--"I value your +beautiful flowers--you shall arrange them yourself in this amber +vase." + +"They are such a vivid crimson, they would look best against white," +answered Jasmine, raising her eyes a little anxiously. "I like to +arrange flowers to look like a picture. Mamma always allowed me to +arrange the flowers, and Primrose will in the future." Here Jasmine +went up to Primrose, and took her hand, and the elder sister smiled at +her with great affection, and said, looking at Mrs. Ellsworthy, "We +call Jasmine our artist at home." + +"And our poet--she makes poetry about the Pink at home," said Daisy. +"Oh, dear!" she continued, giving a deep sigh, "I can't see the +Persian kitten anywhere. I do hope what Miss Martineau said is not +true." + +"What did she say, my dear?" asked the lady of Shortlands. + +"Oh, a lot of nonsense--that this was a great house, and we were to +sit on chairs, and not speak unless you spoke to us, and we were not +to play with the Persian kitten, nor see the dogs. She said you were +a very grand lady, and that was the proper way to go on--we didn't +agree with her, did we, Jasmine?" + +"No, of course we didn't," said Jasmine; "we knew better." + +"We said you were a romp," continued Daisy. "You seemed like it in our +garden. I wouldn't have come if I thought you were one of those ladies +who wanted little girls to sit on chairs. Oh! do say you are a romp." + +Here there was a laugh heard behind them, and Mr. Ellsworthy came up +and joined the group. He greeted the girls kindly, and very soon +discovered that their father had been the old acquaintance whom he had +known of the name. Then he and Primrose went off together, and Mrs. +Ellsworthy took the two young girls' hands. + +"My darling," she said, "with the single exception of my only son, +Frankie, who is at present at school, I am the greatest romp in +existence. Now let us come out into the sunshine and enjoy ourselves." + +The few hours the girls spent at Shortlands passed only too quickly +for Jasmine and Daisy. Mrs. Ellsworthy laid herself out to be +charming, and no one could be more charming than she when she chose. +She had naturally a good deal of sympathy, and taking her cue from the +little ones, she entered into their lives, and became one with them. +Jasmine and Daisy became quite merry. An indiscriminating observer +would have said: "How shocking to hear such merry laughter--their +mother has only been dead a month." But Mrs. Ellsworthy had far too +kind a heart to do these children such an injustice. She knew that the +dark lines under Jasmine's bright eyes were caused by the passion of a +great grief; but she also knew that with such a nature sunshine must +follow storm. Daisy in the midst of her play, too, began suddenly to +cry. + +"What is the matter, my little one?" asked the lady of the house. The +child put her arms round her neck, and whispered through sobs: "I am +so happy now; but I know I'll be miserable bye-and-bye. I'll want so +badly to tell mamma about you, and mamma won't be there." + +Primrose was also serenely happy--she was glad to hear her sisters' +laughter, and she liked to walk about the beautiful place, and to feel +the soft summer air on her cheeks. + +The village of Rosebury lay low; but Shortlands stood on rising +ground, and the more bracing air did Primrose good. When she saw how +happy Mrs. Ellsworthy made her sisters she forgave her for not calling +on her mother. + +Mr. Ellsworthy took a good deal of notice of Primrose, and showed her +some of his pet books, and talked to her in a sensible grown-up way. +Jasmine and Daisy were young for their years, but Primrose was old, +and she liked to ask practical questions. Had she known Mr. Ellsworthy +a little better she might have even consulted him as to the best way +of laying out thirty pounds per annum, so as to cover all the expenses +of three girls who wished to live as ladies; but she was both shy and +reserved; and when Mr. Ellsworthy, goaded on by certain looks from his +wife, referred to the subject of money, Primrose started aside from it +like any frightened young fawn. + +The day, the happy day for all three, passed only too quickly, and it +was Mrs. Ellsworthy at last who determined to plunge boldly into the +heart of the subject which was uppermost in her thoughts. + +"Primrose," she said, taking the elder sister aside, "you must forgive +me for speaking plainly to you, dear. I call you Primrose, because you +do not seem to me altogether a stranger, and my husband knew your +father. I may call you Primrose, may I not, love?" + +"Please, do," said Primrose, with that sweet smile which came only +rarely to her quiet face; "I like it--it is my name. When people say +Miss Mainwaring I feel--lonely." + +"You are Primrose, then, to me, dear. Now, Primrose, take my hand, +and sit quietly in this chair. I am going to confess something to you. +I called to see you and your sisters yesterday morning, intending to +patronize you." + +"To patronize us--why?" asked Primrose. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy laughed in a slightly nervous manner. + +"My dear child, we won't go into the whys and the wherefores. I found +I could not do it, that is all. I have not, however, half finished my +confession. I called to see you because Miss Martineau asked me to." + +Here Primrose flushed a very rosy pink, and Mrs. Ellsworthy saw a +displeased look fill her eyes. + +"You must not be angry with Miss Martineau, Primrose. She loves you +three girls very much. She is most anxious about you. She--my dear, +she told me of your poverty." + +Here Primrose rose from her seat and said, in the quietest tone-- + +"We are certainly poor, but I don't think that is anybody's concern. +We don't mind it ourselves--at least, not much. You see, we have never +known riches, and we cannot miss what we have never had. It would be a +great pity for people to try to make us discontented. I think it was +ill-bred of Miss Martineau to mention our private affairs to you; but +still, as we have got to know you through these means, I forgive her. +You are a very delightful friend. Mrs. Ellsworthy, I think you must +let us go home now--Daisy is not accustomed to being up so late." + +"Of all the tiresome, hard-to-be-understood young people I ever came +across, Primrose Mainwaring beats them," thought Mrs. Ellsworthy to +herself; but aloud she said very sweetly-- + +"Yes, dear--and you shall drive home in the carriage I could not hear +of your walking." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THIRTY POUNDS A YEAR. + + +Miss Ellsworthy thought Primrose both tiresome and obtuse, but here +she was mistaken. + +Miss Martineau's solemn looks, Mr. Danesfield's emphatic injunctions +to make the most of their visit to Shortlands, and, above all, the +expression of deep distress on Mrs. Ellsworthy's charming face when +she spoke of their poverty, were by no means thrown away on her. + +She felt very grave as the three sisters were driven home in the +Ellsworthys' luxurious carriage. She scarcely joined at all in +Jasmine's chatter, nor did she notice Daisy's raptures over a tiny +white pup--Mrs. Ellsworthy's parting gift. + +On their arrival at home the Pink greeted this unlooked-for addition +to the family with a furious assault; and Jasmine, Daisy, and Hannah +were all intensely excited over the task of dividing the combatants; +but Primrose felt but small interest, and owned that she had a slight +headache. + +Nevertheless, when the younger girls retired to bed she sat up, and, +taking out an account-book, began an impossible task. Even all the +resources of this young and vigorous brain could not make thirty +pounds cover a year's expenses. Again and again Primrose tried. The +rent of the cottage was twelve pounds a year. She pronounced this +extravagant, and wondered if they could possibly get a cheaper +dwelling. + +Then there were Hannah's wages. Well, of course, they could do without +Hannah--it would be very painful to part with her, but anything would +be better than the humiliating conclusion that Mrs. Ellsworthy and +Miss Martineau considered them too poor to live. Then, of course, they +could do without meat--what did healthy girls want with meat? +Only--and here Primrose sighed deeply--Daisy was not _very_ strong. +Eggs were cheap enough in Rosebury, and so was butter, and they could +bake their own bread; and as to clothes, they would not want any more +for a long time. Here Primrose again felt herself pulled up short, for +Jasmine's walking-shoes were nearly worn through. + +She went to bed at last, feeling very depressed and anxious. Thirty +pounds was really a much smaller sum of money than she had given it +credit for being. Try as she might, it would not stretch itself over +the expenses of even the humblest establishment of three. She was much +comforted, however, by the reflection that there remained a large sum +to their credit in the bank. Primrose found her faith shaken in the +capacities of an income of thirty pounds a year; but a sum total of +two hundred pounds she still believed to be almost inexhaustible. She +resolved to go and consult Mr. Danesfield on the morrow. + +Mr. Danesfield was generally to be found in his private room at the +bank by ten o'clock in the morning. Very soon after that hour on the +following day a clerk came to say that one of the young ladies from +Woodbine Cottage wanted to see him. "The eldest young lady, and she +says her business is very pressing," continued the man. + +The bank at Rosebury was only a branch office of a large establishment +in the nearest town. It happened that that morning Mr. Danesfield was +particularly busy, and anxious to get away to the large bank at an +early hour. For more reasons than one, therefore he felt annoyed at +Primrose's visit. + +"Poor child," he said to himself, "I have certainly nothing very good +to tell her; and I have undoubtedly no time to waste over her this +morning." + +Aloud, however, he said to his clerk-- + +"Ask Miss Mainwaring to step this way--and, Dawson, order my trap to +be at the door in ten minutes." + +"I won't keep you very long, Mr. Danesfield," began Primrose, in a +quick and rather nervous manner for her. + +Mr. Danesfield was always the soul of politeness, however irritable he +might feel. + +"Sit down, my dear young lady," he said; "I am delighted to see you, +and I can give you exactly five minutes." + +"I want to ask you two questions," began Primrose. "The questions are +short. They are about money; and you understand all about that." + +"Not all, my dear girl--money is far too great a theme to be wholly +comprehended by one single individual." + +Primrose tapped her foot impatiently--then, after a brief pause, she +raised her clear brown eyes, and looked full at the banker. + +"How much money have we in the bank, Mr. Danesfield?" + +"My dear child, not much--very little, scarcely anything. 'Pon my +word, I am sorry for you, but your entire capital does not amount to +quite two hundred pounds." + +Primrose received this information calmly. + +"Thank you," she said--"I just wanted to know from yourself. Now, I +have one other question to ask you, and then I will go. My sisters and +I have thirty pounds a year to live on. By drawing a little on our +capital, say, taking ten or fifteen pounds a year from it, can we +live, Mr. Danesfield?" + +Mr. Danesfield rose from his seat, and coming over to Primrose, laid +his hand on her shoulder-- + +"Live! my poor, dear child; you and your sisters would starve. No, +Miss Mainwaring, there is nothing for you three girls to do but to +turn to and earn your living. Your friends, I doubt not, will help, +and you must take their help. I shall be delighted to give advice. +Now, my dear child, my trap is at the door, and I must go. Good +morning--good morning." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A STRANGE LETTER AND A PROPOSED VISIT TO LONDON. + + +Primrose was always direct in her movements--she made up her mind +quickly; from her earliest childhood she was in the habit of acting +with decision. + +After her short interview with Mr. Danesfield she went straight home, +and without paying any attention to the clear voice of her pet Daisy, +who called to her from the garden, or to Jasmine's little +impatient--"Sister, I want you to help me to arrange the trimming on +my new black skirt," she ran upstairs, and locked herself into her +mother's room. + +There she once more opened the old davenport, and took from it the +thick packet, which contained a shabby little desk, inside of which +lay a letter directed to herself. + +Now at last she opened the letter, and in her own great perplexity +read the message from the grave. + +The letter was dated about three months back, and was in her mother's +neatest and most easily read writing. + +"My dear daughter," it began, "I have no present reason to suppose +that my life will be cut short, therefore I cannot tell whether this +letter will be read by you now, while you are young, or years hence, +when your youth is over. + +"One thing I have resolved--you shall not know the little secret it +contains during my lifetime. I keep it from you, my darling, because I +could not bear you to speak of it to me, because at the time it gave +me such agony that I have locked it up in my heart, and no one, not +even my own child, must open the doors where my dead secret lies. + +"Primrose, whenever I die, this letter will reach you--you will find +it in the ordinary course of things in my cabinet; but even in this +letter I cannot tell you all the story--you must go to Hannah for +particulars--she has been with me all my married life, and knows as +much as I do. + +"Once, when you were a little child of only six years old, I came into +the room where you slept, and I heard her saying to you, as she tucked +you up for the night-- + +"You must be very good to your mamma, Miss Primrose, for she has known +trouble." + +"Neither you nor she saw me, and you raised your dear eyes to her +face, and I heard you say-- + +"'What is trouble, nursey Hannah?' + +"'Trouble is a burden too heavy to be borne,' Hannah answered, 'but +when you came, Missy, it went away--you were like the spring to my +missus, and that is why she called you Primrose.' + +"That night I called Hannah aside, and I made the faithful creature +promise that she would never again allude to my trouble to any of my +children. She promised, and kept her word. + +"Now, darling, you shall learn what nearly broke my heart; what would +have quite broken it had God not sent me my three girls. + +"Primrose, something more bitter than death came to your mother. Your +father is dead--I know where his bones lie--I know that I shall meet +him again, and I don't rebel. My other trouble was far, far worse than +that-- + +"Darling, you are not my eldest child--you are not the first bonny +baby who lay in my arms. Years before you were born I had a son. Oh! +how can I speak of him?--he seemed to be more beautiful than any other +child--he had ways--he had looks--Primrose, I can't go on, you must +ask Hannah to tell you what my boy was like. I had him for five years, +then I lost him; he did not die--he was stolen from me. Can you wonder +now that your mother sometimes looks sad, and that even you and +Jasmine and Daisy fail now and then to make me smile? + +"My bonny boy was stolen. I never saw him dead; I never could go to +his grave to put flowers there--twenty years ago now he was taken from +me, and I have had neither trace nor tidings of him. + +"Hannah will tell you particulars, Primrose, for I cannot. My trouble +far surpassed the bitterness of death. Only for you three, I could not +have lived-- + + "Your mother, + "Constance Mainwaring." + +Primrose had scarcely finished reading this letter, and had by no +means taken in the full meaning of its contents, when light, soft +footsteps paused outside the room, and she heard the handle of the +door being very softly turned. + +Cramming the letter into her pocket, and shutting the lid of the +little cabinet, she ran and unlocked the door. Jasmine was standing +without. + +"I looked for you everywhere, Primrose, and I did not mean really to +disturb you here; I thought you might be here, and I tried the handle +very softly, meaning to steal away again. Are you very busy, +Primrose?" + +"I can come with you if you want me for anything, Jasmine," answered +Primrose, putting her hand to her head in a dazed sort of way. + +Jasmine's brow cleared, and her face grew bright instantly. + +"It's rather exciting," she said; "I'm so glad you can come. It is +about Poppy Jenkins--Poppy is downstairs--she is going away--she has +come to say good-bye. Do you know, Primrose, that she is actually +going to London?" + +Jasmine looked so delighted and eager that Primrose could not help +smiling, and taking her sister's hand, they ran downstairs together. + +Poppy, who had very black eyes, cheeks with a brilliant color, and +hair like a raven's wing, was standing in the drawing-room twisting +her apron strings and chatting volubly to Daisy. She had known the +girls all her life, and not only loved them dearly, but respected them +much. To Poppy Jenkins there never were three such beautiful and +altogether charming young ladies as the Misses Mainwaring. + +When Primrose appeared she dropped her a curtsey--perhaps she +respected Primrose the most, and loved her the least. + +"It's to say good-bye, miss," she began, "I called in, hoping for last +words with you three dear young ladies. I is summoned to London, Miss +Primrose." + +Nothing could exceed the air of modest pride with which Poppy made +this declaration; she quite expected Primrose to be both startled and +dazzled, and said afterwards that it was rather like a little stream +of cold water trickling down her back when Miss Mainwaring replied +quietly-- + +"London is a long way off, Poppy--why are you going there?" + +"I has an aunt in the boarding-house way, Miss Primrose--she keeps a +very select establishment; and most particular; don't admit no +gentlemen. It's for ladies only, aunt's boarding-house is, miss, and +she wrote to mother that it's a flourishing concern, and she wants a +girl who will be honest, and handy, and country-bred, to help wait on +the ladies. She has offered the situation to me, miss, as in duty +bound, I being her own niece, and mother is pleased to accept. I calls +it a dazzling prospect, Miss Primrose." + +"I am delighted," began Primrose; but Jasmine interrupted her. +"Dazzling," she repeated, "of course it is dazzling, Poppy. I am so +very glad you are going. I only wish I were going. If there is a +wonderful, delightful, charming place, it is London. I have read about +it, and I have dreamed about it, and I have pictured it. What fun you +will have! Of course your aunt will take you to see all the sights. +Oh, do sit down. Primrose, we ought to tell her about the places she +should see, ought we not?" + +Primrose nodded, and Poppy dropped on to the edge of the nearest +chair, and, clasping her red and hard-worked hands in front of her, +prepared herself to listen. + +"First of all, Poppy," began Jasmine, after waiting for her sister to +speak; but Primrose was strangely silent. + +"First of all, Poppy, you must go to the places which improve your +mind; now, I do hope you are not going to be giddy, running just after +pretty things; but I suppose your aunt, who is so wise, and who keeps +the boarding-house, will see to that. Well, first of all you had +better go to Westminster Abbey. Oh, Poppy! I have read such glorious +descriptions of it--the lights from the painted windows--the +wonderfully ancient look of the old pillars, and then the music; it +peals down the aisles and echoes through the fretted roofs; you will +be greatly overpowered at Westminster Abbey, Poppy; but you must +remember that you are a very privileged person, and be thankful for +being permitted to see with your own eyes such a lovely, lovely, +glorious place!" + +"It do sound, from your description, very awe-inspiring, Miss +Jasmine," answered Poppy. "Is there no other place where one might get +more, so to speak, into the festive mood, miss?" + +"Oh yes, you silly Poppy, lots and lots; but we'll come to those +presently. You'll have to see the Houses of Parliament, where our laws +are made--if you don't feel grave there, you ought. Then you must +visit the Tower, where people's heads were cut off--it's very solemn +indeed at the Tower; and, of course, you will pay a visit to the Zoo, +and you can see the lions fed, and you can look at the monkey-house." + +"I likes monkeys," said Poppy, whose face had been growing graver and +graver while Jasmine was talking; "and if you'll throw in a little bit +of gazing into shop windows, Miss Jasmine, and learning the newest +cuts of a bonnet, and the most genteel fit of a mantle, why, then, +I'll do even that dreadful Tower, as in duty bound. My mother calls +London a vast sea and a world of temptation, and nothing but vanity +from end to end; but when I thinks of the beautiful ladies in aunt's +boarding-house, and of the shop windows I feels that it is dazzling." + +"I wish that I were going," repeated Jasmine, whose cheeks were +flushed, and her starry eyes brighter than usual; "I wish I were +going. Oh, Primrose, think of you, and Daisy, and me saying our +prayers in the Abbey!" + +"We must not think of it," said Primrose; "God hears our prayers +wherever we say them, Jasmine, darling." + +"Yes," answered Jasmine; "and I am not going to complain. Well, Poppy, +you are a very lucky girl, and I hope you'll be as good as gold, and +as happy as the day is long." + +"And if ever you does come to London, Miss Jasmine," said Poppy, rising +to her feet, "you'll remember aunt's boarding-house, for ladies only; +and proud I'll be to wait on you, miss." + +"But we can't come, Poppy dear--we are very poor now--we have only got +thirty pounds a year to live on." + +To Poppy, who had never been known in her life to possess thirty +pence, this sum sounded by no means modest. + +"Might I make bold to inquire, miss," she asked, "if the thirty pounds +is once for all, or if it's a yearly recurrence?" + +"Oh, it's an income, Poppy--how stupid you are!" + +"Then I'll consult my aunt in town, miss, and try to find out if you +three dear young ladies couldn't contrive a London visit out of part +of the savings." + +After this sapient speech Poppy bade the Mainwarings good-bye. They +looked after her retreating form down the street with many regrets, +for they were very fond of her, and Jasmine at least envied her. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +WAYS OF EARNING A LIVING. + + +That night, after her sisters were in bed, Primrose again sat up +late--once again she read her mother's letter; then burying her face +in her hands, she sat for a long, long time lost in thought. + +Jasmine and Daisy, all unconcerned and unconscious, slept overhead, +but Hannah was anxious about her young mistress, and stepped into the +drawing-room, and said in her kind voice-- + +"Hadn't you better be getting your beauty sleep, missie?" + +"Oh, Hannah! I am so anxious," said Primrose. + +"Now, deary, whatever for?" asked the old servant. + +Primrose hesitated. She wanted to talk to Hannah about her mother's +letter; she half took it out of her pocket, then she restrained +herself. + +"Another time," she whispered to herself. Aloud she said-- + +"Hannah, Mrs. Ellsworthy and Miss Martineau hinted to me what Mr. +Danesfield said plainly to-day--we three girls have not got money +enough to live on." + +"Eh, dear!" answered Hannah, dropping on to the nearest chair, "and +are you putting yourself out about that, my pretty? Why, tisn't likely +that you three young ladies could support yourselves. Don't you fret +about that, Miss Primrose; why, you'll get quite old with fretting, +and lose all your nice looks. You go to bed, my darling--there's a +Providence over us, and he'll find ways and means to help you." + +Primrose rose to her feet, some tears came to her eyes, and taking +Hannah's hard old hand, she stooped and kissed her. + +"I won't fret, Hannah," she said, "and I'll go to bed instantly. Thank +you for reminding me about God." Then she lit her bedroom candle and +went very gently up the stairs to her bedroom, but as she laid her +head on the pillow she said to herself--"Even Hannah sees that we +can't live on our income." + +The next morning early Primrose said rather abruptly to her two +sisters-- + +"I have found out the meaning of Miss Martineau's fussiness and Mrs. +Ellsworthy's kindness. They are both sorry for us girls, for they know +we can't live on thirty pounds a year." + +"Oh, what nonsense!" said Jasmine; "any one can live on thirty pounds +a year. Didn't you see how Poppy opened her eyes when we mentioned +it;--she thought it quite a lot of money, and said we could come to +London out of the savings. I am sure, Primrose, if any one ought to +know, it is Poppy, for her mother is really very poor." + +"Mr. Danesfield, too, says we can't live on it," continued Primrose; +"and when I asked Hannah last night, she said 'Of course not'--that no +one expected us to. Now look here, Jasmine, this is all quite fresh to +you and Daisy, but I'm accustomed to it, for I have known it for +twenty-four hours, and what I say is this, if we can't live on our +income we have got to make some more income to live on. If thirty +pounds a year is not enough for us at the end, neither is it enough +for us at the beginning, so we had better see about earning an income +at once, or we'll get into debt, which will be quite awful. Jasmine, I +am afraid the days of our merry childhood are over, and I am so sorry +for you and Daisy, for you are both very young." + +"Oh, I don't mind," said Jasmine--"I--I--I'd do anything--I fancy I +could make dresses best, or--Oh, suppose I wrote poetry, and sold it? +You know you and Daisy do like my poems. Do you remember how you cried +over the one I called 'An Ode to the Swallow?'" + +"No, I didn't cry over that one," interrupted Daisy. "I thought that +one rather stupid--I cried over the one in which you spoke about my +darling Pink being caught in a trap, and having her leg broken." + +"Oh, that one," repeated Jasmine--"I thought that one a little vulgar. +I only made it up to please you, Daisy. Primrose, don't you notice +what a lot of poems there are in all the magazines, and of course, +somebody must write them. I should not be a bit surprised if I could +add to our income by writing poetry, Primrose. All the books, nearly +all the magazines and newspapers, come from London. Poppy will not be +going to London until to-morrow--I'll run round this morning and ask +her to try and find out for me which of the publishers want poems like +my 'Ode to the Swallow.' Perhaps they'd like it in the ---- _Review_; +only the ---- _Review_ is so horribly deep. My ode is deep too, for +Daisy cannot understand it. Perhaps I could send my poem about Pink to +one of the other magazines. Oh, Primrose! may I run round to Poppy, +and see if she can help us?" + +Primrose smiled very faintly, and it dawned across her again in rather +a painful manner what a mere child her little sister was. + +"I think I wouldn't, darling," she said. "Poppy could not really help +you about publishers. Look here, Jasmine and Daisy; here is a letter I +found in mamma's cabinet yesterday--it is directed to me, but the news +it contains is for us all; will you and Daisy go out into the garden +and read it together. You will be very much astonished when you read +the letter--poor mamma, what she must have suffered! While you are +reading I will go out. Mr. Danesfield says I may consult him, and as I +know he is a wise man, I will do so." + +"Would you like to take my ode with you?" inquired Jasmine. + +"No, not to-day, dear--if I am not in to dinner, don't wait for me." + +"I know one thing; we'll be very saving about that dinner," remarked +Jasmine, shaking back her curly locks. "If you are not in, Primrose, +Daisy and I will divide an egg between us--I read somewhere that eggs +were very nourishing, and half a one each will do fine. Come into the +garden now, Eyebright. Oh, Primrose! I don't feel a bit low about +adding to our income. If we choose we can eat so very little, and +then if the ---- _Review_ likes my poetry, I can spin it off by the +yard." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +BREAD AND BUTTER. + + +Primrose, her head a little more erect than usual, her step firm, and +a proud bright light in her eyes, went quickly down the little +rambling village street. The plain black dress she wore set off her +yellow hair and extremely fair complexion to the best advantage. She +had never looked sweeter or more independent than at this moment, +when, for the first time in her young life, she was about to ask for +help. + +Mr. Danesfield was not so busy this morning, and he saw his young +visitor without delay. + +"Sit down, my dear," he said; "I am very pleased to see you. You want +to ask for my advice? I will give it with the greatest pleasure." + +Primrose raised her head slowly. "I have been thinking over what you +said yesterday," she began. "As it is quite impossible for my sisters +and me to live on our little income, even with the help of what you +have in the bank, we must try to help ourselves, must we not?" + +"This is a brave thought, my dear--of course you must help +yourselves, and you will be none the worse for doing so." + +"We must earn money," continued Primrose. "How can girls like us, who +are not educated--for I know we are not _really_ educated--add to our +incomes?" + +Mr. Danesfield knit his brows. "Child," he said, "you ask me a +puzzler. I have no children of my own, and I know very little about +young folk. Of one thing, however, I am quite certain; Daisy can earn +no money, nor can Jasmine. You, Primrose, might with some difficulty +get a little place as a nursery governess; you are a nice, +presentable-looking girl, my dear." + +Primrose flushed, and the tears, wrung from great pain, came into her +eyes. + +"There is just one thing," she said, in a tremulous voice; "whatever +happens, we three girls won't be parted. On that point I have quite +firmly made up my mind." + +Mr. Danesfield again knit his brows, and this time he fidgeted +uneasily on his chair. + +"Look here, Primrose," he said: "I am an old bachelor, and I don't +know half nor a quarter the ways in which a woman may earn her living. +I have always been told that a woman is a creature of resources. Now +it is a well-known fact that an old bachelor has no resources. You go +and put your question to Miss Martineau, my dear. Miss Martineau is a +kind soul--'pon my word, now, a very kind soul--and she has managed +wonderfully to exist herself on absolutely nothing. You go to Miss +Martineau, Primrose, and get some secrets from her. Everything in my +power you may depend on my doing. I will exert my interest, and my +purse is at your service." + +Here Primrose got up. + +"Good-bye, Mr. Danesfield," she said. "I know you mean to be very +kind, but we three must keep together, and we must be independent." +Then she left the office, and went again down the street. + +Mr. Danesfield looked after her as she walked away. + +"Poor, proud young thing!" he said to himself. "Life will be a +tussle for her, or I am much mistaken. She is really growing +wonderfully nice-looking, too. How she flushed up when I said she +was presentable--poor child! poor child! That mother of theirs +might have done something to provide for those girls--lady-like +girls--distinguished-looking. I expect the mother was a weak, poor +soul. Well, I hope Miss Martineau will think of something. I must call +and see Miss Martineau; 'pon my word I don't know what to suggest for +the children to do." + +When Primrose arrived at Miss Martineau's, that lady was just +dismissing the last of her morning pupils. She was standing on her +steps in her neat brown alpaca dress, over which she wore a large +black apron of the same material with a bib to it. This apron had +capacious pockets, which at the present moment were stuffed with her +pupils' French exercises. On her head she had an antique-looking cap, +made of black lace and rusty black velvet, and ornamented with queer +little devices of colored beads. + +She was delighted to see Primrose, and took her at once into her +little sitting-room. "Now my dear, you will stay and have dinner with +me. You don't mind having no meat, dear. My middle-day meal to-day +consists of a salad and a rice soufflee. You are welcome to share it +with me, Primrose." + +"Thank you," said Primrose, "but I am not at all hungry. If you do not +mind, I will talk to you while you dine. Miss Martineau, I have come +to ask your advice." + +Miss Martineau came up instantly and kissed the young girl on both +cheeks. + +"My love, I am delighted. It gives me the sincerest pleasure to give +counsel to the young and inexperienced. Have you come from Mrs. +Ellsworthy, dearest?" + +"Not at all," answered Primrose. "Mrs. Ellsworthy has nothing to say +to me. She is only a friend, nothing more. Miss Martineau, we have +discovered that we cannot live on our little income. Please will you +tell me how we can add to it, so that we three can keep together?" + +"Keep together--impossible!" replied Miss Martineau. "There is nothing +whatever before you, Primrose, but to face the inevitable. The +inevitable means that you must break up your home--that you obtain, +through the kind patronage of the Ellsworthys, a situation as +governess, or companion, or something of that sort--and that the +little girls, Jasmine and Daisy, are put into a good school for the +orphan daughters of military men. The Ellsworthys will use their +influence toward this end. They are very kind--they have taken up your +cause warmly. Primrose, my dear, it sounds hard, but plain speaking is +best. You must be parted from your sisters. This is inevitable. You +have got to face it." + +"It is not inevitable," answered Primrose--then she paused, and her +face turned very white. + +"It is not inevitable," she repeated, "for this reason because neither +you nor Mrs. Ellsworthy have the smallest control over my sisters or +myself. I asked for your advice, but if this is the best you can give, +it is useless. Mrs. Ellsworthy never cared to know my mother, and she +is not going to part my mother's children now. Good-bye, Miss +Martineau--no, I am not hungry, I have a headache. Oh, I am not +offended--people mean to be kind, but there are things which one +cannot bear. No, Miss Martineau, the inevitable course you and Mrs. +Ellsworthy have been kind enough to sketch out, my sisters and I will +certainly not adopt." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THEY WOULD NOT BE PARTED. + + +Primrose walked down the street, passing by the little cottage which +for so many years had been her home. Her sisters did not expect her to +return to dinner, and her heart was too full to allow her to go in +just then. + +So they were to be parted--this was the advice of those who called +themselves their friends. Primrose, Jasmine, and Daisy, her three +flowers, as mother had called them, were no longer to grow sweetly in +one garden together. They were to be parted--Primrose was to go one +way, and the little ones another. Impulsive Jasmine would no longer +cry out her griefs on Primrose's neck, or tell her joys and griefs, +her hopes and aspirations, to the calm and elder sister. Daisy--their +baby, as Primrose called her--might be ill or sad, or lonely, and she, +Primrose, would no longer be there to comfort her. + +Parted! No, they should not be parted--all their young lives they had +lived together, and whether they starved, or whether they feasted, +they would live together still. Thank God, no one had any real +control over them--their very loneliness would now, therefore, be +their safety--they might sketch out their own career, and no one could +prevent them. + +Primrose said to herself-- + +"After all, I am glad I know the very worst. People mean to be kind; +but, oh! how can they understand what we three girls are to one +another?" + +She walked quickly in her agitation, and passing the village green, +came suddenly upon Poppy Jenkins, who was hurrying home to her +mother's cottage. + +"Well, Miss Primrose, I'm off to-morrow," said Poppy, dropping one of +her quick curtseys, and a more vivid red than usual coming into her +bright cheeks. + +"Yes, Poppy," answered Primrose; "I hope you will be very happy in +London"--then a sudden thought occurring to her, she ran after the +young girl and laid her hand on her shoulder. + +"Poppy, give me your London address--I may want it." + +"Oh law! Miss Primrose, do you think you'd be saving out of the thirty +pounds regular income and coming up to London on a visit?" + +"We may come to London, Poppy--I can't say," answered Primrose in a +sad voice--"anyhow, I should like to have your address--may I have +it?" + +"Surely, miss--aunt lives in a part they call central--she says the +rents are very high, but it's all done for the convenience of the +beautiful ladies who boards with her. Aunt's address is Penelope +Mansion--Wright Street, off the Edgware Road. It's a beautiful +sounding address, isn't it, Miss Primrose?" + +Primrose smiled again--a smile, however, which made poor little Poppy +feel rather down-hearted, and then she continued her walk. + +"It is very difficult to know what to do," she said to herself--"it +makes one feel quite old and careworn. If only that brother who was +lost long ago was now living, how nice it would be for us girls. I +wonder if he is really dead--I suppose he is, or mamma would have +heard something about him. Twenty years ago since it happened--longer +than my whole life. Poor mother! poor, dear mother! what she must have +suffered! I understand now why her pretty sweet face looked so sad, +and why her hair was grey before her time. What a pity my brother has +not lived--he certainly would not wish us girls to be parted." + +Primrose walked on a little farther, then she retraced her steps and +went home. She found Jasmine and Daisy in a state of the greatest +excitement. Mrs. Ellsworthy had called, and had been nicer and sweeter +and more charming than ever--she had brought Daisy a doll of the most +perfect description, and had presented the flower-loving Jasmine with +a great bouquet of exotics, which looked almost out of place in the +humble little cottage. + +"And there is a long letter for you, Primrose," continued Jasmine; +"and she says she hopes you will read it very quickly, and that she +may come down to-morrow morning to talk it over with you. She says +there is a plan in the letter, and that it is a delightful plan--I +wonder what it can be? Will you read the letter now, Primrose?--shall +I break the seal and read it aloud to you?" + +"No," answered Primrose, almost shortly for her--"Mrs. Ellsworthy's +letter can keep," and then she slipped the thick white envelope into +her pocket. + +"Why sister darling, how pale you look!--are you tired?" + +"A little," said Primrose--"I had no dinner--I should like a cup of +tea." + +Jasmine flew out of the room to get it for her, and Daisy nestled up +to her elder sister's side. + +"Primrose," she whispered, "Jasmine and I read that letter in the +garden together. Oh! we were so surprised to know we had a little baby +brother long ago. We went to Hannah and asked her about him, and +Hannah cried--I never saw Hannah cry so long and so hard. She said he +was the sweetest baby. Oh, how I wish we had him now!--he would be +much, much nicer than my new doll." + +"But if he were with us now he would be a man, Eyebright--a big, brave +man, able to help us poor girls." + +Daisy considered-- + +"I can only think of him as a baby," she said. "Hannah said he was +lost in London. How I wish we could go to London and find our +brother!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +MRS. ELLSWORTHY'S LETTER. + + +The girls had finished tea, and Hannah had removed all traces of the +evening meal before Primrose would even glance at the thick letter +which was addressed to her. She did so at last, at the earnest +entreaties of her two sisters--for Daisy climbed on the sofa beside +her, and put her arms round her neck, and coaxed her to read what dear +Mrs. Ellsworthy had written, and Jasmine took the letter and placed it +in her lap, and seated herself on a footstool at her feet, and the two +young girls looked interested and excited, and their eyes were bright +with anticipation, and even some impatience. + +Primrose, on the contrary, appeared indifferent. She broke the seal of +the thick letter languidly, and began to read its contents aloud, in +an almost apathetic voice. + +This was what Mrs. Ellsworthy had written: + + +"MY DEAR PRIMROSE, + +"(You remember our compact that I was to call you Primrose.) I had not +courage to say to you the other day all that was in my heart. My dear +child, it seems rather absurd to say it, but I felt afraid of you. In +the eyes of the world I am considered a great lady--for I have riches, +and my husband holds a good position--whereas you, Primrose, would be +considered by that same world nothing but a simple village maid. +Nevertheless, the innocent and unsophisticated girl contrived to keep +the woman of the world at a distance, and to let her see very plainly +that she thought her curious questions impertinent. When I read this +expression of opinion so plainly in your eyes, Primrose, I felt +afraid, and questioned no further. My dear, it is a fact that cowards +always resort to pen and ink when they want to express a frank +opinion. I am now going to say on paper what I feared to put into so +many words the other night. First of all, you are mistaken about me. I +am not what you think me. + +"Oh, yes! I know very well what that proud little heart of yours tells +you about me. It says, 'She is great and rich, and she is curious +about us girls, and she wants to patronize us--'" + +Here Primrose had to put down her letter, for she was interrupted by +an exclamation from Daisy-- + +"But we _don't_ think like that of our darling, pretty Mrs. +Ellsworthy--do we, Jasmine?" + +"Go on reading, Primrose," said Jasmine. + +Primrose continued-- + +"You are all wrong about me, my dear, dear girls, and yet, after a +measure, you are right; for in a certain sense I _am_ curious about +you; and most undoubtedly I want to help you. I know already a certain +portion of your story, and already I can partly read your characters. +The part of your story I know is this: You are ladies by birth--you +are very ignorant of the world--and you have not at all sufficient +money to live on. Your characters are as follows: + +"Primrose, I am not at all afraid of you on paper. You, Primrose, are +proud and independent. You are also sadly obstinate, and it is +extremely probable that you will take your own way, which I can see +beforehand will not be a wise one." + +"Oh! oh! oh!" came interruption No. 2 to the reading of the letter, +and Jasmine's arms were flung tightly round Primrose's neck. + +"How can she talk of you like that? How little she knows you, my +'queen of roses.'" + +Primrose smiled, kissed Jasmine between her eyebrows and went on +reading. + +"Jasmine's character," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy in her letter, "is as +yet unformed. She has high aspirations and generous impulses--if she +is well managed, and if you don't spoil her, Primrose, she will +probably develop into a very noble woman. I love Jasmine very dearly +already. + +"As to your little sister, she is as fresh, and innocent, and dainty +as her name; but take warning, Primrose, she is not over strong--there +is a look about the little one which makes me dread the thought of her +encountering any of the roughnesses of life. + +"Now, my dear girl, I have read my little bit of a lecture; you are +probably extremely angry with me, but I don't care. I now come to the +practical part of my letter; I am desirous to help you three, and I +want to help you in the way most suited to your individual characters. +The sad fact cannot be gain-said--you must give up your home--you must +earn your livings. May I help you to find a way to put bread into your +mouths? I have thought it all out, and I think I know a plan. If you +will agree to it, you may keep your independence, Primrose; Jasmine +may be developed into the kind of woman God meant her to become; and +little Daisy need not fear the rude blasts of adverse fate." + +Here Daisy, who only partly understood the letter, burst into tears, +and Primrose, taking her in her arms, allowed the closely written +sheets to fall on the floor. + +"I know what it means," she exclaimed, speaking with sudden fire and +passion; "the same thing has been said to me by two different people +already to-day. Mr. Danesfield said it after his fashion, Miss +Martineau after hers, and now Mrs. Ellsworthy repeats the words. Oh, +yes, I know what it means--separation--I will _never_ consent to it!" + +Jasmine had been kneeling on the floor and picking up the scattered +sheets of Mrs. Ellsworthy's letter; she now raised her eyes in utter +astonishment to her elder sister's face. Primrose was not accustomed +to giving utterance to strong feelings. Primrose's words were wont to +be calm and somewhat measured. Jasmine knew that she herself flew into +tempests of grief, or anger, or excitement--she was always being +chided for not restraining her feelings--she was always being gently +lectured for using too strong expressions. What did Primrose mean by +throwing down this kind though somewhat mysterious, letter, and by +making use of so ghastly a word as "separation?" Who was going to +divide them? Certainly not kind Mrs. Ellsworthy. + +"Had we not better hear what she says, even though you don't seem +quite to like her, Primrose?" asked Jasmine, holding up the sheets. + +"There are two sheets more, quite full of writing--shall I read them +aloud to you and Daisy?" + +But Primrose had not got over the excitement which was growing within +her all day; she took the letter out of Jasmine's hands, folded it, +and returned it to its envelope. + +"I must speak," she said; "we can finish that letter afterwards--the +letter does not greatly matter, after all. Do you know, Jasmine, and +do you know, Daisy, that these people who all mean to be so kind, and +who, I suppose, really feel good-natured towards us, are trying to +take our lives into their own hands? They are not our guardians, but +they want to rule us--they say we cannot live on our income, and they +will show us how we are to live. Mr. Danesfield will give money, if +needed; Miss Martineau will give us heaps and oceans of advice; and +Mrs. Ellsworthy will give patronage, and perhaps money too. They mean +to be kind, as I said, and they think they ought to guide our lives. +Of course, they consider us very young and very ignorant, and so they +say they will provide for me in one way, and Jasmine in another, and +Daisy in another. Now what I say is this; let us choose our own lives, +Jasmine and Daisy; don't let us do anything rude to our friends, for I +know they are our friends, but let us be firm and keep together. These +people want to divide us; I say, let us keep together." + +"Of course," said Jasmine; "is that really what the letter +means--separation? Here, give it to me--" She snatched it from her +sister, and flung it with energy to the other end of the apartment. +Daisy nestled her soft little face up close to her eldest +sister's--Daisy was still feeling things incomprehensible, and was +also a little frightened. + +"Go on," continued Jasmine, "go on talking, Primrose--we are quite +with you, Daisy and I--what nonsense the people must have in their +heads if they think we three are going to part!" + +"But we are in a very painful and difficult position," continued +Primrose. "We have certainly got to earn our bread, and we don't at +all know how to earn it. We are not educated enough to go anywhere as +governesses, although Miss Martineau did say that I might perhaps get +a little place in the nursery; but in any case people would not want +three governesses in one family, and, of course, Daisy is too young to +earn anything for many a long day. Jasmine, I have been thinking over +all this most seriously--I have been thinking over it for some hours, +and it seems to me there is nothing at all for us to do but to go to +London." + +"Where Poppy is going?" interrupted Jasmine; "delicious--lovely--my +dream of dreams! Go on, Primrose darling; I could listen to you all +night." + +"But we mustn't go only for pleasure," continued Primrose; "indeed, we +must not go at all for pleasure. We must go to work hard, and to +learn, so that bye-and-bye we may be really able to support +ourselves. Now, there is only one way in which we can do that. We must +take that two hundred pounds which Mr. Danesfield has in the bank, and +we must live on it while we are being educated. We can go to a cheap +part of London, and find poor lodgings--we won't mind how poor they +are, if only they are very clean, with white curtains, and dimity +round the beds. We'll be quite happy there, and we'll make our two +hundred pounds go very far. With great care, and with our thirty +pounds a year, it might last for four or five years, and by that time +Daisy will have grown big, and you, Jasmine, will have grown up, +and--and--perhaps you will have found a magazine to take your poems." + +"Oh! oh! I never heard of anything so delicious!" exclaimed Jasmine. +"Long before the five years are out I'll be on the pinnacle of fame. +London will inspire me; oh, it is the home of beauty and delight! +Where is Mrs. Ellsworthy's letter?--we will never finish it? I am +going to burn it on the spot rather than allow any other idea to be +put into your head, Primrose?" + +Primrose smiled again, and before she could prevent her, her impetuous +sister had torn Mrs. Ellsworthy's letter into ribbons, and had set +fire to it in the empty grate. + +"We must not be too sanguine about London," she said; "only it does +seem the only independent thing to do. Then, too, there is that letter +of dear mamma's and all that sad account of the little baby brother +who was lost so long ago. Hannah says that he was lost in London--he +must be a man now; perhaps we shall meet him in London. It certainly +does seem as if it were right for us to go." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +QUITE CONTRARY. + + +"I have done it, my dear Joseph," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "I went to see +the children, and I wrote to that little proud princess Primrose. It +will be really very nice if they all come here. We have such heaps and +heaps of money, more than we know what to do with; money becomes +uninteresting when you have so much. I think I have tried most of the +pleasures that money can buy. I have heaps of dresses, and quantities +of jewels, and my lovely country home, and my season in town, but what +I have never yet had, and what I have earnestly longed for, was a +daughter. A boy, after all, has to go to school, and to fight his way +in the world--our boy is at school, and a very good place for him--but +a woman wants a girl of her own to quite satisfy her heart. + +"Now it seems to me that I may have three girls. We must keep up the +fiction of Primrose being useful to you in your library, Joseph--you +must give her letters to write, and you must be very patient with her +when she makes mistakes, for the dear child has not been educated, +and will probably make the worst of secretaries. Never mind, you must +try to appear delighted, and to seem as if you never could have got on +until Primrose Mainwaring came to help you. + +"Then the little ones--of course they are coming under the supposition +that they are only to stay until I have found them berths in one of +those horrid charity schools for the orphan daughters of military +men--but I promise you those berths shall be hard to find. The three +will insensibly consider themselves our adopted children. Oh, what a +delightful plan it is! and how picturesque I shall feel with my girls! +Joseph, did you ever see a brighter or more bewitching little soul +than our Jasmine?" + +"Our Jasmine?" repeated Mr. Ellsworthy; "she is by no means ours yet, +my love. Well, I trust your plan will succeed--they are nice girls, +and I like to feel I am doing a kindness to poor Mainwaring's +daughters. I shall be very pleased indeed if they make your life any +happier, Kate." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy stooped down and kissed her husband's brow--she was +all impatience for the morning to arrive, for surely early then would +come an answer to the letter she had written. + +But Mrs. Ellsworthy was doomed to disappointment. The next day brought +no answer from the Mainwaring girls. The good little lady bore her +suspense as best she could until noon, then she ordered her carriage +and drove into the village. + +Jasmine herself opened the cottage door for her. Jasmine was looking +excited, and there were red rings round her eyes as if she had been +crying, and yet at the same time those bright eyes of hers were +shining, and her lips were quivering between smiles and tears. + +"Oh, you have come!" she exclaimed; "Primrose is in the village--she +has gone to Mr. Danesfield about our money. Please come into the +drawing-room. We are rather upset, for we are beginning to pack, and +Hannah is washing out the anti-macassars and the white muslin +curtains, for we think the muslin curtains will look so nice in our +cheap lodgings. We are very busy, awfully busy, but do come in and sit +down. Eyebright, here is Mrs. Ellsworthy. Mrs. Ellsworthy, isn't +Eyebright a silly?--she is quite fretting because she won't see those +last seeds of hers come up in the garden. Now, if she was asked to +leave the Pink I would say nothing, but of course the Pink comes too." + +"Yes, dear, and Daisy shall have plenty of garden ground for fresh +seeds. Oh! my dear children," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy, "I shall be +so delighted to welcome you all to Shortlands, only I think you might +have replied to my letter." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy was by this time seated in a low arm-chair by the +window, and Jasmine was standing before her, while Daisy sat demurely +on the floor, and folded up the anti-macassars. + +"We might have answered your letter?" repeated Jasmine. "Well now, do +you know, to be quite frank and open, your letter was a little bit of +a lecture. You did give it to darling old Primrose, and somehow or +other you made Daisy cry. You spoke about a plan, and you said it was +a delightful plan, but--but before we read that part of your letter +Primrose thought of another plan of her own, and _it_ was so +exquisite, so perfect, that we tore up your plan for fear we should be +tempted by it. We don't know your plan, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and we don't +want it, for we have made our own, and ours is--yes, ours is lovely!" + +Mrs. Ellsworthy had an expressive face, and while Jasmine was talking +it changed and grew anxious; her husband's words, "She is not our +Jasmine yet," returned to her. Like many rich and pretty women, she +was unaccustomed to opposition, and when it came it but whetted her +desire, and made her also feel irritable. + +"It is rude to tear up the letters of kind friends," she said. "I made +a proposal which would have been in every way suitable to you girls, +and you did not even trouble yourselves to read it. No, my loves, I am +not angry. Daisy, come and give me a kiss; Jasmine, hold my hand. Now +shall I tell you the little plan which you would not read about last +night?" + +"Oh, we would not be rude to you for the world," said Jasmine. "Daisy, +come here, and give Mrs. Ellsworthy one of your sweetest kisses. Of +course I will hold your hand--I love you, and so does Daisy, and so +does--" + +"No, so does _not_ Primrose," answered Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose is +the opposing element--still I trust I may conquer her. Now, my +children, may I tell the plan?" + +"Oh yes, do tell us," they both answered; but Jasmine added, "It will +not be of the slightest use, for we have made our own." + +"Well, dear, plans of girls as young as you are made to be altered. +Now listen to my scheme. + +"Mr. Ellsworthy writes for the papers and for one or two magazines. He +has scientific tastes, and writing in this way gives interest to his +life; but his eyes are not very strong, and he has for some time been +wishing for some nice girl to whom he can dictate his thoughts. It +seems to him, and to me too, that Primrose is just the sort of girl he +wants, and if she will come and live with us at Shortlands, he will +pay her something for giving him a couple of her hours daily--thus, +you see, she will be earning her living and will be quite independent. +You and Daisy, Jasmine, are to come to us on a visit, until we can +find a school where, for your father's sake, your education may be +finished." + +"You mean a school for the orphan daughters of army men," said +Jasmine, "I know. Well, thank you very much, but I'm afraid your plan +won't answer. Neither Daisy nor I would at all like to go to a school +for orphans. We don't fancy the idea of school, and dear mamma once +said that she would never allow her girls to be taught at school, so, +of course, that point is settled. Then you know we could not always +remain with you on a visit, for we are no relations of yours--you +never heard of us at all until a few days ago, although we have lived +here most of our lives. Of course you don't mean to keep us always on +a visit, so it would be very silly to begin a thing which could not go +on. Then about Primrose--may I be quite honest with you about +Primrose?" + +"Oh yes, my dear." + +"Well now, she doesn't write well--not really--her hand moves so +slowly, and I have seen some spelling mistakes now and then in her +letters--I fly over the page myself, but then I only can read my own +writing. I am greatly afraid that poor Mr. Ellsworthy would find +Primrose a bad secretary. No, no, no; ours is a much, much better +plan. You see, Mrs. Ellsworthy, you must not be angry with us--we love +you very much--we are greatly obliged to you, but we have quite made +up our minds--we will not be separated. Ah! here comes Primrose. +Primrose, darling, here is Mrs. Ellsworthy--she is just going to +listen to our plan--she has told us hers, and I have been explaining +to her that it will not answer, for Daisy and I are determined not to +go to school, and you know, Primrose, you are really stupid with your +pen." + +"How do you do, Mrs. Ellsworthy?" said Primrose--she came in looking +fagged and tired, and with a worried expression between her eyebrows. +"Mrs. Ellsworthy," she said, "I am most grateful to you for being so +kind to us. I know you won't approve at all of our plan--you will +agree with Mr. Danesfield, who said he thought we had taken leave of +our senses, but I think we have made up our minds, and as we have no +guardian, there is no one to prevent us doing as we please." + +"Oh, Primrose, how sad you look!" said Jasmine. "Has Mr. Danesfield +been disagreeable to you? Well, I know our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy +won't. Tell her our plan quickly. Primrose, she says you don't love +her--tell her you do love her. Oh, she is sweet and dear and +kind--tell her our plan--she won't throw cold water on what we wish to +do--she won't think it wrong that we three girls should wish to keep +together." + +"Our plan is this," said Primrose, "I have asked Mr. Danesfield to +give us what money he has of ours, and then we three are going to sell +our furniture here, and to give up the cottage, and say good-bye to +dear Hannah, and we are going to London. In London we shall learn. I +am going to have lessons in painting, and Jasmine shall study English +composition, and she shall be taught how to write properly; and Daisy, +too, must be taught, and we will do that with our money which is now +in the bank, and when it is spent we shall be able to support +ourselves. After all, it is a very simple plan, and the best thing +about it is that it will keep us together." + +When Primrose began to talk Mrs. Ellsworthy threw down her hands in +her lap with a gesture of great impatience. Now she asked in a short +dry voice, "May I ask what money you have in the bank?" + +"Yes, certainly--we have two hundred pounds--a little of that must be +spent in paying one or two small accounts, but then we shall have the +money as well from the sale of our furniture. Yes, I think we shall +have quite two hundred pounds to take to London." + +"And we are going to be very economical," interposed Jasmine. "We are +going at first for a couple of nights to a boarding-house for ladies +only. It is called Penelope Mansion, and is in a street off the +Edgware Road--we have a friend, she is only a village girl, but we +call her our friend--her name is Poppy Jenkins, who has just gone to +Penelope Mansion to help her aunt, who is the owner of the +boarding-house. While we are there we will see the sights, for of +course that must be part of our education. We will go to Westminster +Abbey to be solemnized, and we will go to the Tower to perfect our +knowledge of the tragical part of English history, and we must take +Daisy to the Zoo, for she has always longed to see a lot of monkeys +all together. I don't think we'll have any time for looking in at the +shop windows, for we shall be very busy, and very, very earnest, but +these places we must see. I daresay Poppy and her aunt, and some of +the nice ladies in the boarding-house, will go with us. When Poppy has +dusted up and put things straight in the morning, of course she'll +have lots and lots of time. Oh, it does seem such an easy, sensible +plan." + +"My poor, poor children!" exclaimed Mrs. Ellsworthy, "my poor, +deluded, silly, obstinate children!" and then the good little woman +burst into tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +IN SPITE OF OPPOSITION. + + +But although Mrs. Ellsworthy wept and lamented, although she tried +both persuasions and scoldings, and finally left the cottage in a +state of deep offence, vowing within herself that she would never +trouble her head again over the affairs of such silly and obstinate +girls, she could not in the least shake Primrose's quiet resolve. + +Primrose said over and over again: "Two things are absolutely +indispensable--we must be independent, and we must keep together. I +can think of no better plan than this--it may fail, but we can but try +it--we are certainly going to try it." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy kept up her offence for twenty-four hours, then she +began to soften, and to agree with her husband, whose solitary remark +was, "My dear, you cannot coerce the children, and upon my word it's a +plucky notion, and if those girls are brave enough to carry it out +they must have real stuff in them." + +"They may have plenty of stuff, and the plan may be as plucky as you +like, Joseph," replied his excitable little wife. "I am quite willing +to admire it in the abstract, but I am quite determined, if I have any +influence whatever, to prevent them carrying it through." + +Then she went off to Miss Martineau, invading the schoolmistress in +the sacred hour when she was engaged with her pupils. Mrs. Ellsworthy +carried Miss Martineau away from her school, and shutting the door of +that lady's little parlor, clasped the governess's thin hands, and +poured her troubles into her ears. + +"Joseph calls it plucky," said Mrs. Ellsworthy at the end of her +narrative. + +But Miss Martineau's face was perfectly aghast. + +"Plucky!" she ejaculated. "Dear Mrs. Ellsworthy, pardon me, but your +husband is a man--what can a man know about the intricate workings +which go on within the breast of a perverse girl? Plucky!--I call it +wicked--I call it wanting in all decorum, in all right sense. Primrose +Mainwaring has disappointed me deeply; she showed undue temper when I +spoke to her here the other day--oh yes, this thing must be prevented +by main force, if necessary." + +Miss Martineau's pupils could not imagine what was the matter with her +that morning. She was known to be a most strict disciplinarian, she +was reported to have the sharpest eyes, and the quickest ears; her +pupils believed that nothing ever could pass Miss Martineau's +observation; nevertheless, after Mrs. Ellsworthy's visit she was +_distrait_, she was indifferent to mistakes, and she allowed her +naughtiest and most troublesome scholar to gabble through her French +translation without once correcting her. School over, Miss Martineau +discovered that she had no appetite for her dinner; she left quite a +nice little repast, cooked in French style, untasted on the table, and +hurrying up to her bedroom, put on her mantle and poke bonnet and went +out. She had made up her mind to visit the Mainwarings, and to +expostulate with these headstrong and naughty girls on their daring +scheme. "Wicked, I call it," she ejaculated many times under her +breath!--"a wicked scheme, wicked, and a tempting of Providence. Oh, +my poor orphan children, I must do my utmost to prevent your having +your own perverse way in this matter!" + +She arrived at Woodbine Cottage to find the neat little house already +in sad confusion. Hannah favored her with an expressive look, and a +grave shaking of her head. + +"I don't know if they'll see you," she said--"they won't see you if it +is on a lecturing errand you've come, ma'am. Their minds is made up, +ma'am, and obstinate is no word for them. Dear Miss Martineau, you +means well, and you has known them most of their lives, poor darlings, +so sit you down in the hall, and I'll see if I can get them to have a +word with you." + +Jasmine, however, had heard her old governess's voice, and now running +out, looking extremely untidy but very pretty, she exclaimed in her +eager tones-- + +"Now, you dear Miss Martineau, say you're not--do say you're not!" + +"Not what, my dear?" asked the governess, who really felt quite angry +with Jasmine at this moment. "If you mean that I am not displeased--I +am displeased; and if you mean that I am not to oppose you, my dear, I +should not be doing my solemn duty, the duty which I owe to your poor +dead mother, if I did not oppose you to the very uttermost. My dear, +Mrs. Ellsworthy has told me all about your mad scheme; my poor child, +it cannot be allowed for a moment." + +"Come into the drawing-room and hear what Primrose has to say," +answered Jasmine, in quite a meek and unruffled voice. "Primrose is +very busy, for she is dusting and packing all our books and little +knick-knacks. Do you know, Miss Martineau, that just when I heard your +ring at the hall-door I came across a pincushion which you gave me +ages and ages ago. You gave it to me when I could say, _Le the est +chaud_ with a Parisian accent. It was such a pretty pincushion made +of pink silk, and dotted over with steel beads to look like pins. Just +when you were ringing the bell I had it in my hand, and I felt so soft +and loving towards you, and of course I had to run out to see you, +and--; Primrose, dearest, here is Miss Martineau. She is dreadfully +opposed, and she says she won't let us go." + +Primrose was bending over a battered old trunk which had been hauled +down from the lumber-room. She was filling it with books, and her fair +face was slightly flushed, and her eyes were brighter than usual. + +"How do you do, Miss Martineau?" she said, rising to her feet. "It is +very kind of you to call. I feel sure you are annoyed, and think us +girls rather silly, but I'm afraid we must do what we think right +ourselves in this matter. We have taken our first steps, and now that +we have quite and absolutely made up our minds, mean to leave Rosebury +as quickly as possible. It is very kind of you to be interested in us, +and I am sorry that I spoke bitterly the other day, but the plan which +was to divide us girls was of course impossible, and we could not +listen to it for a moment. We have made our own little scheme, and +perhaps we shall not fail. Daisy, darling, hand me dear old 'Sandford +and Merton,' I have just got a nice corner for it here." + +Primrose went down again on her knees, and serenely continued her +packing, while Miss Martineau, standing over her, then and there gave +way to a burst of passion. + +She was well aware that she lost ground with her pupils by not +controlling her temper, but as she said afterwards, she really could +not help herself. Such coolness, such perversity, such a headstrong +flying in the face of their elders, she had never encountered in three +young girls before. + +Poor Daisy quite sobbed, and even Jasmine felt a little frightened at +Miss Martineau's bitter and angry words; but no language she could +use, no threats of the direst failure she could utter, had power to +shake Primrose's resolve. + +"We have no guardian, and we can go if we please, and we have really +made up our minds to go," replied that perverse young lady. + +As a last resource Mr. Danesfield was appealed to, but he, being an +old bachelor and not quite at home with girls, although in his heart +he was very fond of them, declined to interfere. + +"I gave Primrose Mainwaring some uncalled-for advice when she came to +see me the other morning," he said. "She is perfectly at liberty to +choose her own life, and I, for one, am not going to add to her +troubles by needlessly opposing her. Very likely the girls will get on +in London--they are spirited girls, and they may do better for +themselves by struggling for independence than by living with the +Ellsworthys. I always did maintain that work hurts no one." + +So Primrose carried out her little plans, and made all arrangements, +and her friends, when they found she would not yield, came round her, +and began to counsel her as to the best place to go to. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy was, after all, the first to forgive the girls. She +felt very indignant, and stayed away for more than a week; but one +evening, when the day's packing was over, and the three, rather tired +but quite cheerful and full of hope, were sitting down to their tea, +her carriage was seen to draw up to the door, and the little lady, +bustling and good-natured as ever, entered the drawing-room. + +"My dears," she said, holding out a hand each to Primrose and Daisy, +but imprinting a kiss on her favorite Jasmine's brow, "my dears--Oh, +of course, I am still very angry! I see, too, that you are at that +horrid packing; but if you must go, there is a Mrs. Moore--such a good +soul, a widow, and quite a lady--indeed, I may say highly connected. +She lives in Kensington, and I have written to her. My dears, she +would be charmed to take you all into her family. She would give you +comforts--oh! I don't mean luxuries, but the necessary comforts that +young girls who are using their brains require. She would feed you +well, and chaperone you when you went out, and, in short, see to you +all round. I know her house so well. It is very pretty--indeed, +charming--and she would take you in for a pound a week between you. +She would give you board and lodging, and all you require, for a pound +a week. I hope, my dear Primrose, you don't consider that too dear. It +is, I believe"--here Mrs. Ellsworthy coughed slightly--"considered +cheap for Kensington." + +This torrent of words, poured forth with rapidity and yet with +distinctness, rather astonished the girls. They were afraid they had +lost Mrs. Ellsworthy for their friend, and they, every one of them, +hailed this overture of kindness with delight. Innocent Primrose never +even suspected that a pound a week for the lodging and maintenance of +three girls was at all unusually cheap. She little guessed that Mrs. +Ellsworthy had written to her special friend, Mrs. Moore, telling her +the girls' story, begging of her to give them a home, to provide them +with every comfort, and even luxury, and asking her to look to her, +Mrs. Ellsworthy, for the necessary payment. + +Jasmine began to dance about, and to say, softly-- + +"Oh! this is too delightful! You darling Mrs. Ellsworthy, you are +beginning to approve of our scheme. Oh, yes; I know you are, although +you were too proud to say so. Now, is it not a little bit wrong of you +to be proud after the way you lectured Primrose? Well, Primrose, shall +we go to Mrs. Moore? I don't know anything about Kensington, but I +suppose it is as good as any other place. I don't suppose, either, a +pound a week is too much for the three of us. Shall we go to Mrs. +Moore, Primrose?" + +Daisy also joined her voice in favor of going to Mrs. Ellsworthy's +friend, and after all, but for that obstinate young person Primrose, +the good little lady might have had her way, but Primrose, although +she was quite ignorant of fashionable localities or of any London +expenses, was very firm, very firm indeed, when she made up her mind. + +"It is most kind of you to call and say all this to us," she answered. +"Oh, yes, we would come if we had not quite decided on an altogether +different plan. That being the case we cannot go to Mrs. Moore--thank +you so much." + +When Jasmine heard her sister speak her face first fell and then +brightened up considerably. "How stupid of me to forget!" she said. +"Oh, yes, we have made a lovely plan, and of course we could not go to +anybody whom anybody knew. Oh, no, of course not. I cannot think how I +came to forget." + +Again Mrs. Ellsworthy tried persuasion and even entreaty, but again +she had to own herself vanquished by that most obstinate girl +Primrose. "I really cannot make out why I care for them all," she said +to herself as she drove away. "I do care for them, poor children! I +would do anything to help them, but I am simply not allowed. Well, +Primrose, no doubt you would be a great trial to me if you were my +daughter; I could never bear obstinate characters, and yet to a +certain extent I admire you." + +Miss Martineau also made up her mind to forgive these naughty girls, +and to give them the benefit of her most sapient counsel. She too +wrote a private letter to a London friend, and arrived at Woodbine +Cottage primed with what she considered valuable information. "Now, my +dears, you must go to Shepherd's Bush--that is the place, and the only +place where you can live within your means. My friend Constantia +Warren has rooms there, and she says--I have written to her, my +loves--she says if you will let her accompany you in your search she +may be able to secure you a clean, respectable bedroom in a fairly +good locality. Constantia is an excellent woman; she is fifty, and +plain in her tastes, and has no nonsense about her. She has promised +me, for my sake, to accompany you to church in the evenings, and to +see that you wear your veils down when you go out, and that you are +back in your bedroom--you can't afford a sitting-room, so don't think +of it--that you are back in your bedroom by five o'clock in the +evening, as all girls who have any idea of what is correct and proper +are of course in by that hour in London. Now, my dears, Constantia +will be a sort of protectress to you three, and I had better write to +her at once. My dears, it is a relief to me to know you will be near +Constantia, for London is a pit--a pit, and a snare." + +Miss Martineau had talked herself quite out of breath, and looked +quite pleading, but the same obstacle which had prevented the girls' +acceding to Mrs. Ellsworthy's request now debarred their taking up +their quarters near Constantia Warren. + +They spoke of their plans, but would not tell what they were, and Miss +Martineau again went away offended. + +"There is no secret in the matter," she said, when talking over the +affair with Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose tries to make a mystery, and +Jasmine likes to look mysterious, but there is not the smallest doubt +that all the girls really want is to have their own way, and to be +beholden to none of us." + +"Nevertheless, I love them, and shall always love them," answered Mrs. +Ellsworthy. + +"Oh, for the matter of that, so will I always love them, Mrs. +Ellsworthy. It seems to me they want a lot of pity, poor misguided +young things!" + +Primrose, Jasmine and Daisy all this time felt wonderfully serene. +They were very sorry to hurt their friends, but it is quite true that +they did want to have their own way. They had made distinct plans, but +they must go to London to carry them out. They thought their wisest +course was to go up to Penelope Mansion for a few days, and make their +final arrangements from there. + +"I'd be very lonely in London if I wasn't near Poppy," said Jasmine; +and Primrose too said that she thought their wisest course was to go +up to Penelope Mansion, and make their plans from there. + +Accordingly, one afternoon, when Poppy Jenkins had been three weeks in +her new place, she received a letter from Primrose Mainwaring, to +which she sent the following reply. Poppy's spelling need not be +copied, but her language ran as follows:-- + + Penelope Mansion, + Wright street, off the Edgware Road, + _July 22._ + +HONORED Miss,-- + +"Your letter was that gratifying. I am so glad you have put by your +savings, and are coming to visit this vast Babylon. Miss Primrose, it +will do me a sight of good to see your face, and the face of Miss +Jasmine, and the face of Miss Daisy. The ladies here, miss--for I must +own to the truth--are not as beautiful as was to be expected. Neither +in their visages nor in their manners are they beautiful. Sharp's the +word from morn till night here, and many a time I cry. I hasn't had no +moment yet to visit the sights, for aunt's hands are very full, and +she looks most natural to me to assist her, which I do, as in duty +bound. I'm told that there isn't much of the real London to be seen +from Penelope Mansion, so I live in hopes that it is as beautiful as +we pictured it beyond these dull walls. Miss, I has spoken to my aunt, +and she will be very pleased to receive you three, and will put you in +a bedroom to the front of the house. You'll be fretted by the roar +from the continuous multitude which passes these windows all day and +all night, but otherwise the room is cheerful, although somewhat hot. +Miss Primrose, I'll give you all such a welcome. + + "Your humble and most devoted friend, + "POPPY JENKINS." + +This letter was received by the girls while they were eating their +breakfast. Primrose read it aloud to her sisters, and the effect of +Poppy's words was certainly not enlivening. Jasmine was the first to +recover her spirits. + +"Never mind," she said; "Poppy feels a little dull and it is more than +ever our duty to go up to London, and try and cheer her. Poor Poppy! +it is very wrong of her aunt not to let her go out to see the sights, +and you see, Primrose, she really knows no part of London yet, except +Penelope Mansion. Poor Poppy! how she did long to go to see the +wonderful city; but she was a little frivolous, and seemed only to +want to look at the shop windows and to examine the newest fashions. +_We_ go to this grand, great London in a different spirit--we go +determined to conquer, don't we, Queen Rose?" + +"We go to do what seems to be our duty," answered Primrose, solemnly. +"Oh, Jasmine! I hope we are doing right--I hope, I pray that God may +help us." + +Then a letter was written to Poppy, in which the noisy room was +secured for the following Thursday, and as this was Monday, the girls +were too busy packing to give many mere thoughts to poor Poppy's +somewhat melancholy epistle. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +PENELOPE MANSION. + + +The last time in the funny little old-fashioned garden, the last +loving look at Jasmine's carnations, the last eager chase of the Pink +across the little grass-plot, the last farewell said to the room where +mother had died, to the cottage where Daisy was born, the final hug +from all three to dear old Hannah who vowed and declared that follow +them to London she would, and stay in Devonshire any longer she would +not, and the girls had left Woodbine Cottage. + +Notwithstanding all their obstinacy, and their determination to have +their own way, quite a bevy of friends accompanied them to the railway +station--Miss Martineau was there, looking prim and starched, but with +red rims round her eyes, and her lips only stern because they were so +firmly shut, and because she was so determined not to show any +emotion--Mrs. Jenkins, Poppy's mother, was also present; she was +sending up a great bouquet of wild flowers and some eggs and butter to +Poppy; and a lame boy, whom Jasmine had always been kind to, came +hobbling on to the platform to bid the young ladies good-bye; and Mr. +Danesfield drove up on his trap at the last moment in a violent hurry, +and pushed an envelope, which he said contained a business +communication, into Primrose's hand. Last of all, just at the very +end, Mrs. Ellsworthy arrived panting on the scene; a footman followed +her, also hurrying and panting, and he put into the railway carriage a +great basket containing hot-house flowers, and grapes, and peaches, +and then Mrs. Ellsworthy kissed the girls, giving Primrose and Daisy a +hurried salute, but letting her lips linger for a moment on Jasmine's +round cheek. During that brief moment two tears dropped from the kind +little lady's eyes. + +It was in this manner that the girls went away. + +They arrived in London in the evening, and after a surprisingly +successful search for their luggage at Waterloo, managing not to lose +anything, got into a cab, and drove to Penelope Mansion. + +Poppy's aunt boasted of the pleasing name of Flint, and when the girls +drove up with their cab piled with luggage to the door of the mansion, +Mrs. Flint herself came out to welcome them. + +Jasmine, whose excitable temperament had been going through many +changes during the journey to town, had now worked herself up into an +ardent desire to see Poppy--she jumped out of the cab first of all, +and, running up the steps of Penelope Mansion, said eagerly-- + +"Oh, if you please, Mrs. Flint--I know, of course, you are Mrs. +Flint--may I run down to the kitchen, and find Poppy?" + +"My niece will come to you presently, Miss Mainwaring," answered Mrs. +Flint. + +Somehow Mrs. Flint's calm and carefully modulated voice had an instant +effect in subduing Jasmine. The mistress of Penelope Mansion resembled +perhaps more a cushion than a flint--she was fat, round, and short, +had a good-humored and unruffled face, and a voice which was always +pitched in one key. + +"We call my niece Sarah in these premises," she said; "Poppy signifies +nothing whatever but a weed, untidy, straggling, the worry of the +farmers. Sarah will see to your comforts presently, young ladies. At +the present moment tea is on the table. We tea at six o'clock +precisely--we sup at nine. Will you like to go upstairs and wash your +hands, or will you come at once with me, and partake with the other +inmates of the meal which is now going forward?" + +"I don't like her, but she seems to speak very correct English," +whispered Jasmine to her sister: "I wonder, does everybody in the +great city speak like that? I suppose she'll do as a study in style. +I must study style, mustn't I, if I'm to make money by writing?" + +This speech was tumbled into Primrose's ear with wonderful rapidity, +while Mrs. Flint stood gently by, looking most contented and +uninterested. + +"Hush, Jasmine!" whispered Primrose. "Daisy darling, hold my hand. +Thank you very much, Mrs. Flint; we will have some tea now, if you +please, and then go at once to our room." + +"Does Poppy--I mean Sarah--wait at the tea-table?" inquired Jasmine, +as their hostess led the way up a flight of stairs, and down a +passage. "I hope she does--I want to see her so badly." + +"Sarah's duties at the present moment are in the kitchen," responded +Mrs. Flint, with some graciousness. "Now, young ladies, let me precede +you, and introduce you to my guests. Miss Mainwaring, Miss Jasmine and +Miss Daisy Mainwaring--Mrs. Mortlock, Mrs. Dredge, Miss Slowcum. Young +ladies, will you seat yourselves at the table?" + +Mrs. Flint moved to her place at the head of the board; the three +girls dropped into seats, and were stared broadly at by Miss Slowcum +and Mrs. Mortlock. Mrs. Dredge, however, did not stare, but stretching +out one rather plump white hand, took Daisy's within her own and gave +it a little squeeze. + +"Tired, pretty little dear!" she said; "tired and cold. Ah, I know all +about it." + +"No, she's not cold, she's hot," responded Jasmine; "this is the +hottest, closest room I've ever been in. You are Mrs. Dredge, are you +not? Please, Mrs. Dredge, can you tell me how near we are to the real +glories of the city from here?" + +"I don't know, my dear--I fancy a very long way," answered Mrs. +Dredge, with a sigh--this sigh was instantly taken up by Mrs. Mortlock +and Miss Slowcum, and Miss Slowcum remarked that the situation might +certainly be considered the worst in London. + +"Ha, ha!" said Mrs. Mortlock, "you will have to come down in your +prices after that, Mrs. Flint. Ha, ha! your question was a very +leading one, Miss Jasmine Mainwaring." + +Poor Jasmine began to feel quite alarmed, and instantly resolved not +to open her lips again during tea. + +The meal proceeded, and very dull it was; nor was the fare appetizing, +for the tea was weak and the bread was stale. The three young faces, +so fresh from the country and from home, began to reflect the general +dulness. Mrs. Flint always made it a rule never to speak except when +obliged--Daisy was nearly asleep, Primrose felt a dreadful lump in her +throat, and Jasmine's dark curly head was bent low, and her bright +eyes were not seen under their long lashes, for she was very well +aware that they were full of tears. + +She was a most impulsive creature, however, quick and variable in her +moods, unselfish in her character. Suddenly it dawned upon her that it +was not fair to the rest of the party that she should be so dull. She +had always been considered the sunbeam at home; why should she not try +to become the sunbeam of Penelope Mansion? + +"I know what will do it," she exclaimed, jumping from her seat, and +nearly upsetting her own tea and Daisy's. "Of course, how silly of +me!--I know what will alter things directly." Then she flew out of the +room, returning the next moment with Mrs. Ellsworthy's great basket of +fruit and flowers. + +"Primrose," she said, "mightn't we share these with the ladies? They +are all quite fresh from the country. Oh yes, of course we may share +them. Mrs. Flint, which will you have, some flowers, a bunch of +grapes, or a peach?" + +Mrs. Flint selected a good-sized bunch of grapes with a placid smile, +and a "Thank you, Miss Jasmine"--Mrs. Mortlock also took grapes, Miss +Slowcum selected flowers, and Mrs. Dredge partook of a peach with +great relish, calling it, as she did so, a "sweet reminiscence of the +blooming country." + +After this little incident the ladies of Penelope Mansion and the +Mainwaring girls became quite friendly; nevertheless the three cried +themselves to sleep that night. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +ESCORTED BY MISS SLOWCUM. + + +"Within the house at least," remarked Poppy Jenkins, "it ain't what we +dreamt of." + +She was standing the next morning in the room where the three sisters +had slept--it was early, only five o'clock in the morning, but this +was Poppy's London hour for rising. Jasmine was sitting up in bed and +regarding her earnestly, Primrose was also awake, but Daisy slept like +a cherub. + +"It ain't what we dreamt of," continued Poppy--"it's work, and it's +dirt, and it's dust, and it's smuts. Oh, my word! the smuts is enough +to turn one crazy. Nothing is white here, as you calls white in the +country--speckled is more the word. No, no. Penelope Mansion is, +taking it all in all, a biting disappointment." + +"Well Poppy, Penelope Mansion is not the whole of London," said +Jasmine, in a rather quavering, but would-be wise voice. + +"Yes, but it's the London I has got to do with," answered Poppy +Jenkins--"and oh! the worst of all is, that aunt won't have me called +by my home name--she speaks of it most bitter as a 'weed.' She says +poppies are what are meant in the Scripter by the tares. Don't it +sound real awful?--I trembled all over when she told me that. So Sarah +I am here, and Sarah Ann, and Sarah Jane, and Sarah Mary the ladies +calls me. When they're in a very good humor I'm Sarah Mary, and when +they're a bit put out it's Sarah Jane they calls for, and now and then +I'm Sarah Ann--then I know I'm in for a scolding. Oh yes, Miss +Primrose, London is not what we thought it." + +"Never mind," said Primrose sweetly; "you'll always be Poppy to us, +dear, and I know the tares were not poppies, so don't you fret--the +poppy is a sweet flower, and Poppy is a sweet name for a girl. Why we +four are all called after flowers, and we must just be very friendly, +and very brave and loving and sweet in this London, and then, perhaps, +it won't disappoint us." + +"You're real kind, Miss Primrose," said Poppy. "Yes, it's a great ease +to me to know as you three are in the house. I won't be so +lonesome-like now, and I won't be dreaming that I'm a tare. It's awful +to think of yourself as a tare, but I know now that aunt made a +mistake. Oh, ain't Miss Daisy beautiful in her sleep? Now look here, +you're all tired, and I'll bring you up your breakfasts in bed. You +shall have some of mother's fresh eggs and real country butter. I'll +run downstairs, and bring you up some breakfast the very first thing." + +The girls spent that morning in their room. They unpacked a few of +their things, and put their mother's picture on the mantel-piece, and +Primrose opened Mr. Danesfield's letter. It contained an enclosure +within and on this enclosure was written, in a funny little printing +hand, "When you want me, use me; don't return me, and never abuse me." + +Primrose's face grew rather red. She read the funny little motto two +or three times, then put the enclosure unopened into her trunk. + +"I think," she said, looking at Jasmine, "that we will not send this +back. I had a queer dream last night. It seemed to me that mother came +to me and said, 'Are you not foolish to cast away all your kind +friends? Try to remember that true independence is not too proud to +lean on others. Primrose, for my sake do not be over proud.' Mr. +Danesfield was always a friend of mother's," continued Primrose, "so I +will keep his letter until we want it, and will write him a little +note to thank him for it." + +Then the girls sat down by the open window and looked out into the +street. It was a very dull street, and the day was warm and murky, +with no sun shining. + +"This afternoon we will go out," said Primrose. "I shall speak about +it at lunch, and ask Mrs. Flint to allow us to take Poppy with us. I +am so sorry Poppy feels dull. Now, girls, we must just make up our +minds not to do that--we must keep up brave hearts, and not sigh and +look dismal; that would never do. We have elected our own course, and +if we are not courageous we shall be beaten. I for one am determined +not to be beaten." + +"I've always heard," said Jasmine, "that to sigh was very weakening. +What I propose is this--that we give each other a fine whenever we are +heard sighing, and another much more severe fine if we grumble, and +the worst fine of all if we cry. Now, what shall the fines be?" + +After a little consideration the girls decided that the fines might as +well lead in the direction of their education. Accordingly they marked +out for themselves some of the most ponderous passages in "Paradise +Lost" to learn by heart, and as a severe punishment they selected +little bits of a very incomprehensible book, called Butler's +"Analogy." When they had carefully made these selections a rather +feeble bell was heard to tinkle in the mansion, and they went +downstairs to lunch. + +"I hope you are comfortably unpacked now, young ladies?" inquired Mrs. +Flint. + +"And I trust you have recovered from the fatigues of your long +journey?" questioned Mrs. Dredge. "It is a weary way from +Devonshire--a long and weary way." + +"You speak of it as though it were a kind of disappointment to come +from Devonshire to London," remarked Miss Slowcum, "whereas London is +_the_ place for aspiring souls." + +"Oh, I'm so delighted to hear you say that!" said Jasmine--"Poppy--I +mean Sarah--spoke quite dismally this morning, but I knew she must be +wrong." + +"The young country servant," responded Miss Slowcum, "Sarah Jane, I +think her name is--oh, well, her judgment need scarcely be depended +on. Yes, London is the place of places. I have lived here for years, +and I ought to know." + +"We quite believe you," said Jasmine--"don't we, Primrose?--we have +come up here because we quite feel with you; we are going out after +lunch to see the beauties of the city." + +"May I ask, young ladies, if this is your first visit to the +metropolis?" suddenly inquired Mrs. Mortlock. + +Primrose answered her "Yes; we have never been here before." + +"Then, Mrs. Flint, I put it to you, is it safe to allow these young +unfledged birds out into this vast and bewildering place? ought not +some one to chaperon them?" + +"We thought of asking for Poppy," answered Jasmine. + +Here Mrs. Flint frowned at her. + +"Allow me to make one request, Miss Jasmine Mainwaring; the young +person you speak of is not known here by a name which signifies a tare +or a weed. Yes, I shall be pleased to allow Sarah to go out with you +this afternoon for a short time, but she knows as little of London as +you do. I cannot go myself, as Friday is a busy afternoon. I can, +however, give you a map, and if you all keep close together and don't +wander too far, and are careful only to inquire of policemen your +destination you may get back safely. Don't forget, tea at six." + +Here Miss Slowcum, turning her eyes slowly, looked carefully all over +the three girls. + +"I am most particular," she said; "I never wander abroad without +carefully choosing my company, but on the whole I feel satisfied a +kindred spirit to my own lurks in your eyes, Miss Jasmine. Permit me, +young ladies, to escort you forth this afternoon." + +This offer was accepted very gladly, although Jasmine had quickly to +remember her fine, or she would have given a very deep sigh when Miss +Slowcum pointed a comparison between them. In the delight, however, of +going into real London all these minor considerations and discomforts +were forgotten. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. + + +Miss Slowcum was right in saying that she was very particular with +regard to her company. She prided herself on having select taste. She +thought it well to assume distant airs to the other inmates of +Penelope Mansion--Mrs. Dredge she thought quite beneath her notice, +Mrs. Mortlock was slightly more tolerated, but Miss Slowcum never +really unbent to either of these ladies. As she said to herself, she +could never forget that she came of the Slowcums of ----shire that her +father had been Captain Slowcum of the Royal Navy, and that, all +things considered, her true position in society was with the county +folk. What, therefore, could a lady of such patrician birth have in +common with a Mrs. Mortlock or a Mrs. Dredge? Alas! however, Miss +Slowcum was poor--she was very poor, and she was a great deal too +genteel to work. The terms at Penelope Mansion were by no means high, +and in order to live she was obliged to put up with uncongenial +company. She was a very tall and angular person--her face was long and +thin, her eyes small, her mouth undecided, but in her heart of hearts +she was by no means wanting in good nature; and when, the night +before, Jasmine, with her charming little face, offered her some of +the country flowers, she began to take an interest in the fresh girls +who had come to the rather antiquated house in Wright Street. + +It was really good-natured of Miss Slowcum to offer to accompany the +girls on their first walk in London. She had the greatest horror of +ever appearing remarkable and she felt really alarmed at the thought +of taking four unsophisticated country lasses abroad. It was bad +enough to offer to escort the Mainwarings, who, however _gauche_ they +might appear, were undoubtedly ladies, but to take Poppy, _alias_ +Sarah, as well, was really trying. Without Poppy, however, the girls +refused to stir. There was no help for it, and Miss Slowcum only +trusted that their first walk might be short and uneventful. + +"It is an unpleasant arrangement, but I do not see any help for it," +she said, addressing her little party as they assembled in the hall; +"we must sally forth as though we were a school. You, Miss Jasmine, +will have the goodness to walk in front with me. Miss Mainwaring and +her youngest sister can immediately follow us, and Sarah, you will +please to keep behind." + +"Oh, lor!" ejaculated Poppy, "I thought me and Miss Jasmine was to +stay together--it's what I has been looking forward to through all the +toils of the work, and the smuts and the Sarah Janes, and the Sarah +Marys this morning. It is another biting. Well, London seems to be +made up of them. All right, Miss Slowcum, I'll keep behind. I suppose +there's nobody to forbid me gazing well into the shop windows. I hope +you'll take us into a gay street, miss, where there are lots of new +bonnets and hats to be seen." + +"I'm going to walk with you, Poppy," said Jasmine; "Miss Slowcum is +very kind, but I should not think of walking with any one else. +Please, Miss Slowcum will you go in front, with Primrose and Daisy, +and Poppy and I will promise to behave very well behind." + +In this order the little party did set out, and in an incredibly short +space of time they left the dull region of Penelope Mansion far +behind, and found themselves in Oxford Street, and then in Bond +Street, and finally walking along Piccadilly towards the Park. + +Primrose could always restrain her emotions, but Jasmine and Poppy, +notwithstanding their promise to behave well, were certainly guilty of +many extravagant exclamations. Jasmine became nearly as excited over +the new bonnets as her companion. The picture-shops were marvels of +wonder and delight to her, and poor Miss Slowcum was obliged to draw +up short on many occasions, or she would have lost the little +loiterers, as they stood still to gaze. At last she made a proposition +which nearly took her own breath away with the magnitude of its +generosity. She would treat the entire party to a drive in the omnibus +to St. Paul's Cathedral. Poppy earnestly begged to be allowed to go +with Jasmine on the roof, but this the good lady negatived with +horror. She finally ushered her young charges into the seclusion of an +omnibus going citywards, and then was conscious of breathing a sigh of +relief. Inwardly she made a vow that never again should her +good-nature lead her into such a troublesome adventure. + +"We must be solemn here, Poppy," said Jasmine, as they were entering +the cathedral; "we must forget the beautiful bonnets, and those dear +little tight-fitting jackets, and those muslin dresses. We must forget +the little story we made up of imagining ourselves rich enough to buy +all these things. Perhaps we may think a very little of one or two of +the pictures, but we must forget the vanities now. It has always been +one of my dreams to come in here--oh! oh!--Poppy." Jasmine clasped her +companion's hand, and her excitable little face grew white--the +magnitude of the great cathedral, the solemn hush, and quiet, and +sense of rest after the rushing noise outside, was too much for +her--her eyes filled with tears, and she was very nearly guilty of +committing the offence which would have obliged her to learn some of +Butler's "Analogy" by heart. The rest of the party wandered about the +cathedral, and looked at the monuments, and presently went up into the +Whispering Gallery, but Jasmine felt suddenly tired and disinclined to +move about. + +"Go on with Daisy, Poppy," she said to her companion; "I will rest +here for a little;" then she seated herself on one of the chairs, and +in a moment or two went down on her knees and covered her childish +face with her hands. + +Not at all long was Jasmine's prayer, but somehow it was very fervent, +and it certainly reached a Presence which gives strength and peace. +She was no longer oppressed by St. Paul's--she was comforted and +strengthened. + +"I do hope God will help us," she said to herself. "Oh! was it very, +very rash of us to come up here?--and yet, what else could we do? It +was Primrose's thought, too, and she is always so wise, and so +grown-up." + +Jasmine looked round the cathedral, hoping to see her party--they +were, of course, nowhere within sight, and the little girl began to +walk about by herself, hoping soon to rejoin them. She dropped her +umbrella, and a gentleman who had been watching her for some time with +interest stooped to pick it up. He was a young man of about +six-and-twenty, with a bright and pleasant face. + +"This is your first visit here?" he said, looking kindly at the child. + +"Oh, yes," said Jasmine. Then feeling that she had a sympathetic +listener, she continued--"It is so beautiful here!" + +"Yes," answered her companion; then he added, with a second glance at +the forlorn little figure, "Are you alone, or have you lost your +party?" + +Jasmine half laughed. + +"I cannot find my party at the present moment," she said; "but I am by +no means alone--my two sisters have come here also to-day for the +first time, and a friend is with us, and a lady has very kindly +brought us here." + +"I see," said the stranger. "Well, it is a curious coincidence, but +neither am I alone--I have brought a little lad here to show him the +cathedral--he has gone into the Whispering Gallery, and I am waiting +for him. Perhaps your friends have also gone into the gallery. While +we are both waiting, shall we look round this delightful place? and +may I tell you a little of what I know about it?" + +It was in this manner, and apparently quite by accident, that Jasmine +made the acquaintance of Arthur Noel, who turned out to be one of the +best friends the girls were to make in London. Mr. Noel had taken a +fancy to Jasmine's sweet little face, and Jasmine, when she met with a +sympathetic listener, could be only too communicative. Before Miss +Slowcum and her sisters and Poppy joined them Mr. Noel knew something +of Jasmine's ambitions and of Primrose's modest hopes. Jasmine had +even confided to him the brave resolve the three sisters had made not +to sigh, or grumble, or wear themselves out with useless tears. He was +very kind, although he could not be persuaded to say that he thought +Primrose's scheme a wise one, but this chance encounter might never +have led to anything further but for a little coincidence which shows +what a small place the world is, after all. When Primrose and Daisy, +Poppy and the sedate Miss Slowcum, joined Jasmine, as she stood with +her companion examining Nelson's monument, they were accompanied by a +handsome, bright-faced boy, who ran up to Mr. Noel, and linked his +hand within his arm. This boy turned out to be young Frank Ellsworthy, +and, as the girls all exclaimed on hearing the name, Mr. Noel assured +them that the Ellsworthys were his greatest friends--that he loved +Mrs. Ellsworthy almost as if she were his own mother. + +"I felt that I must speak to you," he said to Jasmine. "I cannot tell +you why nor wherefore, but your face seemed familiar--I did not think +you would turn out to be an absolute stranger." + +Thus the girls made a very valuable acquaintance; nevertheless, owing +to circumstances, it was many a long day before they met Arthur Noel +again. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +A BRIGHT DAY. + + +Last times are always sad to write about and think about, but first +times are generally pleasant. Notwithstanding a certain sense of +disappointment which certainly did assail the three girls on their +entrance into London, notwithstanding the fact which Jasmine only too +quickly discovered, that the streets were not paved with gold, nor the +air replete with promises, yet there was still something left in that +same London air, a sort of mystery and wonder about it. There was +still something of untold fascination in the busy and crowded streets, +which brought a great sense of delight and exhilaration to the three +young adventurers. + +Jasmine spoke about the stories which met her at every turn; she felt +almost melted to tears at the sight of the sadness in the eyes of some +women, and some little children. But again, beautiful ladies driving +past in carriages made of almost fairy lightness caused her to laugh +with pleasure. + +Primrose was more gravely impressed by London than Jasmine. Her +emotions were not so keen as her younger sister's, her purpose was far +more steadfast; and even in the first few days when the girls gave +themselves up to seeing the wonderful sights of the great metropolis +she could never forget the real object for which they had come. + +Daisy, when she had become reconciled to the smuts and disagreeables, +and the slights to which the Pink was exposed all day long in Penelope +Mansion, began to enjoy life in a serene but unqualified manner. Each +of the girls had her own particular tastes; and these they were by no +means slow to express to one another. + +Primrose, who intended to study china painting--to make it, in short, +a profession--liked to stand opposite some large shop in Oxford +Street, and to study and try to carry away in her mind's eye the shape +and beauty of the many lovely things displayed in the windows. + +Jasmine, who during the first few days had quite made up her mind not +to worry at all about the future, did not much care for these gazing +fits of Primrose's. She wanted to get into the parks. She exclaimed in +ecstasy over the horses, and those picture-galleries which were free +to the public quite enchanted her. Daisy frankly admitted that she +liked toy-shops, and of all toy-shops those which displayed rows of +dolls in their windows the best. Primrose had decided that the three +should have one week's holiday, and it was during this week that they +began to make a certain first acquaintance with London. "It is the +heart of the world," Jasmine was heard to say. "Primrose, it is what +we pictured it; in many ways it is even greater than what we pictured +it. Oh, don't your cheeks glow, and don't you feel that your eyes are +shining when you look down Oxford Street? Yes, it is lovely and grand, +and I think we ought to show poor dear Poppy some more of its +delights." + +Primrose was only too glad to give Poppy all the happiness in her +power, and she and Jasmine arranged that they would take the little +girl out with them on another expedition before they settled down +finally to the great work of their lives. + +"We'll spend five shillings," said Primrose, "we must not on any +account spend more, but we will be extravagant, and give poor Poppy a +real treat with one crown piece." + +"We had better ask her to come to-morrow," said Daisy; "five shillings +seems a lot of money. Do you think there will be enough over, +Primrose, to buy me a tiny, tiny little doll?" + +Primrose kissed Daisy, and said she would try somehow to manage the +doll, and Jasmine was elected to go downstairs and sound Poppy on the +subject of the morrow's treat. + +The little maiden had made herself pretty well at home in the Mansion +by this time, and she soon discovered Poppy in what was called the +back scullery. The ladies had all finished their mid-day meal, and +were out. Even Mrs. Flint had sallied forth to a distant market to +secure some cheap provisions, and Poppy had the back scullery to +herself. She was handling the dinner-plates in a rather clumsy manner, +and, after the fashion of a discontented little girl, was sighing over +her work, and not doing it properly. + +"Oh, let me help you!" said Jasmine, dancing up to her: "I hate +washing china, or delf, or whatever you call it, after people have +eaten, but I like wiping it if the cloths are clean. Poppy, I have +come to you about a most delicious and important scheme." + +"Lor, Miss Jasmine," said Poppy, her fingers trembling violently, and +the large dish which she was washing nearly slipping out of them. +"Lor, miss, you do startle me. I was in the dumps, and you are for all +the world like the sun coming out. Why, deary me, the back scullery +ain't by no means such a bad sort of place when you're in it, Miss +Jasmine." + +"It is very damp and gloomy, all the same," answered Jasmine. "I do +hope you will be quick, Poppy, in washing up those uninteresting +dinner-plates. Now, look here, Primrose and Daisy and I have been +making up such a lovely plan. We want to take you out with us +to-morrow; we are going to spend five shillings, quite lots of money, +you know, and we are going to have dinner out, and perhaps tea out; +and we are going a good long way. Can you come with us to-morrow, +Poppy?" + +"Hold me," said Poppy, suddenly stretching out her hand, "the scullery +is damp and close, and my head a-going round. Let's get out into the +back yard, Miss Jasmine. Now I can breathe. Oh, didn't I say that +London was dazzling, and isn't it you three that has got the hearts of +gold. Say it all over again to me, please, Miss Jasmine. What is it +we're all a-going to do to-morrow?" + +"Oh, what a silly, Poppy, you are," said Jasmine; "why even I do not +get as excited as you do. We are going out, and you are coming with +us, and we are going to spend five shillings." + +Poppy's cheeks flushed a vivid crimson, her eyes sparkled, and her +small feet began involuntarily to dance. + +"I has set my heart on something beauteous," she said, "and, oh, dear, +Miss Jasmine, you will do it, won't you? You won't let none of them +biting disappointments with which the air is choke full, as full as it +is of smuts, come in the way. If you three darling ladies spend a +crown piece, and take me abroad, we'll be on pleasure bent, and on +pleasure alone. Say so, do, Miss Jasmine." + +"Why, Poppy, of course we are going for pleasure; what do you mean?" + +"Only that we won't be going Cathedraling and Towering. I don't say +nothing ag'in them places, but when I wants real pleasure, and a crown +piece spent on me, I don't go in for no Cathedraling." + +Jasmine laughed. "I tell you what," she said, "you shall choose the +pleasure yourself, Poppy. It's your treat, and you shall choose. Now, +do say what hour you will be ready to start to-morrow, for we want to +go early, and have a real long day." + +"Let's think," said Poppy. "To-morrow is, yes, to-morrow is Thursday. +Cold joint to-morrow, and a salad made with stale lettuce which we +gets cheap; potatoes boiled plain and not mashed, and a apple dumpling +to follow. The ladies is very particular that their pastry should be +light. Miss Slowcum says she can't sleep a bit at night if her pastry +is heavy. She called me Sarah Martha Ann the last time I made it, and +she looked most vinegary. Yes, Miss Jasmine, the dinner's plain +to-morrow, and I'll get up with the daybreak, and do my cleaning. I +don't see why Aunt Flint shouldn't let me go with you, miss." + +Mrs. Flint, when properly attacked, proved herself quite vulnerable. +She was anxious to please the Mainwarings who she hoped would take up +their abode with her, for naughty Primrose had by no means divulged +her real plans. Accordingly, Poppy was allowed to get her dinner +beforehand, and a very happy little quartet left the Mansion soon +after eleven o'clock. + +They had gone some little distance from Penelope Mansion, and found +themselves in a far more cheerful and bright-looking street, before +Poppy divulged her plans. + +"I has got to choose," she said, "and as I stated distinct to Miss +Jasmine yesterday, I don't go in for the glooms of the Tower, nor the +solemns of the Cathedral. I'd like to walk from end to end of Oxford +Street first, and then I'd like to take a penny boat on the river." + +"A penny boat!" exclaimed the three sisters in a breath, "that does +sound delightful, and so cheap. Where did you hear of penny boats, +Poppy?" + +Poppy's face became radiant. + +"It was the last charwoman at the Mansion," she answered. "She said +that if you wanted a pleasure, and a pleasure cheap, there was nothing +in all the world like a penny boat. You sit in it, and there you are, +as snug as snug; plenty of room and plenty of company, and plenty of +sights. Mrs. Jones said that if there was a pleasure to rest a +tired charwoman it was to be found in a penny boat." + +"Well, we are not charwomen, but we may as well have a little rest and +fun while we can," answered Jasmine. "I think yours is a lovely treat, +dear Poppy, and we will try and get into the penny boat as fast as +possible." + +"I don't know how we are to reach the boats," said Primrose. "I begin +to know my way a little about Oxford Street, but how are we to find +the river?" + +Poppy, however, had made good use of her acquaintance with Mrs. Jones +the charwoman. She knew the name as well as the color of the omnibus +which would safely convey them near to the pier at Westminster. She +also knew, being instructed by Mrs. Jones, that a policeman was the +right person to give her information as to where this special omnibus +was to be found. She was by no means shy in making her desires known +to one of these useful and worthy members of society, and in a short +time the four found themselves bowling away in the direction of +Westminster, and then, without any insurmountable difficulty, secured +comfortable seats on one of the river steamers. + +The day was perfect, neither too hot nor too cold, and the summer +breezes fanned the young cheeks pleasantly, and raised the youthful +spirits to an exhilarating height. Poppy forgot her troubles in +Penelope Mansion, her difficulties with regard to the name of Sarah. +She forgot the gloom of the back scullery, and the discontented frown +quite vanished from her brow. London was again dazzling in her eyes, +and her own future was replete with hope. + +Primrose also ceased to worry over the anxieties and cares of the +future; she ceased to reflect on the plan which was so soon to be +carried into execution. Her serene face looked sweet and careless as +in the happy days of her mother's lifetime. She leaned back in her +seat, gazed at the beauties of the river, and gave herself up to the +happiness of the hour. + +The two younger girls, being never over anxious and being always more +or less full of hope, were to-day only more hopeful and bright than +usual. Many people turned to look at the pretty sisters, and to laugh +at Poppy's innocent expressions of rapture. + +They landed at Battersea, and wandered about the pretty park, and had +refreshments in a quaint restaurant, where they really managed to +satisfy their hunger at a very moderate charge. + +That evening they returned to the Mansion, having kept within the +limits of the prescribed five shillings, and each of them declaring +that she had never known a happier day. + +"But now," said Primrose, addressing her two sisters solemnly, "we +must remember that after to-night we have done with pleasure. +To-morrow we must seriously set about forming our plans." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +GETTING LOST. + + +Primrose's scheme had, of course, been considered most wild and most +foolish by all her friends at Rosebury but even they were not prepared +for her crowning act of folly. She, Jasmine and Daisy had a +consultation together. This consultation was really nothing but a +matter of form, for Primrose, quiet as she appeared could lead her two +sisters as she willed--her slightest word was law to them, and the +most outrageous plan proposed by her would have been delightful in +their eyes. Her suggestion to them was as follows: + +"We will go to London," she said--"we will try to be independent, and +to earn our own living, and in order to do so really, and to prevent +ourselves being tempted by Mrs. Ellsworthy's riches, or by Miss +Martineau's advice, we will not give our address. We will stay for a +short time at Penelope Mansion, and then we will go away. We will find +those nice, clean, cheap lodgings, where we can hang up our muslin +curtains, and keep things lovely and fresh, even though we are in +London, and we will stay there without troubling our friends about us +until we have succeeded. The moment we have succeeded in earning +enough to live on we will write home." + +Jasmine, and of course little Daisy, approved of this idea--Jasmine +said it was both romantic and strong--Daisy said she only wanted to be +with her own Primrose and her own Jasmine, and if the Pink might +always stay with her too she would be quite happy. + +Accordingly, when the girls' week of pleasure had quite come to an +end, Primrose reminded her sisters that it was time for them to begin +to get lost. + +"We are not really lost here," she said. "Mrs. Ellsworthy thinks +nothing of coming to town, and she could come to us at the Mansion any +moment; and now that we have met that friend of hers, that Mr. Noel, +she may be sending him to see about us--so you see it is more +important than ever that we should find a place where we can really +commence our work." + +"I don't dislike Mr. Noel at all," said Jasmine. "It is a great pity +he is related to our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy, for we might have had +the comfort of his advice without being considered dependent. Oh, +Primrose! is it possible that we are too independent--I can't help it, +Primrose; I do feel lonely. I must cry just for a minute. I'd rather +do a page of the 'Analogy' to-night than not cry for a minute." + +"My darling," said Primrose, putting her arms round Jasmine, "I am +sure that girls like us cannot be too independent, but I won't go on +with it if it really breaks your heart, Jasmine." + +"Oh, but it doesn't really," said Jasmine; "I think it's a noble plan; +I wouldn't give in for the world. I have had my cry now, and I'm +better--but, Rose, how are we to look out for these nice, clean, cheap +lodgings if we aren't to consult any one?" + +"We can consult people, and find out the locality we want, but we need +never tell the people we consult what number in the street we really +choose. Oh, there are lots of ways of finding out what we really want +to know." + +"I'll talk to Mrs. Dredge to-night," said Jasmine. "I think Mrs. +Dredge is very practical and kind, and I don't know why Miss Slowcum +should dislike her so much. I'll get her all by myself this evening, +and talk to her." + +Accordingly that evening, after the inmates of Penelope Mansion had, +as Mrs. Flint styled it, "tea'd," Jasmine sat down on a footstool at +Mrs. Dredge's feet, and laid herself out to be bewitching. No one +could be more charming than this little maiden when she chose, and she +had tact enough to adapt herself on most occasions to her company. + +"I'm sure you have lots of experience, Mrs. Dredge," she began; "you +look as if you had--your face tells me that you have gone through many +episodes"--(Jasmine was rather proud of this expression; she began to +consider that her style was forming). + +"Episodes, my dear, and experiences?" answered Mrs. Dredge. "Well, +well, I'm not to say over young, and years bring knowledge; but if you +mean, Miss Jasmine, that I'm up to the acquirements of the present +day, that I'm not, and I never will be,--no, thank Heaven! that I +never will be." + +"Do you mean with regard to education?" remarked Jasmine. "Is the +education of the present day wrong?--is that why you're so thankful +you are not up to it?" + +"My dear Miss Jasmine," answered Mrs. Dredge, with great solemnity, +"the education of the present day is to the heart hardening, and to +the mind demoralizing. No, no; none of it for me. Miss Slowcum, now! +Miss Jasmine, between you and me I don't admire Miss Slowcum." + +"Oh, she's very kind," answered Jasmine; "but look here, Mrs. Dredge, +what I want to consult you about has nothing at all to say to +education, and it has a great deal to say to experience. It's a great +secret, Mrs. Dredge, but we want to find cheap lodgings." + +"Oh, my dear! and don't you want to abide at the Mansion--all things +considered, it's a respectable and safe quarter--you are all three +young and attractive, my dears, and you have the advantage of being +guarded here by women who have years on their shoulders. Yes, my dear +Miss Jasmine, with the exception of your three selves and the maid +Sarah, there is no one in Penelope Mansion who will ever see fifty +again. Don't talk to me of Miss Slowcum being younger than that--I +know better." + +"Dear Mrs. Dredge, it is a secret, but we are really not going to stay +here long, and we want, if possible, to find very cheap lodgings." + +"Very cheap, love; and you think I can guide you? Well, well, I have +had, as you wisely say, my experiences. About what figure would you be +inclined to go to, my dear?" + +"I don't know," answered Jasmine. "Our house in the country was twelve +pounds a year--I don't think we ought to pay as much as that, for of +course we should not want a whole house, only two rooms. A nice, +large, airy bedroom, and a cheerful sitting-room. We should not mind +how plain the furniture was, if only it was very, very clean. You know +the kind of place, with snow-white boards--the sort of boards you +could eat off--and little plain beds with dimity frills round them, +and very white muslin blinds to the windows--we have got our own white +muslin curtains; Hannah washed them for us, and they are as white as +snow. Oh! the place we want might be very humble, and very +inexpensive. Do tell us if you know of any rooms that would suit us." + +While Jasmine was speaking Mrs. Dredge kept on gazing at her, her +round face growing long, and her full blue eyes becoming extended to +their largest size. + +"My dear child," she said, "wherever were you brought up? Don't you +know that the kind of lodgings you want are just the hardest of all to +get? Yes, my dear, I have experience in London apartments, and about +them, and with regard to them, there is one invariable and unbroken +rule--cheapness and dirt--expense and cleanliness. Bless you! you +innocent child, you had better give up the notion of the cheap +lodgings, and stay on contented and happy at the Mansion." + +Jasmine smiled faintly--said "Thank you, Mrs. Dredge," in a pretty +gentle voice, and a moment or two later, with a deeper carnation than +usual in her cheeks, she quietly left the room. + +"Primrose," she said upstairs to her sister, "we mustn't ask advice +about our lodgings; we must take the map with us, and go and look for +them all by ourselves. Mrs. Dredge says that clean lodgings are very, +very dear, and it is only dirty lodgings that are cheap." + +When Jasmine ran into the room Primrose was standing by the +dressing-table, and in her usual methodical fashion was putting tidily +away her own things and her sisters'; now she faced Jasmine with a +little smile on her face. + +"There is just one thing," she said, "that we can do--we can with our +own hands make the dirty lodgings clean. Never mind, Jasmine darling, +we won't ask anybody's advice; we'll go out and look round us +to-morrow." + +Early the next morning the three sisters set out--Daisy having first +locked the Pink in their room. It may be remarked in parenthesis that +the Pink did not like her new quarters, and had already made herself +notorious by breaking two saucers and a cup, by upsetting a basin of +milk, and by disappearing with the leg of a chicken. In consequence, +she was in great disgrace, and Mrs. Flint had been heard to speak of +her as "that odious cat!" The Pink, however, was safe for the present, +and the girls set out on their little pilgrimage of discovery. + +"London," said Primrose, in a somewhat sententious voice, has "points +of the compass, like any other place. It has its north and its south, +its east and its west. The west, I have been told, is the aristocratic +and expensive quarter, so of course we won't go there. In the east, +the miserably poor and dirty people live--we won't trouble +them--therefore our choice must lie between the south and the north. +On the whole, I am inclined to try the north side of London." + + "For dark and true and tender is the North," + +quoted Jasmine with enthusiasm. "By all means, Rose, we will go +northwards, but how shall we go?" + +"We'll inquire at the post-office just round this corner," answered +Primrose, with decision. + +Accordingly, having received some rather lucid instructions the girls +found themselves in a few moments in an omnibus going towards +Holloway. About noon they were landed there, and then their search +began. Oh, the weariness of that long day! Oh, the painful experience +of the three! They knew nothing about London prices--they had not an +idea whether they were being imposed upon or not. + +"On one point we have quite made up our minds," said Jasmine, +sturdily; "we won't go back to the Mansion until we have found rooms." + +The truth of Mrs. Dredge's prophecy became only too apparent. All the +apartments that were bright and clean and cheery were quite too +expensive for Primrose's slender purse. At last she came to a +resolution. + +"Girls," she said, "we must take rooms that look dirty, and make them +clean. We have at least been taught how to polish, and how to scrub, +and how to clean. You know, Jasmine, how shocked Miss Martineau was +when she saw you one day with a pair of gloves on down on your knees +polishing the drawing-room grate at Rosebury. You said you liked to do +it. How distressed she was! and how that grate did shine!" + +"Don't let us talk about Rosebury just now," said Jasmine, with a +quiver in her voice. "Yes, Primrose darling, of course we can make our +own rooms clean--we can even re-paper the walls, and we can whitewash +the ceilings. Now we know exactly what to do. At the very next house +where we see 'Apartments to Let,' we'll ask for dirty rooms, then of +course we'll get them cheap." + +"Those attics that we saw at that last house?" questioned Primrose, +thoughtfully. "They were rather large, and not very dark. If we took +down that paper, and put up a fresh one, and if we whitened the +ceilings and scrubbed the floors, why, those rooms might do. They were +not very expensive for London--only twelve shillings a week." + +"A frightful rent!" said Jasmine. "No wonder the people here look +careworn, and pinched, and old. We'll go back to that house, Primrose. +On the whole, the rooms may suit us. What is the landlady's name?--Oh, +Mrs. Dove. We'll go back to Mrs. Dove and take her rooms." + +Accordingly, in a funny little street off the Junction Road, the three +Mainwaring girls found a nest. It was a queer nest, up at the top of a +tall and rambling house; but Mrs. Dove appeared good-natured, and had +no objection to the young ladies doing their own papering and +white-washing, and as Primrose took the rooms on the spot, and paid +a week's rent in advance, she became quite gracious. Every morning, +as soon as ever breakfast was over at Penelope Mansion, the girls +started off to the new home they were preparing for themselves. +There they worked hard, papering, white-washing, and, finally, even +painting. By the end of a week Mrs. Dove scarcely knew her attic +apartments--elegant she now called them--a charming suite. The +enthusiasm of the three young workers even infected Mrs. Dove, who +condescended to clean the windows, and to rub up the shabby furniture, +so that when, at the end of the week, the attics were ready for +occupation, they were by no means so unlike Jasmine's ideal London +rooms as might have been expected. The girls kept their own counsel, +and during the week they were preparing for their flight to Eden +Street--for No. 10 Eden Street would be their future address--they +told no one at Penelope Mansion of their little plans. The good ladies +of the Mansion, Mrs. Flint excepted, were very curious about them; +they wondered why the girls disappeared every day immediately after +breakfast, and came back looking hot and tired, and yet with bright +and contented faces, at night; but Jasmine had ceased to confide in +Mrs. Dredge; and Primrose, when she chose to be dignified, had quite +power enough to keep even Miss Slowcum at a distance. Mrs. Mortlock, +who was stout, and rich, and good-tempered, tried the effect of a +little bribery on Daisy, but the sweet, staunch little maid would not +be corrupted. + +"Oh, thank you so much for those delicious chocolate creams," she +said. "Yes, I _do_ love chocolate creams, and you are so kind to give +them to me. Where do we spend our day?--but that is Primrose's +secret--you would not have me so naughty as to tell!" + +So the week drew to an end, and the nest, as the girls called their +rooms, was finally ready for its inmates. The snowy-white muslin +curtains were really put up to the now clean windows--the walls, +covered with a delicate paper, had a soft, rosy glow about them--some +of the pretty home ornaments were judiciously scattered about, and the +rather small bedroom had three very small, but very white, little +beds in it. + +"We'll go in for lots of flowers, you know," said Jasmine. "I don't +suppose even in London flowers are very dear." + +At last there came a morning when the girls went away from Penelope +Mansion as usual, and only Mrs. Flint and Poppy knew that they were +not returning in the evening. Mrs. Flint felt rather indignant with +the young ladies for deserting her--not that she said anything for she +always made it a rule not to wear herself out with unnecessary words, +or with fretting, or with undue excitement; nevertheless, on this +occasion she was a little indignant, for surely, what place could +compare with the Mansion? Poor Poppy bade the young ladies, whom she +loved, good-bye with an almost breaking heart. + +"It's all one, Miss Jasmine," she exclaimed; "if it was my dying +breath, I'd have to own that London is not what we pictered +it--vanities there is, and troubles there is, and disappointments most +numerous and most biting. But for the one happy day I spent out with +you dear young ladies, I hasn't known no happiness in London. Oh, Miss +Jasmine," drawing up short and looking her young lady full in the +face--"what dreadful lies them novels tells! I read them afore I came, +and I made up such wonderful picters; but I will own that what with +the ladies in this mansion, as worrit me almost past bearing, and what +with you going away all secret like, and what with me being no longer +Poppy the tare, but Sarah Jane the drudge, even if I was to get one of +the bonnets that they show in the shop windows in Bond Street, why, it +wouldn't draw a smile from me Miss Jasmine!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +HOW TO PAINT CHINA AND HOW TO FORM STYLE. + + +Mrs. Dove had a great many lodgers--she let rooms on each of her +floors, and she called her lodgers by the name of the floor they +occupied--first floor, second floor, third floor came and went to 10, +Eden Street. The girls were known as "the attics," and Jasmine felt +very indignant at the name. + +"It's almost as bad as being a tare," she said to Primrose. "Dear, +dear! I never thought I should turn into an attic! What an unpleasant +place London is! I begin to think Poppy is quite right in what she +says of it." + +"I begin to suspect," said Primrose, "that London, like all places, +has its shady side and its bright side. We are in the shady side at +present, dear Jasmine--that is all." + +Mrs. Dove had not only lodgers who seemed to worry her from morning to +night--for, unlike her name, she was always fretting or scolding +somebody--but she also had a husband, and this husband made his +presence felt by every lodger in the house. He was often away for a +whole week at a time, and then comparative peace reigned in No. 10; +but he would come back at unexpected moments--he would enter the +house, singing out, in a loud rasping voice-- + + "Mrs. Dove, + My only love!" + +And then poor Mrs. Dove would get flushed and uncomfortable and lose +what little self-possession she ever had, and would own in confidence +to the first floor, or the second floor, or the attics, just as they +happened to be present, that Mr. Dove's honeyed phrases were only +words after all, and meant quite the contrary. + +The girls were not a week at No. 10, Eden Street, before it became +very apparent to them that there was little of the real Eden to be +found in the place. They kept themselves, however, quite apart from +the other lodgers; they began to get out their books and their +employments, and what with housekeeping, and what with cleaning their +rooms, and going out for long rambling walks in all directions, they +were busy from morning to night. Primrose said they would spend a +fortnight in the attics, and then the education which was by-and-by to +lead to bread-winning must commence. Never did three more ignorant +girls gird themselves for the fray. Primrose had a natural love for +painting. She had none of the knowledge, none of the grounding, which +is essential for real success in all departments of art in the present +day; but she had a quick and correct eye for color, and all that Miss +Martineau knew she had imparted to her. Primrose looked in at the shop +windows, and saw the lovely painted china, and resolved to take +lessons in this art. After some little difficulty, and after +questioning first Mrs. Dove, and finally the much-dreaded Mr. Dove, +she was directed to a teacher, who promised to instruct her at the +rate of three pounds three shillings for twelve lessons. Primrose did +not know whether her teacher was good or bad, or whether she was +paying too much or too little--she resolved to take the lessons and to +spend some of her little capital in buying the necessary materials. + +"After I've had my twelve lessons Mr. Jones thinks I may begin to +offer some of my plates and things for sale; he says he will be very +glad to put them up in his own shop window. He thinks," continued +Primrose with her sweet, grave smile, "that I may be able to recoup +myself for the expense of learning at the end of a few months." + +"And now," said Jasmine, "what am I to do? It's all settled for you, +Primrose--you will be an artist--and you shall paint a breakfast set +for our nest in your odd moments, and I'll buy it from you when my +ship comes home. Oh! and we are both going to be very successful, are +we not, darling? and we won't have any trouble at all in supporting +our pet Daisy and her kitty-cat. You know, Primrose, my gifts lie in +the poetic and novelistic line. I have really thought of a glowing +plot for a story since I came to London, and Mr. Dove is to be the +ruffian of the piece. I'll introduce Mrs. Dredge and poor Miss Slowcum +too, and, of course, you'll be the heroine, my beautiful sister. I +mean to buy some paper, and work away at my novel in the evenings next +week; but as we have come up to London expressly to have our education +perfected, and our gifts developed, don't you think I ought to be +having some lessons in English style? After all, Primrose, I do not +think Mrs. Flint's way of speaking was correct. Arthur Noel did not +talk in the least like her, nor did dear Mrs. Ellsworthy; and after +all, they are a real lady and gentleman. I wonder, Primrose, who would +teach me proper style. I wish I could meet Arthur Noel again, that he +might tell me!" + +"Oh, Jasmine, it is dreadful of you to speak of a perfect stranger by +his Christian name! Don't do it, dear--I know it is not right." + +"He did not seem the least like a stranger," said Jasmine, pushing +back her curling locks. "Well, Rose, who is to teach me style?--you +see, if I am to earn money by my pen I must be polished up. I have got +a poem now in the back of my head which would exactly suit the ---- +_Review_. It's almost exactly on the lines of one they published not +long ago by Tennyson; but I'd rather not send it until I've had a +lesson or two from some gifted person here--who shall I go to, +Primrose?" + +"You must go to a school, of course," answered Primrose. "There is a +seminary for young ladies just round the corner--we will call there +this afternoon, and find out if the lady can give you lessons." + +Miss Egerton, the principal of the seminary in question, opened her +eyes a good deal at Jasmine's modest request. + +"I don't want French, nor German, nor music," quoth the young lady, +"but I do want to be helped to make very smooth and flowing verses, +and I want to have the plots of my novels cut up and criticised--for I +don't mind telling you," continued Jasmine, looking full into Miss +Egerton's deeply-lined and anxious face, "that I mean to live by my +pen. My sister is to be an artist, and I am to be a novelist and +poet." + +Miss Egerton owned to herself afterwards that she had never met such +extraordinary girls; but then they were so pretty, and so fresh, and +the times were hard, and the High Schools were carrying off all her +pupils, so though she knew little or nothing of making up verses or +developing plots, she promised to receive Jasmine as a pupil, to +direct her reading, and to help her to the best of her ability. She +was a good and kind-hearted woman, and she made a further suggestion. + +"What is to become of your little sister while you are both so busy, +young ladies?" she said. + +"Oh, Daisy promises to be very good," said Primrose with a tender +smile at the little one. "Daisy will stay at home, and take care of +the Pink, and she is learning to sew very nicely. When Daisy is good +and stays quietly at home she helps our plan, and does as much for our +cause as any of us." + +Miss Egerton looked straight into Daisy's eyes. Long ago this dry and +hard-looking old maid had a little sister like Daisy--a pretty little +lass, who went away to play in the heavenly gardens many and many a +year ago. For the sake of little Constance Miss Egerton felt a great +kindness welling up in her heart towards Daisy Mainwaring. + +"Your little sister must not stay at home by herself," she said. "She +shall come to me. While I am teaching Miss Jasmine, Daisy can play or +work as she pleases, only not by herself in your lodgings, young +ladies, but in the room with her sister." + +So it was arranged, and the three girls might fairly have been said to +commence their work. + +When Primrose had gone to Mr. Danesfield and asked him to allow her to +draw their little capital out of his bank, he had made wonderfully +few objections. Of all their friends, he was the one who had opposed +Primrose's scheme the least, and perhaps for that reason she was more +willing to take his advice, and to be guided by him, than by either +Mrs. Ellsworthy or Miss Martineau. Mr. Danesfield had said to her: "My +dear, you and your sisters are in some particulars in a very unique +and unfortunate position. You are all three very young, yet you are +absolutely your own mistresses. No one in all the world has any real +control over you. If you ask me for your money, I cannot refuse you--I +have absolutely no choice in the matter; the money is yours, and when +you want it you must have it. Now I tell you plainly that Mrs. +Ellsworthy and Miss Martineau are dreadfully shocked with your scheme. +I may be wrong, but I confess I am not shocked. I fancy that you are +the kind of girls who will come out victorious, and that though you +will have rather a hard struggle, you will not be beaten; but there is +one thing I am most anxious to do for you, and that is to keep part of +your money. You have exactly two hundred pounds. How much of this +little capital do you propose to spend a year?" + +"As little as ever we can," answered Primrose. + +"Yes, my dear young lady, but you must have some sort of idea with +regard to your expenses. I would counsel you on no account to spend +more of your capital than seventy pounds a year; by restricting +yourselves to this sum you will have a very tiny but certain, income +for two years, and will have something to fall back on even in the +third year, if you are not then earning enough. Suppose I divide your +seventy pounds into four quarterly instalments, and send it to you as +you require it. You know nothing of keeping a banking account +yourself, and it will absolutely not be safe for you to live in London +lodgings, and have a large sum of money with you. Take my advice in +this particular, Miss Primrose, and allow me still to be your banker." + +"There is one little difficulty," said Primrose; "we really want to be +independent, and as we know that there will be difficulties and +discouragements in the career we are marking out for ourselves, and +that we may often grow faint-hearted and lonely, Jasmine and I feel +that we had better put ourselves quite out of the way of temptation. +We have, therefore, made up our minds not to give our address to any +one in Rosebury for at least two years. How can you send us the money, +Mr. Danesfield, if you don't know where to send it?" + +"My dear young lady, I fear you are a little bit too headstrong, and +though I admire your spirit, I cannot quite approve of your cutting +yourselves off from all communications with your friends. However, it +is not for me to interfere. Will this satisfy you, Miss +Primrose?--shall I give you my solemn promise only to use the address +with which you favor me to forward your money each quarter, and never +to divulge your secret to anybody else?" + +Finally this plan was adopted, and Primrose received her small +quarterly allowance with great regularity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +CROSS PURPOSES. + + +After his interview with Jasmine in St. Paul's Cathedral, Arthur Noel +went home to his very luxurious chambers in Westminster, and wrote the +following letter to Mrs. Ellsworthy:-- + +"MY DEAR MOTHER-FRIEND, + +"The most curious thing has happened. I came accidentally to-day +across the three girls about whom you were so interested. I met them +at St. Paul's, and could not help speaking to the second one. The +brightness, and yet the melancholy, of her little face attracted my +attention. She was not with the rest of her party, but sat for some of +the time on one of the chairs, and then knelt down and covered her +face. Poor little soul! I think she was crying. My sympathies were +roused by her, and I spoke. She flashed up a very bright glance at me, +and we became friends on the spot. I took her about the cathedral, and +showed her one or two objects of interest. She was full of +intelligence. Then her sisters joined her, and your boy came up, and, +of course, his name came out; and there was confusion and wondering +glances, and the girl whom I had spoken to turned first crimson, and +then white, and her dark grey eyes became full of tears. 'I know the +Ellsworthys; they are my dear, dear friends!' she exclaimed. + +"I found out where the three lived before I left them. They were +accompanied by a prim-looking maiden lady, who was introduced to me as +a Miss Slowcum, and who appeared to be taking excellent care of the +pretty creatures. All three are delightful, and I have lost my heart +to them all. + +"Can I do anything for them? Of course you have already told me what +perverse creatures they are, and Miss Jasmine confirmed your story, +only, of course, she put her own coloring on it. I pity them, and yet, +to a certain extent--forgive me, mother-friend--I admire their spirit. +That eldest girl had a look about her face which will certainly keep +every one from being rude to her. Such an expression of innocence and +dignity combined I have seldom come across. Now, can I help them? It +is an extraordinary thing, but I have a wonderful fellow-feeling for +them. I can never forget the old days when I too was alone in London, +and you took me up. Do you remember how you met me, and took my thin +and dirty hands in yours, and looked into my face and said: 'Surely +this is a gentleman's son, although he is clothed in rags?' I could +just remember that I was a gentleman's son, and that I used to put my +arms round a beautiful lady's neck and kiss her, and call her mother. +Between her face and me there was a great horror of darkness, and +suffering, and ill-usage; and my memories were feeble and dream-like. +I don't even now recall them more vividly. You took me up, and--you +know the rest of my history. + +"Well, it is a strange thing, but those girls, especially that little +Jasmine, brought back the memory of the lady whose sweet face I used +to kiss. Can I do anything for your girls? There are a thousand ways +in which I could help them without hurting their proud spirits. + + "Yours affectionately, + "ARTHUR NOEL." + +In a very short time Mr. Noel received a brief communication from Mrs. +Ellsworthy:-- + +MY DEAR ARTHUR, + +"Your letter has been an untold relief. It was a special and good +Providence that directed your steps to St. Paul's on that afternoon. +My dear little Jasmine!--she is my pet of all the three. My dear +Arthur, pray call on the girls at that dreadful Penelope Mansion; they +are so naughty and so obstinate that they simply must be caught by +guile. You must use your influence to get them out of that dreadful +place. Look for respectable and nice lodgings, and go beforehand to +the landlady. If she is very nice, confide in her, and tell her she is +to look to me for payment, but she is on no account to let out this +fact to the girls. Kensington is a nice, quiet, respectable +neighborhood; you might take the drawing-room floor of a very quiet, +nice house, and ask the landlady to offer it to the girls for five +shillings a week, or something nominal of that sort. Primrose is so +innocent at present that she will think five shillings quite a large +sum; but tell the lady of the house to let it include all extras--I +mean such as gas and firing. I suppose you could not get a house with +the electric light?--no, of course not; it is not used yet in private +dwellings--gas is so unwholesome, but the girls might use candles. +Tell the landlady to provide them with the best candles, and tell her +I'll pay her something handsome if she'll go out with them. And, my +dear Arthur, _don't_ let them go in omnibuses. Do your best, and, +above all things, take them away from that awful mansion as soon as +possible. + + "Your affectionate Mother-Friend, + "KATE ELLSWORTHY." + +But alas! when Arthur Noel, in accordance with Mrs. Ellsworthy's +instructions, went to see the girls, he was confronted first by Mrs. +Flint, who assured him in her soft and cushion-like style that the +young ladies had left, and as they had been undutiful enough not to +confide in her she could furnish him with no address. As he was +leaving the mansion Poppy Jenkins rushed up to him. + +"I heard you asking for my young ladies, sir, but it ain't no use, for +they're gone. Flowers of beauty they was--beautiful in manner and in +face--but they ain't to be found here no more. The Mansion didn't suit +them, and the people in the Mansion didn't suit them, and that isn't +to be wondered at. I suppose they has gone to a more congenial place, +but the address is hid from me; no, sir, I know nothing at all about +them. Yes, sir, it's quite true--I misses them most bitter!" + +Here poor Poppy, covering her face with her hands, burst into tears +and disappeared down the back staircase. + +Noel wrote to Mrs. Ellsworthy, and Mrs. Ellsworthy wrote back to him, +and between them they made many inquiries, and took many steps, which +they felt quite sure must lead to discovery, but notwithstanding all +their efforts they obtained no clue to the whereabouts of the +Mainwaring girls. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +DARK DAYS. + + +"How bitterly cold it is, Primrose!" + +The speaker was Jasmine; she sat huddled up to a small, but bright +fire, which burned in the sitting-room grate. + +The girls had now been several months in Eden Street, and all the +summer weather and the summer flowers had departed, and the evening in +question was a very dull and foggy one in late November. + +The little sitting-room still wore its rose-tinted paper, but the +white curtains at the windows had assumed a decided and permanent tint +of yellow, and the fog found its way in through the badly-fitting +attic windows, and made the whole room look cloudy. The girls' faces, +too, had altered with the months. Jasmine had lost a good deal of her +vivacity, her expression was slightly fretful, and she no longer +looked the spruce and sparkling little lass who had gone away from +Rosebury in the summer. Primrose had lost the faint color which used +to tinge her cheeks; they were now almost too white for beauty, but +her eyes were still clear, calm, and sweet; her dress was still the +essence of simplicity and neatness, and her bearing was gentle and +dignified as of old. The alteration in Daisy was less apparent at this +moment, for she was stretched on two cushions in one corner of the +sitting-room, and with a warm rug thrown over her, and with the Pink +curled up in her arms, was fast asleep. + +"How cold it is, Primrose," repeated Jasmine; then, as her sister made +no reply, but went on calmly darning some stockings, she continued, "I +think you have really grown stingy. Why can't we have some more coal? +this is much too small a fire for weather with snow on the ground, and +a horrid, odious fog filling every corner." + +"Hush!" said Primrose, laying down her work, and stooping towards her +younger sister, who sat on the hearthrug, "I am keeping the coal to +put on until Daisy wakes. You know, Jasmine, we resolved not to run up +any bills, and I cannot get in any coal until Mr. Danesfield sends us +our next quarter's allowance--wrap my fur cloak round you, darling, +and then you will be quite warm." + +Jasmine shivered, but rising slowly, she went into the bedroom, and +returned in a moment, not with the fur cloak, but with a white woolly +shawl. "The day for Mr. Danesfield's money will arrive in less than a +week," she said. "Oh, Primrose! I thought you were going to be a good +manager; I did not think you were going to bring us to this." + +Primrose smiled. + +"Jasmine, dear," she said, "you are not quite brave to-night, or you +would not speak to me in that tone. You forget that we should not have +been short of money had not that five-pound note been stolen from us. +When Mr. Danesfield's allowance comes in we shall be able to go on as +usual, and then you need not suffer from a short allowance of fire. +Jasmine, I know what is the matter with you; you did not eat half +enough dinner to-day. When I was out this afternoon I called to see +Miss Egerton, and she gave me three delicious new-laid eggs--really +new-laid--we'll have them for supper." + +"No, we won't," said Jasmine, her eyes suddenly filling with tears, +and her pettish mood changing to a tender and very sad one--"those +eggs were given for Daisy, and no one else shall eat them. Do you +know, Primrose, that Miss Egerton does not think Daisy at all strong?" + +"Oh, she is mistaken," said Primrose. "No one who does not know her +thinks Daisy strong; she has a fragile look, but it is only her look. +All my courage would go if I thought Daisy were ill--she is not ill; +look at her now, what a sweet color she has on her cheeks." + +"Miss Egerton says she is like a little sister of her own," continued +Jasmine. Then she stopped suddenly. "Oh! Primrose, you are not going +to cry? oh, don't; it would be dreadful if you gave way! No, Primrose, +she is not like little Constance Egerton; she is just our own Daisy, +who never looks strong, but who is very strong--she shall never be +cold, and she shall have all the nourishment--you and I don't mind how +plainly we live, do we, Queen Rose?" + +Primrose had quickly wiped away her sudden tears. She rose to her +feet, and, going up to Jasmine, gave her a hasty kiss. + +"We'll remember our good old resolution," she said brightly, "not to +grumble, not to fret, not to cry. Ah! here is our dear little birdie +waking from her sleep. Now, Jasmine on with the coals, and let us have +a merry blaze while I see to the supper--porridge for you and me, and +a nice fresh egg and a cup of warm milk for the Daisy-flower." + +"The Pink must have some milk too," said Daisy, as she tumbled lazily +out of her soft nest of cushions; "the Pink isn't half as fat as she +used to be--I can feel all the bones down her spine--I know she wants +cream. Oh, Primrose! I had such a darling dream--I thought the Prince +came and found us!" + +"The Prince, Daisy?" + +"Yes; and he had the look of the gentleman we met long, long, long ago +at St. Paul's Cathedral! Oh, Primrose, I'm so tired of London!" + +"Never mind, darling," answered Primrose; "I'm always telling you you +are only seeing the shady side at present. Only wait till Christmas +comes, and Mr. Danesfield sends us our money." + +"I wrote another poem last night," said Jasmine; "I called it 'The +Uses of Adversity.' It was very mournful indeed; it was a sort of +story in blank verse of people who were cold and hungry, and I mixed +up London fogs, and attic rooms, and curtains that were once white, +and had now turned yellow, and sloppy streets covered with snow, with +the story. It was really very sad, and I cried a great deal over it. I +am looking out now for a journal which likes melancholy things to send +it to. I have not ventured to submit it to Miss Egerton, for she is so +dreadfully severe, and I don't think much of her taste. She will never +praise anything I do unless it is so simple as to be almost babyish. +Now 'The Uses of Adversity' is as far as possible formed on the model +of Milton's 'Paradise Lost'--it is strong, but gloomy. Shall I read it +to you after supper, Primrose?" + +"If you like, dear," answered Primrose; "but why do you try to write +such very sad things, Jasmine?" + +"Oh, I don't know; they suit me. Primrose, do you know of a very, very +melancholy periodical?" + +"Several of the periodicals seem to me rather melancholy," answered +Primrose; "there is one I sometimes see on Mrs. Dove's table--it is +called _The Watch_. I glanced at it one day, and I thought it seemed +very morbid." + +"Oh, I know," answered Jasmine; "but there is a worse one than +that--Mrs. Dove showed it to me. Mrs. Dove is very fond of reading, +and she told me that she would not give a farthing for any literature +that could not draw forth the salt and bitter tear; she says the +magazine she likes best at present is a new one called _The Downfall_. +She says it is very little known, but its melancholy is profound. +Shall I send my verses to _The Downfall_, Primrose?" + +"If you like, dear; but I don't at all admire the name, and I really +do not think Mrs. Dove ought to be your guide in such matters, +Jasmine." + +"Oh, she has very good taste," answered Jasmine; "she says that only +real talent is admitted on the staff of _The Downfall_. Of course I'd +rather write for one of the shilling magazines. Well, if you like, +I'll send my poem to one of them first." + +Before Primrose could answer Jasmine on this weighty point there came +a knock on the sitting-room door, and Mrs. Dove, with her face wrapped +up in a thick woollen shawl, entered the room. + +"Very sorry to disturb you, young ladies," she said, "but could you +oblige me with the loan of three and tenpence-halfpenny. Dove has put +in no appearance, and unless I can pay three and tenpence-halfpenny on +account to the baker he refuses positive to allow me sufficient bread +to see Sunday through." + +When Mrs. Dove made this request Primrose's face became intensely +pale. She was silent for half a minute, then she said-- + +"I will lend you the money this time, Mrs. Dove, but please don't ask +me again; you know that at this present moment you owe me very nearly +two pounds." + +"Thank you, my dear Miss Mainwaring," answered Mrs. Dove, in a very +suave voice, as she hastily pocketed poor Primrose's few shillings. +"You are always obliging, and this, with the other trifle due, shall +be returned the moment Dove comes in--Dove is on a very good piece of +work just at present, and the money is as safe as safe. Oh, Miss +Jasmine, I have brought you this week's copy of _The Downfall_--the +serial in it is really of the most powerful order. I have shed a +deluge of tears over it. The lowest person of rank in the pages is a +marquess; but the story mostly deals in ducal families. It was a +terrible blow to come down to the baker from the duke's ancestral +halls--you read it, Miss Jasmine; you'll be very much overcome." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +DOVE'S JOKE. + + +Primrose had always been considered a very good manager. Her talents +for contriving, for buying, and, in short, for making a shilling do +the utmost that a shilling was capable of, had been observable from +her earliest days. In the last years of her mother's life Primrose had +been entrusted with the family purse, and the shopkeepers at Rosebury +had known better than not to offer this bright-looking young lady the +best that they had at the lowest price. Primrose, therefore, when she +came to London, had felt pretty confident that the talents which she +knew she possessed would stand her in good stead. She still hoped to +find the cheapest shops and to get the best for her money. She laid +her plans with accuracy and common sense, she divided the little sum +which the three had to live on into weekly instalments--she resolved +not to go beyond these. But, alas! Primrose had never reckoned on a +certain grave difficulty which here confronted her. Hitherto her +dealings had been with honest tradespeople; now it was her +misfortune, and her sisters', to get into a house where honesty was +far from practised. In a thousand little ways Mrs. Dove could pilfer +from the girls--she would not for the world have acknowledged to +herself that she would really steal; oh, no--but she did not consider +it stealing to use their coal instead of her own--of course, by +mistake; she by no means considered it stealing when she baked a +little joint for them in her oven on Sunday to boil it first, and in +this way secure a very good soup for various hungry young Doves; she +did not consider it stealing to so confuse the baker's account that +some of the loaves consumed by her children were paid for by Primrose; +nor did she consider it stealing to add water to the milk with which +she supplied the Mainwarings; above all things, and on this point she +was most emphatic, she thought it the reverse of stealing to borrow. +Primrose had not been a fortnight in her house before she began to ask +first for the loan of an odd sixpence, then for half-a-crown, for a +shilling here, and two shillings there. When she returned the +half-crown it was generally done in this fashion-- + +"Oh, if you please, miss, I want to settle my little account. Oh, +dear, dear! I was certain I had half-a-crown in my purse. Well, to be +sure, I forgot that Dove took it with him when he went out to his +work this morning. Please, Miss Mainwaring, will you accept one and +sixpence on account, and we'll settle the rest in an hour or two. +There, miss, that's quite comfortable." + +Yes, the arrangement was certainly quite comfortable for Mrs. Dove, +who could score out the half-crown debt from her slate, and quite +stare when Primrose ventured to ask her for the odd shilling still +owing. + +Still, incredible as it may sound, Mrs. Dove considered herself a +strictly honest woman. Perhaps, had the girls only to deal with her +they might have struggled on, badly, it is true, but still after a +fashion. But, alas and alas! if Mrs. Dove considered herself honest, +Mr. Dove did not pretend to lay claim to this very excellent quality. +Poor Primrose little guessed that that lost five-pound note, which had +given her such trouble, and which had almost brought gray hairs to her +bright yellow head, had been really taken by Dove, who had come up to +the attics when the girls were away, had quietly taken the hinges off +Primrose's trunk at the back, had lifted the lid, and had helped +himself neatly and deftly to that solitary note! + +When the girls discovered their loss no one had been more indignant +than Dove. He had come up himself to speak to them about it, had +examined the trunk in their presence, had told them that he had a +cousin of his own in the detective business whom he would put on the +scent of the thief, and in the meantime he'd be very pleased, although +he was a remarkably poor man, to lend the young ladies ten shillings. + +Although they would not think of accepting his loan, the girls thought +that Dove had behaved rather kindly on this occasion, and they +certainly never in the least suspected it was into his pocket their +money had gone. + +Without being at all, therefore, to blame, poor Primrose found +herself, as Christmas approached, and the days grew short and cold, +with very little money in her possession; of course, her quarter's +allowance would soon be due, but some days before it came she had +broken into her last sovereign. Still, she had a resource which her +sisters had forgotten, and which, luckily for her, Dove knew nothing +at all about--she still had that letter of Mr. Danesfield's. She had +never opened it, but she always kept it safely locked up in her trunk. +Not for worlds would she yet break the seal--no, no, this letter was +meant for an hour of great need. Primrose fondly and proudly hoped +that that dark and dreadful hour would never approach and that, having +won success, she and her sisters might yet return the letter unopened +to its kind donor. In these dark days before Christmas she kept up her +heart, and worked hard at her china-painting, achieving sufficient +success and power over her art to enable her to produce some pretty, +but, alas! as yet unsaleable articles. Mr. Jones, her master, assured +her, however, that her goods must ere long find a market, and she +struggled on bravely. + +Perhaps, on the whole, Jasmine was more tried by her present life than +her sister. Jasmine's was a more highly-strung temperament; she could +be more easily depressed and more easily elated--hers was the kind of +nature which pours forth its sweetest and best in sunshine; did the +cold blasts of adversity blow too keenly on this rather tropical +little flower, then no expansion would come to the beautiful blossoms, +and the young life would fail to fulfil its promise. Jasmine was never +meant by nature to be poor; she had been born in Italy, and something +of the languor and the love of ease and beauty of her birthplace +seemed always to linger round her. She had talents--under certain +conditions she might even have developed genius, but in no sense of +the word was she hardy; where Primrose could endure, and even conquer, +Jasmine might die. + +The little sister, who was too young to acutely feel any change which +did not part her from Primrose and Jasmine, was, perhaps, the only one +of the three whose spirits were on a par with what they were in the +old Rosebury days; but although Daisy's little mind remained tranquil, +and she did not trouble herself about ways and means, nor greatly fret +over the fact that the skies were leaden, and the attic room foggy, +still Daisy also suffered in her rather delicate little body. She +caught cold in the London fogs, and the cold brought on a cough, and +the cough produced loss of appetite. The two elder sisters, however, +were scarcely as yet uneasy about her, and it was only Miss Egerton +who saw the likeness to little Constance growing and growing in +Daisy's sweet face. Thus Christmas drew near, and the girls had not +yet found their mission in life; they were by no means crushed, +however, nor was Primrose tired of repeating what she firmly believed, +that with the New Year some of the sunshine of London life would be +theirs. + +The quarterly allowance from Mr. Danesfield always arrived on the +first of the month. On the first of December this year the welcome +letter, with its still more welcome enclosure, was duly received. The +girls celebrated the event with a little breakfast feast--they ate +water-cresses, and Primrose and Jasmine had a sardine each to add +flavor to their bread and butter. Whatever happened, Daisy always had +her fresh egg, which she shared with the Pink, for the Pink had been +brought up daintily, and appreciated the tops of fresh eggs. On this +occasion Mrs. Dove herself brought up Primrose's letter. Letters came +so seldom to the girls that Mrs. Dove felt it quite excusable to gaze +very hard at the inscription, to study the name of the post town which +had left its mark on the envelope, and lingering a little in the room, +under cover of talking to Jasmine, to watch Primrose's face as she +opened the cover. + +"It is from Mr. Danesfield, is it not, Primrose?" exclaimed +Jasmine--"Oh, I beg your pardon, Mrs. Dove; no I didn't much care for +that new story which is begun in _The Downfall_." + +Mrs. Dove had a habit of dropping little curtseys when she meant to be +particularly deferential--she now dropped three in succession, and +said in a high-pitched, and rather biting voice-- + +"It isn't to be expected that the opinions of young ladies and of +women who have gone through their world of experience, and therefore +know what's what, should coincide. I leave you ladies three to read +your refreshing news from absent friends." + +Mrs. Dove then turned her back, and meekly shutting the door behind +her, left the girls to themselves. + +"Them attics have become rather too uppish for my taste," she said to +Dove when she got downstairs. "I took them a letter just now, and, my +word! they had not eyes nor ears for me, though I toiled up all the +weary stairs, which my shortness of breath don't agree to. It wasn't +even 'Thank you very much, Mrs. Dove,' but all three of them, their +eyes was fixed on the letter as if they'd eat it. It's my belief, +Dove, that they're short of funds, for when I went yesterday to ask +for the trifling loan of tenpence three-farthings to pay the cobbler +for Tommy's boots, Miss Mainwaring said, as pretty as you please, but +very prim and firm--'I haven't really got the money, Mrs. Dove.' Well, +well, I've done a deal for those girls--elbow grease I've given them, +and thought I've given them, and books for the improving of their +intellecs I've lent them, and that's all the return I get, that when I +bring up a letter it isn't even 'Thank you, Mrs. Dove.' What I say is +this, Dove, shall I give the attics notice to quit?" + +"By no manner of means," answered Dove--"you mark my words, Mrs. Dove, +my only love, that why they were so flurried over the letter just +received was because there was money in it. Don't you turn away nice, +genteel, quiet-spoken young ladies from this house. There's most +likely a postal order in that letter, and my name ain't Dove if I +don't get my gleanings from it." + +"Oh, fie, Dove! you will have your joke," answered his wife; but she +said nothing further about giving the Mainwarings notice to quit. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +DAISY'S PROMISE. + + +Mr. Danesfield always forwarded the girls' allowance in such a way +that Primrose could easily obtain it--he did not trouble her with +cheques or bank notes, but sent a money-order, which she could cash at +the nearest post-office. + +The three went out gleefully that day, and obtained their much needed +money--then Primrose bought a new pair of boots for Daisy, and allowed +Jasmine to spend sixpence on scribbling paper. Having obtained this +delightful possession, Jasmine determined to begin her great work of +fiction without a moment's delay; she felt that she had listened quite +long enough to Miss Egerton's gentle warnings--that she had been +discouraged sufficiently, and that what she had really to do was to +prove the stuff which was in her, and to take the world by storm. She +hesitated a little as to whether her great work was to appear before +the world in the form of a novel or a poem. She thought that to +produce a second "Evangeline" would be a matter of but slight +difficulty, but on the whole she was inclined to give the world her +experience in the fiery and untrammelled words of prose. + +"My theme burns within me," she said to herself. "I won't be kept back +by metres or rhymes, or numbers of feet, or any of those tiresome +rules which Miss Egerton tries to instil into me. Oh, I shall be happy +over my work! I will forget that we are poor, and forget that we live +in attics. I will work with Miss Egerton in the daytime, and I will +help Primrose in her house-keeping, and take Daisy for a walk, but +morning and evening I will get into my Palace Beautiful, and write +away, and forget the sordid cares of life." + +The little maid had really a certain amount of genius to guide her, +and although all her ideas were crude and unpractised, she managed to +be happy in the castle which she built, and her dark eyes grew bright +once more, and her pretty face resumed its animated and contented +expression. + +Primrose, who worked very steadily at her china-painting, was much +cheered at this time with one or two small, but _bona-fide_ orders for +work. They came not through Mr. Jones, who pocketed her money and +exhibited her wares in a dusty and uncertain fashion, but through Miss +Egerton, who was proving herself a real friend to the girls. Primrose +was immensely cheered by these little orders, and, in consequence, +Christmas Day--the girls' first Christmas Day without a home and a +mother--passed not uncheerfully. Things might have gone well with the +three but for an incident which occurred just at the beginning of the +New Year. + +One morning Daisy awoke shivering, and complaining of fresh cold. She +refused, however, to stay at home by herself, and begged of Jasmine to +wrap her up, and take her across to Miss Egerton's, but when the two +girls reached the kind mistress's door they were informed that she had +been suddenly sent for to the country, and would not be back until the +following day. + +"You must go back now, my pet," said Jasmine. "I'll take you back +myself, and I'll build up such a nice fire for you, and you shall look +at the dear old scrap-book which we made when we were all happy at +Rosebury." + +"I wish we were back at Rosebury," said little Daisy, in a very sad +and plaintive voice. "I don't think London is at all a cheerful place. +We made a great mistake about it, didn't we, Jasmine? Oh, Jasmine, +darling, you are not going to leave me by myself, for I really don't +feel well this morning." + +"I'll come back ever so quickly, Eyebright, but I really think I must +do Primrose's shopping for her, now that I am not going to Miss +Egerton. Primrose is working very hard at her china-painting order, +and it is not fair she should be interrupted. You won't be selfish, +will you, Eyebright? You know we arranged long ago that the way you +were to help matters forward was not to hinder us older girls in our +work." + +"I know," answered Daisy, with a patient sigh. "I won't be selfish, +Jasmine. Just kiss me before you go." + +Jasmine went away, and Daisy, taking the Pink into her arms, sat down +close to the fire. She was not exactly nervous, but she scarcely liked +to be left in the attics by herself. She wished Mrs. Dove would come +up, or even that Tommy Dove, who was a rude boy, and whom, as a rule, +she particularly disliked, would pay her a visit. Any company, however +she reflected, would be better than none, for she was feeling heavy +and depressed with her cold. The warm feel of the Pink's furry little +body, elapsed tightly in her arms, comforted her not a little. She +remembered with some satisfaction that Jasmine had locked the door, +and she began already to count the moments for her sister's return. + +An hour passed, and still Daisy listened for Jasmine's light and +springing step on the attic stairs. + +She was very tired now, and her head ached. She thought she would go +into the bedroom and, lying down on her little white bed, sleep away +the weary moments. Taking the Pink with her, she did so, wrapping the +counterpane well up over them both. + +In a very few moments the child was in a heavy slumber. + +She awoke, after what seemed to herself a very short nap, to hear +sounds in the bedroom. She stirred sleepily, and, opening her eyes, +said-- + +"Oh, Jasmine, what a time you've been away!" + +No answer from Jasmine, but a smothered exclamation from some one +else; a heavy tread on the uncarpeted boards, and Dove, his face red, +his shoes off, and something which looked like a screw-driver in his +hands, came up and bent over the child. + +"Oh! what are you doing here, Mr. Dove?" exclaimed little Daisy. The +man bent down over her, and stared hard into her wide open blue eyes. + +[Illustration: THE MAN BENT DOWN OVER HER. Palace B] + +"I didn't know you was here, missie; it was very cunning of you to +feign sleep like that--it was very cunning and over sharp, but it +don't come round me. No, no; you has got to speak up now, and say what +you has seen, and what you hasn't seen. I allow of no nonsense with +little girls, and I can always see through them when they mean to tell +a lie. You know where the children who tell lies go to, so you'd +better speak up, and the whole truth, missie." Dove spoke in a very +rough voice, and poor Daisy felt terribly frightened. + +"I didn't see anything," she began, in her innocent way. "I was fast, +fast asleep. I thought you were Jasmine--Jasmine should have been back +long ago. I have a bad cold, and I was trying to pass the time by +going to sleep. I haven't seen anything, Mr. Dove." + +"Let me look into your eyes, miss," said Dove; "open them wide, and +let me look well into them." + +"Oh! you frighten me, Mr. Dove," said Daisy, beginning to cry. "I was +very lonely, and I'd have liked you to come up half an hour ago; but +you look so queer now, and you speak in such a rough voiced--what is +the matter? Perhaps you were bringing up some of those books for +Jasmine. Oh! I don't know why you should speak to me like that." + +Dove's brow cleared; he began to believe that the child had really +been asleep, and had not seen the peculiar manner in which he had been +employing himself for the last ten minutes. + +"Look here, miss," he said, "I don't mean to be rough to you, you +pretty little lady. Look here, what I was after was all kindness. I +only spoke rough as a bit of a joke. I has got some lollipops in my +pocket for a nice little maid; I wonder now who these yere lollipops +are for?" + +"For me, perhaps?" said Daisy, who, although she could not have +swallowed a sweety to save her life at that moment, had sense enough +to know that her wisest plan was to propitiate Dove. + +"You're fond of lollipops then, missie? you didn't think as 'twas +because poor Dove guessed that, that he travelled up all these weary +stairs? Kind of him, wasn't it? but you're real fond of lollipops, +ain't you, missy?" + +"Some kinds," answered Daisy, who was really a most fastidious child, +and who shrank from the sticky-looking sweetmeats proffered to her by +Dove. "I like the very best chocolate creams; Primrose brings them to +me sometimes, but they are rather expensive. Oh! and I like sticky +sweets too," she continued seeing an ominous frown gathering on Dove's +brow. "I'm very much obliged to you, Mr. Dove." Then making a great +effort, she put out her little white hand to take one of the sweeties. + +But Dove drew back quickly. + +"No, no," he said, "not till they're arned--by no means until they're +arned. You don't suppose as a poor man--a poor man with a large +family, and an only love of a wife--can afford to bring sweeties all +for nothing to rich little ladies like yourself. No, no, miss; you arn +them, and you shall have them." + +"But I'd rather not, please," said Daisy, "I'm not _very_ hungry for +sweeties to-day on account of my cold, and I think, on the whole, you +had better keep them, Mr. Dove. Indeed, I don't know how to earn +them--Primrose and Jasmine say I'm too young to earn." + +Here Dove drew himself up to his full height, and stared hard at the +child. + +"There's one way of arning," he said, "and one only. Look you here, +Miss Daisy Mainwaring, you are young, but you ain't no fool. Ef you +please, miss, you has got to make me a promise--you has got to say +that you will never tell, not to Miss Primrose nor to Miss Jasmine, +nor to no one, that you've seen me in this room. I don't wish it to be +known. I has my reasons, and _whatever_ happens, you are never to +tell. Ef you make me the promise true and faithful, why you shall have +the sweeties, and I'll stick up for you, and be your friend through +thick and thin. You'll have Dove for your friend, Miss Daisy, and I +can tell you he ain't a friend to be lightly put aside. But if you +ever tell--and however secret you do it, I have got little birds who +will whisper it back to me--why, then Dove will be your enemy. You +don't know what that means, and you won't like to know. I was my own +boy Tommy's enemy once, and I locked him up in the dark for +twenty-four hours, where no one could hear him screaming. Now, miss, +you had better make me your friend; I'm real desperate in earnest, so +you promise me." + +Daisy's face had grown deadly white, her breath came in gasps, her +eyes were fixed on the cruel man. + +"You promise me, miss?" + +"Oh yes, Mr. Dove." + +"That's right, missy. Now you say these words after me:--'Mr. Dove, I +promise never to tell as you came up to my room to give me the nice +sweeties. I'll never tell nobody in all the wide world, so help me, +God.'" + +"Oh, I don't like that last part," said little Daisy. "I'll say +it--I'll say all the words, only not the last ones, and I'll keep my +promise as true as true; only please, please, please, Mr. Dove, don't +ask me to say the last words, for I don't think it's quite reverent to +say them just to keep a secret about sweeties." + +"Well, missy, as you please. Now put your hands in mine, and say all +the other words." + +Daisy did so. + +"That's right, miss; now my mind's easy. I have got your promise, +miss, and I'll keep the little birds a-watching to find out if ever +you go near to breathing it. There's a dark cellar, too, most handy +for them children who turn out to be Dove's enemies, and _you_ know +where the people who tell lies go to. Now, good-bye, miss--eat up your +sweeties." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A DELIGHTFUL PLAN. + + +Neither Primrose nor Jasmine could quite understand their little +sister that night--her cold was worse, but that fact Primrose +accounted for by Jasmine's imprudence in taking her out; but what +neither she nor Jasmine could understand was Daisy's great +nervousness--her shrinking fear of being left for a moment by herself, +and the worried and anxious look which had settled down on her usually +quiet little face. Primrose determined to do what she had never done +yet since they had come to London--she would commit the unheard-of +extravagance of calling in a doctor. + +"I think Daisy is very feverish," she said to Jasmine; "only that it +seems impossible, I would say she has got some kind of shock, and was +trying to conceal something. You are quite sure that you locked the +door when you left her alone here this afternoon, Jasmine?" + +"Oh, yes," answered Jasmine, "and I found it locked all right when I +came back. I was rather longer away than I meant to be, for I did such +a venturesome thing, Primrose--I took my 'Ode to Adversity' to the +Editor of _The Downfall_. I saw him, too--he was a red-faced man, with +such a loud voice, and he didn't seem at all melancholy--he said he +would look at the poem, but he wasn't _very_ encouraging. I told him +what Mrs. Dove said about his readers liking tearful things, and he +gave quite a rude laugh; however, I shouldn't be surprised if the poem +was taken; if it fails in that quarter, I must only try one of the +very best magazines. Oh, what was I saying about Daisy? I think she +was asleep when I came back--she was lying very quiet, only her cheeks +were rather flushed. Of course, Primrose, nothing happened to our +little Daisy; if there did, she would tell us." + +"I will send for the doctor, at any rate," said Primrose; "I don't +like her look. I will send for the doctor, and--and--" + +But Primrose's brave voice broke, and she turned her face away. + +Jasmine ran up to her, and put her arms round her neck. + +"What is it, Rose darling?--are you really troubled about Daisy? or +are you thinking of the expense? I wonder what a London doctor will +charge? Have you got any money to pay him, Primrose?" + +"I've got Mr. Danesfield's money," said Primrose; "I have always kept +it for an emergency. I had hoped never to need it, but if the real +emergency comes it is right to spend it. Yes, Jasmine, I can pay the +doctor and you had better go down and ask the Doves the name of one, +for I don't know a single doctor in London." + +"Yes," said Jasmine, "I'll run down at once." + +Mr. and Mrs. Dove were greatly concerned when they heard of Daisy's +illness--in especial, Mr. Dove was concerned, and expressed himself +willing to do all in his power for the sweet, pretty little lady. He +said he knew a doctor of the name of Jones, who was a dab hand with +children, and if the young ladies liked he would run round to Dr. +Jones's house, and fetch him in at once. + +Jasmine thought Mr. Dove very good-natured, and she expressed her +great gratitude to him for the trouble he was about to take, and +requested him to seek Dr. Jones and to bring him to see Daisy without +a moment's delay. Accordingly, in a very short time the doctor of +Dove's selection stood by Daisy's bedside and pronounced her to be +suffering from nothing whatever but a common cold, ordered some +medicine for her cough, and went away with the assurance that she +would be as cheerful as ever on the morrow. But Daisy was not cheerful +the next day; and day after day passed without bringing back either +her sweet calm, or any of the brightness which used to characterize +her little face. Daisy possessed in a certain degree Primrose's +characteristics, but she was naturally more highly strung and more +nervous than her eldest sister. After a little time her cold got +better, but her nightly terrors, the look of watchfulness and anxiety, +grew and deepened as the time wore on. Daisy's sweet little face was +altering, and Primrose at last resolved to dismiss Dr. Jones, who was +doing the child no good whatever, and to consult Miss Egerton about +the little one. It may be added that Primrose was able to pay Dr. +Jones's account without breaking into Mr. Danesfield's money. + +Miss Egerton from the very first had taken a great interest in the +girls, and when Primrose went to her, and told her pitiful little +story, the kind governess's eyes filled with tears. + +"My dear," she said, in conclusion, "whatever is or is not the matter +with that nice little sister of yours, I am sure she wants one thing, +and that is change. Now, I am not so greatly taken with those rooms of +yours, Primrose. You remember I paid you a visit at Christmas, and you +tried to show me all the beauties of your apartments. They were +neatly kept, dear, and were clean, and were furnished with some +little attempt at taste, but the ceilings were very low, the window +sashes fitted badly, and there was such a draught from under the +door--and, my dear child, now that you have come to me in confidence I +may as well tell you that I did _not_ admire your landlady Mrs. Dove." + +"She is rather fond of borrowing money, certainly," said Primrose, +in a thoughtful voice, "but on the whole I believe she is +good-natured--she lends Jasmine books, and yesterday she baked a cake +herself for Daisy, and her husband brought it up to her." + +"All the same," repeated Miss Egerton, "I don't admire the woman. I +have never seen the man; but I would rather you were in a nice house. +Now I have a proposal to make. I too have got some attics--they are +quite as large as Mrs. Dove's, and can soon be made as cheerful. I can +also promise you that the windows will not shake, nor will a draught +as keen as a knife come in from under the door. My attics, however, I +grieve to say, are unfurnished. Now, my dear, what do you pay at Mrs. +Dove's?" + +"Twelve shillings a week," said Primrose. + +"That is a great deal for such rooms; I knew you were being imposed +upon. Now, I would let you have mine for five, only somehow or other +you must contrive to help me to furnish them. I can give you a carpet +for your sitting-room, and a warm rug for your bedroom floor, and I +believe I can supply you with bedsteads and beds, and there is a +famous deep cupboard in the sitting-room, and two in the bedroom where +you could easily keep all your clothes; but do you think you could +provide the rest of the furniture? I would help you to get it as cheap +as possible and would show you how to make old things look like new; +for, my dear, I've gone through the contriving experience a long time +ago. Now what do you say to my plan? You will not be cheated, you will +be cared for, and you will be in the house of a friend--for I want to +be your friend, my dear girl." + +"Oh, how kind you are!" said Primrose, her eyes glistening. "Yes, you +know how to give real help--the kind of help we girls want. I should +love your plan, but I must try and find out if we really have the +money. How much money will it take to put in very simple +furniture--just enough for us to go on with, Miss Egerton?" + +"You might manage it for ten pounds, dear, perhaps even for less, if +you have that sum by you; you will soon save it in your lowered rent. +Go home, and think it over, Primrose. I know Daisy will be much, much +better in my house than at the Doves'. Go and think about it, and let +me know what you decide to-morrow." + +Primrose thanked Miss Egerton, and went back to her lodgings with a +full heart. This offer from so good a friend had come, she felt, at +the right moment. Accept it she must; find the ten pounds she must; +and once again she thought with a feeling of satisfaction of Mr. +Danesfield's letter, and felt glad that she had been able to pay Dr. +Jones's bill without breaking into its contents. + +She went upstairs, and instantly told Jasmine of the proposed change. + +"But we can't do it," said Jasmine; "you know that we have not ten +pounds to spare." + +"I think," said Primrose, "that perhaps the time has come when we +should open that letter Mr. Danesfield put into my hand the morning we +left Rosebury. You know, Jasmine, how we determined to keep it, and +return it to him unopened some day if we possibly could; but we also +resolved to use it if a time of necessity really came--we resolved not +to be proud about this. You know, Jasmine, it has come over me more +than once lately that I have been headstrong in coming to London, only +I could not endure being dependent on any one." + +"Of course you could not, darling," said Jasmine. "I am certain you +have done right; of course we are rather depressed now with +difficulties, but I think yours was a grand plan. I have a kind of +feeling, Primrose, that our worst days are over; I think it more than +probable you will have a great run on your china-painting bye-and-bye, +and if _The Downfall_ and the other magazines begin to wish for my +poetry, why, of course, I shall earn two or three guineas a week. I am +told that a guinea is not at all a large sum for a good poem, and I +have no doubt I could write two or three a week; and then my novel--it +is really going to be very good. Mr. Dove says that he would recommend +me to put it in a newspaper first, and then offer it to a publisher to +bring out as a book. I said I would only let my first work appear in a +very high-class newspaper. I never much cared for newspaper stories, +but I might put up with one of the illustrated weekly papers if it +paid me well. Yes, Primrose, I feel hopeful; and I have not the +smallest doubt that we can earn the ten pounds for our furniture very +quickly, so let us borrow the money out of Mr. Danesfield's letter. +But Rose, darling, how do you know there is any money in the letter? +You have never opened it and you can't see inside." + +"I've never opened it, certainly," said Primrose, "but from a hint Mr. +Danesfield gave me on the last day I saw him, I believe there are +three five-pound notes in the letter. Of course I am not sure, but I +am nearly sure." + +"Well, let us get the letter and open it," said Jasmine, "and then our +minds will be at rest. Oh! there is Daisy waking out of her nice nap. +Daisy, darling, would you not like to go and live at Miss Egerton's? +You know you are fond of Miss Egerton, and she is turning out a very +kind friend. Won't you like to live always in her nice house, Daisy +love?" + +Daisy's little face had flushed painfully when Jasmine began to talk, +now it turned white, and her lips trembled. + +"Are there--are there any little birds there?" she asked. + +"Oh, Eyebright, what a silly question! Primrose had she not better +have her beef-tea. I think Miss Egerton keeps a canary, but I am not +sure." + +"I'd rather not have any little birds about," said Daisy, with great +emphasis, "and I'd greatly, greatly love to go. I like Miss Egerton. +When shall we go, Primrose?" + +"In a day or two," said Primrose. "We have just got to buy a little +furniture, and I'm going to open my trunk now, and get a letter out +which I know has money in it. Yes, we'll very soon go away from here, +darling, and Miss Egerton has thought of this delightful plan +entirely to please you. She says you will be much, much better when +you are out of this house. Oh, Daisy! how bright your eyes look, and +how pleased you seem." + +"Yes," said Daisy, "I am delighted; we need never walk down this +street again, need we, Primrose? and we need never to have anything to +say to the Doves, most particularly to Mr. Dove; not but that he's +very kind, and he's--oh, yes! he's my friend; yes, of course he told +me he was my friend, but we needn't ever see him again, ever, _ever_ +again, Primrose, darling?" + +"Oh, Daisy! what a funny child you are! If Mr. Dove is your friend, +why should you not wish to see him? He is not my friend, however; +indeed, I may say frankly that I don't like him at all. Now drink up +your beef-tea, darling." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE POOR DOVES. + + +The next morning early Primrose opened her trunk, and unlocking a +certain little morocco case, which contained her mother's letter about +her lost brother, one or two trinkets which had belonged to that same +mother, and Mr. Danesfield's envelope, she took the latter out of the +case, and slipped it into her pocket. After breakfast she went round +to see Miss Egerton. + +"An old friend," she said, "in the village where we lived--I would +rather not say his name--gave me this. I believe it contains money. I +have a kind of idea that it contains three bank notes for L5 each. I +have never opened it, and I never wish to. I meant to return it some +day to this kind friend--yes, I know he meant to be very kind. This is +what he has written on the outside of the envelope." + +Miss Egerton read aloud--"When you want me, use me; don't return me, +and never abuse me." + +"There must be money here, my dear," she said. + +"Yes, I know there is money," said Primrose, "for he wanted to press +fifteen pounds on me when I went to say good-bye; but I was too proud +to accept it, so now I think he has thought of this way of helping us. +We could buy our furniture out of some of that money, Miss Egerton." + +"Quite so, dear," said Miss Egerton, in a very cheerful voice. "Give +me the letter, Primrose, and I will put it carefully away for you; you +need not open it just at this moment. I will order just as little +furniture as possible, and have it sent in to-day, and then when the +bill comes you shall pay out of this envelope. I should not be +surprised if we did our furnishing for seven pounds; I thought of so +many nice, cheap little expedients last night. Now go home, dear, and +come to me again in the evening, and I will tell you what I have done. +I have no doubt I can have your rooms ready by to-morrow; is Daisy +pleased at the idea of coming?" + +"Yes, she is delighted," said Primrose; "her dear little face quite +changed when I spoke about it. I am sure you are right, Miss Egerton, +and the change will do her lots of good." + +"I mean to make your attics quite charming," said Miss Egerton. "They +shall be converted into a kind of beautiful palace for my brave young +workers. Yes, Primrose, I admire your spirit, and if I can do anything +to aid you three girls to conquer fate, I will." + +The moment her school duties were over Miss Egerton went out. She +visited certain shops that she knew of--queer little, quaint, +out-of-the-way shops--quite pokey little places; but from their depths +she managed to extract one or two round tables, one or two +easy-chairs, a few brackets, which could be easily converted into +book-shelves, a certain sofa, with not too hard a back, a couple of +fenders, some fire-irons, some cups and saucers, some dinner plates. +These and a few more necessary articles she bought for what would have +seemed a ridiculously low figure to any one who was not in her secret. +The furniture was all conveyed to her neat little house that +afternoon, and there it was absolutely pounced upon by her willing and +hard-working servant who washed it, and scrubbed it, and rubbed it, +and polished it; and, finally, Miss Egerton purchased bright chintz, +and slipped it over the ugly little chairs, and covered up the +antiquated old sofa, and that very night a certain amount of her work +was got through, and the attics began already to look habitable. + +"I mean to do a great deal more," thought Miss Egerton; "fortunately +the paper is fresh and the paint clean; but I must put up two or three +pictures, and I shall fill these book-shelves with the books I used to +love when I was young. My own white sheep-skin rug shall go in front +of the fire. Daisy will like to see the Pink curling down into the +depths of that sheep-skin. Ah, yes! the girls shall have a good +time--a cosy, home-like time--in these rooms, if I can give it to +them." + +Then Miss Egerton went downstairs to meet Primrose with a smile about +her thin lips, and a serene, beautiful light in her kind eyes. + +"They are getting ready--the rooms are beginning to look charming, +dear," she said. "Oh no, you must not see them yet. It is my fancy not +to show them to you until they are quite ready, and I fear that won't +be until the day after to-morrow; but to-morrow, Primrose, you and +Jasmine and little Daisy may occupy yourselves packing your trunks." + +"It all sounds delightful," said Primrose. "You cannot think, Miss +Egerton, how cheered we all are at the thought of coming to you. As to +Daisy, I simply should not know her--she is a changed child. I told +the Doves that we were leaving as I went out this afternoon. They +looked rather cross, and Mrs. Dove asked for a week's rent, instead of +the usual notice. But I can manage to pay that nicely. I won't stay +now, dear Miss Egerton. I'm going round to see Mr. Jones about the +plates he was to try and sell for me, and then I shall hurry back to +Daisy." + +"Take her this fresh egg and this little sponge-loaf for her supper," +said Miss Egerton. "Now good-bye, dear. God bless you, dear!" + +"It is wonderful what kind friends we girls seem to meet at every +turn," thought Primrose to herself, as she hurried down the dirty, +sloppy street. "It would be very strange if we did not succeed with so +many people wishing us well. Oh! I feel in good spirits to-night. Even +if Mr. Jones has not sold the plates I shall not complain." + +Mr. Jones assured his industrious pupil when she entered his dark +little shop that he had "all but" got a customer for her. The customer +was a wealthy old gentleman, who had a passion for collecting china, +and, in special, liked the work of beginners. The old gentleman had +looked at Primrose's plates, and had said that they were very fine, +and had a certain crudity or freshness about them, which, for his +part, he took to; and if she had three or four more lessons he felt +morally certain that he would purchase her wares. + +"He's a splendid customer, but he was most explicit on the point of +more lessons, Miss Mainwaring," said Mr. Jones. + +"But you have found me so many 'all but' customers who just wished me +to have a few more lessons, Mr. Jones," said Primrose, smiling sadly. + +"None like the present man--none like the present man, my dear young +lady," answered Mr. Jones, rubbing his fat hands softly together. "A +man who likes crudity, and calls it freshness, ain't to be found every +day of the week, Miss Mainwaring." + +Primrose admitted this fact, and, bidding her teacher good evening, +without committing herself to any definite promise of taking further +lessons, she turned her steps homewards. Even Mr. Jones had scarcely +power to depress her to-night. She felt brave and bright, and all her +youth made itself manifest in her springing, elastic step. Now that +she was about to leave them, she felt horrified at the thought of +having lived so long with the Doves. Her sense of relief at the +thought of making her home with Miss Egerton was greater than she +could express. + +She entered the house, and came upstairs singing a gay air under her +breath. + +At the door of their attics she was met by Jasmine. + +"Oh, Primrose! I have been watching for you. I am so glad you have +come. I cannot think what is the matter with Daisy." + +"With Daisy?" echoed Primrose; "but I left her so bright two hours +ago." + +"She was bright an hour ago, Primrose; she was sitting on the floor +with the Pink in her arms, and laughing and chatting. I put on my +bonnet, and left her alone for about ten minutes while I ran round +the corner to get what we wanted for our supper, and when I came back +she was sitting with her hands straight before her in her lap, and the +Pink standing by her side, and looking into her face and mewing and +Daisy not taking a scrap of notice, but with her eyes fixed straight +in front of her in quite a dreadful way. When I went up to her and +touched her, she began to shiver, and then to cry, and then she said, +'oh Jasmine! we can't go away from here--we can't; oh, we can't! We +mustn't do it, Jasmine; we must stay here always, always!'" + +"Poor little darling!" said Primrose. "She must have had a bad dream; +certainly Miss Egerton is right, and her nerves are very much shaken +and she wants change as soon as possible. Is she in the bedroom, +Jasmine?" + +"Yes." + +"Will you cook the supper, and I will go to her?" + +Jasmine nodded, and Primrose went straight into the other room. Her +little sister had once more flown to the Pink for consolation; she was +holding the little animal tightly in her arms, and was rocking herself +backwards and forwards, and sobbing under her breath. + +Primrose knelt down by her. + +"What is it, my own little darling?" she asked. + +"Oh, nothing, Primrose," said poor little Daisy, raising her +tear-stained face; "nothing really, dear Primrose, only I don't like +to leave the poor Doves." + +"Oh, is that all?" said Primrose, in a very cheerful tone. "Why, +Daisy, you did not at all mind leaving them a couple of days ago; but +if you are really fond of them you can still see them occasionally, +for we are not going far away." + +"I don't wish to leave the poor Doves," repeated Daisy, bending down +over the Pink, and her tears falling afresh. + +"But, Daisy dear, how very funny of you to speak like this! You know, +darling, you must allow Jasmine and me to decide for you; we feel that +you will be much happier and much more comfortable with Mrs. Egerton. +Come, Daisy, these tears are very bad for you in your weak state. Let +me wash your face and hands, and take you into the other room to a +nice surprise supper sent by Miss Egerton." + +But Daisy only shook her head, and bent lower over her cat, and +repeated over, and over, and over: + +"I can't go away from Mr. and Mrs. Dove." + +Poor Primrose became really alarmed at last. + +"Daisy," she said, "there must be some reason for this sudden change +in your wishes. You were quite delighted at the thought of going to +Miss Egerton's an hour ago, when Jasmine was here; Jasmine went out, +and when she came back she found you in this state. Did you see +anybody while Jasmine was out?" + +"N--n--no--I mean--I mean I can't say. Don't ask me, Primrose. Oh, +Primrose, I'm such a miserable little girl! but please, please, please +don't take me away from the poor Doves." + +Daisy cried herself nearly into hysterics, and Primrose had at last to +pacify her by assuring her that they were not going away from the +Doves just yet. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +A STARTLING DISCOVERY. + + +All through her dreams that night Daisy sobbed and moaned. Primrose, +lying awake by her side, felt more and more alarmed and concerned. +What was the matter with her little sister? She felt completely +puzzled. The bright little castle in the air she and Jasmine had been +building; the cheerful thought of the cosy rooms which the girls were +to share together in their friend's house; the dear delight of having +furniture of their very own again; all these very healthful and +natural dreams were fading and fading, for whenever Primrose even +alluded to their leaving their present quarters Daisy clutched her +hand, and looked at her with such pleading eyes, and used hurried +words of such anguished entreaty, that at last the eldest sister felt +obliged to say-- + +"We will stay where we are, Daisy, until you wish to leave." + +Then the poor little thin face relaxed into a wan smile, the lids +drooped over the tired blue eyes, and the child slept more +peacefully. + +When Primrose felt her head, however, it was feverish, and her little +hands burned to the touch. She went into the next room and called +Jasmine. + +"Jasmine," she said, "I am going round to Mrs. Egerton's; I am going +to tell her all about Daisy's alarm and terror. I am going to consult +her, for I know she means to be a good friend to us. Jasmine, promise +me one thing--don't leave Daisy alone while I am out. I cannot in the +least understand how it happened, but I feel sure she must have got +some fright when you were out last night." + +"Oh, she couldn't have," answered Jasmine--"I locked the door after +me. I never leave Daisy alone without locking the door. I won't leave +her now, of course, Primrose--I will take my little writing table +close to her bedside, and if she wakes I can read her a part of my +novel." + +Primrose gave one or two more directions, and then hurried out, and +Jasmine, after she had washed up the breakfast things, and put the +little sitting-room perfectly tidy, moved her small writing-table into +the bedroom, and sat down by Daisy's side. She was in the scribbling +stage of her great work, and with her head bent low, her cheeks +flushed, and her fingers much stained with ink, was writing away with +great rapidity, when she was startled by some very earnest words from +the little sleeper. + +"Oh, no, indeed, Mr. Dove--oh no, you may be quite certain. I know +where I'd go if I told a lie, of course, Mr. Dove. Yes, yes, you are +my friend, and I'm your friend--yes, yes." + +"Daisy, do wake up," said Jasmine; "you are talking such rubbish about +Mr. Dove, and about telling lies, and Mr. Dove being your friend--open +your eyes, Daisy, and let me give you such a nice little breakfast." + +"Is that you, Jasmine?" said Daisy--"I thought you were Mr. Dove--I +was asleep, and I was dreaming." + +"Yes, Eyebright, and talking in your dreams," said Jasmine, stooping +down and kissing her. + +Daisy held one of Jasmine's hands very tightly. + +"Did I say anything, Jasmine--anything that you shouldn't +hear--anything about--about sticky sweetmeats, Jasmine?" + +"No, you silly pet, not a word. Now sit up in bed, and let me give you +your breakfast. Daisy, I really do think my novel is going to be a +great success. I am going to put Mr. Dove into it, and Mrs. Dove, and +Tommy Dove, and our dear old Poppy, and of course ourselves. One +reason why I feel so confident that the novel will be a success is +that _all_ the characters will be sketched from the life." + +"But please don't put in about the Doves," said Daisy. "I think they +are such dread--I mean, of course, they are my friends, particularly +Mr. Dove, he's my real, real friend, but I mean that I don't think +they'd come well into a book, Jasmine--I don't think they're book +people a bit--book people should be princes and knights and lovely +ladies, and there should be no houses, and no attics, only there might +be fairy palaces, and all the little girls should be happy, and kept +safe from ogres--the little girls in the books shouldn't even have an +ogre for a friend. Oh, Jasmine, Jasmine! I'm so very miserable!" + +Daisy again broke into weak sobs, and poor Jasmine could scarcely +soothe her. + +A little before noon Primrose and Miss Egerton, and a tall, grave, +kind-looking man, who went by the name of Dr. Griffiths, and was a +great friend of Miss Egerton's, came up the stairs. + +Both Dove and his wife saw them go, and Dove shook his hand at Dr. +Griffiths, as that gentleman walked up the stairs. They all three went +into the attics, and the doctor had a long talk with the little +patient--he felt her pulse and her head, and looked into her eyes, and +tried to induce her to laugh, and did succeed in getting one little +startled and half-frightened sound from the child; then he went back +into the sitting-room, and had a long talk with Primrose and Miss +Egerton. The upshot of this was that Miss Egerton went sorrowfully +away, for the doctor absolutely forbade the girls to move from their +present quarters for another week or fortnight. At the end of that +time he said Daisy would be better, and might have got over the +foolish fancy which now troubled her, but for the time being she must +be yielded to, and at any risk kept easy in her mind. + +Miss Egerton went very sorrowfully away, and upstairs to the rooms she +meant to make so pretty. + +"There is no special hurry about the furnishing, Bridget," she said to +her servant. "Little Miss Daisy is too ill to be moved for the +present." + +"The men have come round to be paid for the bits of furniture, +leastways, ma'am," answered Bridget, "and the foreman from the other +shop is standing in the hall, and wants to know if you'll settle with +him now, or if he shall call again." + +"I'll settle with him now, Bridget. Dear Miss Primrose left some money +in my charge yesterday morning, and I can pay the man at once." + +One of the rules of Miss Egerton's life was never to leave a bill +unpaid for twenty-four hours, if possible--she hated accounts, and +always paid ready money for everything. She now ran downstairs, and +unlocking her desk, took out Mr. Danesfield's envelope. Primrose had +begged of her to open it when the bills came in, and pay for the +furniture--Primrose seemed to have an absolute prejudice against +unfastening that envelope herself. + +Miss Egerton opened it slowly now, smiling as she did so at the quaint +inscription on the cover. A folded sheet of paper lay within--she +spread the paper before her, expecting to see the three five-pound +notes folded within its leaves--blankness and emptiness alone met her +view--no money was inside the envelope--the whole thing was a cruel +fraud. The poor governess fairly gasped for breath--there lay the bill +for six pounds nineteen shillings which she had incurred, making sure +that she could meet it out of Primrose's money. Primrose had spoken so +confidently about her little nest-egg, and behold, she had not +any!--the envelope was a fraud--the girl had been subjected to a cruel +practical joke. + +Miss Egerton was extremely poor--it was with the utmost difficulty she +could make two ends meet. She thought hard for a minute--then her brow +cleared, and she rose to her feet. + +"Better I than those orphan girls!" she said, under her breath, and +then she went to her desk again, and filled in a cheque for the +amount. + +"I can do without my winter cloak, and my black merino dress will last +me for some weeks longer if I sponge it with cold tea, and re-line the +tail," she said to herself. "Any little privation is better than to +hurt the hearts of the orphan girls." + +She paid the man, who signed the receipt, and then she let him out +herself. As she did so a young man came hastily up the steps--he had a +bright face, and running up to the governess, he seized both her hands +in his. + +"Oh, Arthur, how glad I am to see you!" said Miss Egerton. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +A BLESSING. + + +Miss Egerton took Arthur Noel--for it was he--straight back into her +little sitting-room, and sitting down on her worn little horse-hair +sofa, and raising her eyes anxiously to the young man's face, she told +him the story of the attic upstairs, of the furniture she had +purchased, of the girls she had meant to serve. She showed him, with +hands that trembled, the envelope with its queer inscription, and she +unfolded for his benefit the empty sheet of blank paper. She told her +story at once without any reservation, even relating with a little +hasty blush how she felt obliged to pay for the furniture herself. + +Perhaps Arthur Noel was the only person in the world to whom she would +have made this confession; for she was one of those who made it a +practice never to let her right hand know what her left did, but she +had known Arthur from his boyhood, and he was one of those men who +inspire trust and sympathy at a glance. + +He listened to the story with interest, and even excitement--he was +naturally enthusiastic, but even Miss Egerton had never seen him so +perturbed and so moved as he was at present. + +"I know about those girls," he said at last; "what are their names?--I +am sure I know about them. Nay, let me ask you a question--Is not one +called Jasmine? Has she not a piquant face, and very soft and yet +bright eyes, and a great lot of curly brown hair? Yes, Miss Egerton, I +am sure the girls you speak of are in a certain sense _my_ girls; for +if they are the ones I mean I took them under my protection long ago." + +"Their name is Mainwaring. My dear Arthur, where and how have you met +them? My dear boy, I fully believe, I have always believed, in your +good intentions, in your wish to do your utmost for every one; but if +you have really known Primrose, and Jasmine and Daisy, and have taken +them, as you say, under your protection, I must say that of late you +have lost sight of them--you have not been as kind as you generally +are to people in difficulties, for I never met three more absolutely +friendless girls than these." + +"It was a good Providence sent me here this morning," said Noel. "You +are quite right, Miss Egerton; I did lose sight of the children. I +tried to follow them, but they managed to hide themselves most +effectually. Think of my coming up to see you this morning, with a +message from Mrs. Ellsworthy, and finding that our lost lambs are all +but safe in your kind fold. How relieved my dear mother-friend will +be!" + +"Mrs. Ellsworthy is the kindest and best of women," said Miss Egerton; +"I will receive your message presently, Arthur, but you puzzle me more +and more when you tell me that she too knows my girls. I came across +them quite accidentally. They called to ask me to give Jasmine lessons +in English composition, and I took a fancy to them, and, in +particular, felt drawn to the little one--for she reminded me of--, +but no matter! The girls have been in and out of my house ever since. +I saw that they were fearfully independent, but in many trivial ways I +tried to help them. Well, Arthur, it is most surprising--it is +altogether incomprehensible, but never during the months we have been +seeing each other daily have they alluded to you or the Ellsworthys. +They seemed perfectly unconstrained, and chatted many times of their +cottage home in the country, but they never spoke of the Ellsworthys." + +"They would not be likely to do," answered Noel. "I think, Miss +Egerton, I must now tell you Mrs. Ellsworthy's and my side of the +story." + +Certainly Miss Egerton appeared to neglect her duties that morning; +fortunately, her school had not yet re-opened, but Bridget waited for +orders, and the tradesman left the house unattended to. Bridget knew +that Miss Egerton was always greatly taken up with Mr. Noel, and she +had to admit that he was a bonny-looking young man with a pleasant +face; but Bridget hitherto had given her mistress credit for always +putting duty before pleasure. What, therefore, did her present neglect +of household management mean? + +Arthur Noel had a long story to tell, and Miss Egerton listened, +weighing each point, and not giving too undue sympathy to either +party. Noel was of course enthusiastic in Mrs. Ellsworthy's cause, and +announced his intention of going to see her that very day. + +"She is in town," he said; "and if you give me the girls' address I +can bring her to them this afternoon." + +But here Miss Egerton laid her thin hand on the young man's arm. + +"No, Arthur, I won't betray their secret, poor little dears! they may +have been headstrong, and silly, and rash, and, poor children, they +may fail utterly, but they have not failed yet by any means, and if +they wish not to be tempted into a luxurious and dependent life, even +by the kindest friend, I, for one, will stand by them. You have come +on me by accident, Arthur, and have learned about the girls by +accident; you have no right to tell what you have thus discovered. I +have studied those girls' characters and I know that Primrose at least +would die of a broken heart if her independence were taken from her. +No, Arthur; if you wish really to help them you must put them in the +way of earning their own living, and in this manner the Ellsworthys +can doubtless assist, for they are rich, and have influence." + +Then Miss Egerton and her guest had another long and earnest +discussion, at the end of which time a compromise was arrived at. Noel +might tell the Ellsworthys that he and Miss Egerton knew where the +girls lived, and the Ellsworthys might give in-direct help by aiding +him in his efforts to find suitable work for Primrose and Jasmine--he +too, could be their open and acknowledged friend, and he arranged with +Miss Egerton to call and see them that very afternoon. + +Finally, Miss Egerton again drew his attention to the envelope, which +was only given to mock, as it contained nothing but blank paper. + +Noel examined it carefully. + +"This must have been given to the girls by Mr. Danesfield, the banker +at Rosebury," he said. "I know him well; he is the last person who +would play them such a trick. Don't you think, Miss Egerton it is +quite possible that this envelope may have been opened, and the money +removed?" + +"But the envelope does not look tampered with," answered Miss Egerton, +turning it round, and examining it carefully. + +"Thieves are very clever," answered Noel. "It is easy to open an +envelope by holding it over steaming water." + +"But Primrose always kept this letter locked up in her trunk." + +"Well, I will settle the point by writing direct, and in strict +confidence, to Mr. Danesfield. In the meantime let us say nothing to +Miss Mainwaring; and you will let me pay for the furniture, kind +friend." + +But Miss Egerton's face flushed brightly, and she drew back a step or +two. + +"No, my dear boy, I cannot. Since I drew that cheque I have felt +strangely happy. I think this very small act of self-denial will bring +me a blessing, and I don't wish to be deprived of it. Good-bye, +Arthur; come to see me again at three, and I will take you to my +girls." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +VOICE OF THE PRINCE. + + +Daisy felt quite certain that the Prince had come. Jasmine greeted her +old friend of St. Paul's Cathedral with sparkling eyes and effusive +words of welcome. Primrose, too, was very pleased to see any one who +brought such a contented look into Daisy's little face, for the child +asked herself to sit in his arms, and laying her head on his shoulder, +she listened with pleasure to some wonderful fairy stories which he +related. While Noel was by, Daisy seemed quite to forget her nervous +fancies--she even spoke confidentially of ogres who tried to make +themselves friendly, and she asked Arthur, with a very puzzled, +anxious face, if a little girl, who was so unfortunate as to have an +ogre for a friend, could ever get rid of him. + +"Oh, yes; he might turn into an enemy," answered Arthur. + +But here poor Daisy shuddered violently, and turned very white. + +"No, no," she said; "not into an enemy, never into an enemy, dear Mr. +Arthur." + +"What matter is it to you, little maid?" answered Arthur cheerily, +though he regarded her with very keen observation. "There is no ogre +going to trouble you as either friend or enemy; If he does he will +have to meet me. I am the Prince, you know, and my mission in life is +to slay the wicked ogres." + +"Oh! but his poor wife and his children!" half sobbed Daisy; "couldn't +you lock him up in a tower, dear Prince?" + +Arthur smiled, and gradually managed to lead the child's thoughts into +another direction. He was already gaining the greatest possible +influence over her, and he managed, on the occasion of his second +visit, to coax her to let him carry her across to Miss Egerton's for a +couple of hours. Dove met them as Arthur was carrying the child away, +and he first scowled, and then smiled obsequiously. Daisy turned +deadly white, and Noel felt that she trembled. + +[Illustration: DOVE MET THEM. Palace B] + +"I'm coming back to-night, Mr. Dove," she called out, in a shaky +little voice; and Dove answered-- + +"Pleased to hear it, missy; the attics would be lonesome without you, +missy." + +"Daisy," whispered Noel, "tell me something--is Dove the ogre?" + +"Oh, don't, don't, Mr. Prince!" answered back the child. "No, no, of +course not; why, he's only poor Mr. Dove--a friend of mine." + +When Daisy reached Miss Egerton's and found herself seated in that +lady's cosy little drawing-room, with sponge-cakes _ad libitum_ to +eat, and Noel sitting by and willing to give up all his time to her +benefit, she cheered up wonderfully; a faint color came to her white +little cheeks, and Miss Egerton, as she passed the open drawing-room +door, heard one or two silvery peals of laughter coming from her lips. + +"Bless the child!" thought the kind woman; "how much better she is +when she is out of that house. What nice influence that good fellow, +Arthur, has over her. I do trust the silly little one will soon give +up her fancies--for they surely can be nothing but fancies--and come +to live with me." + +But when the twilight fell Daisy ceased to laugh, the anxious and +troubled look returned to her face, and after a time she said to +Arthur, in her pretty coaxing way-- + +"Take me home now, please, Mr. Prince." + +Two days afterwards Noel called at the girls' lodgings Daisy alone was +in, but to all his entreaties she now turned a deaf ear. No, she did +not want to go out; she would rather stay in her own dear, nice old +attics; she was never so happy anywhere as in her own attics. She was +very fond of Miss Egerton, but she did not think she would like to +live with her. Miss Egerton kept a bird, and Daisy had a great +dislike to birds. + +"Please, Mr. Prince," she said, in conclusion, "stay with me here for +an hour or two, and tell me a beautiful story." + +Noel was rather clever at making up impromptu stories, and he now +proceeded to relate a tale with a moral. + +"There was a kind lady who had prepared lovely +guest-chambers--beautiful they were, and worthy of a palace." + +Here Noel stopped, and looked hard at his little listener. + +"Do you know why they were so lovely, little maid?" + +"No; please tell me, Mr. Prince. Oh, I am sure this is going to be a +real true fairy tale--how delicious!" and Daisy leaned back on her +sofa with a sigh of content. + +"The rooms were beautiful, Daisy," continued Arthur "because the walls +were papered with Goodness and the chairs, and the tables, and the +carpets, and the sofas, and the thousand-and-one little knick-knacks, +were placed in the rooms by Self-Denial, and the windows were polished +very brightly by Love herself, and she kept the key which opened the +chamber doors." + +"How sweet!" said Daisy. + +"Yes; there were two rooms, and they were very sweet. To live there +meant to get into an abode of peace. As to ogres, they would fall down +dead on the threshold of such rooms. There were only two, and they +were up high in a small house, and without the gilding and the glory +which I spoke of they would have seemed humble enough, but to those +who knew their secret, and what their owner had done for her expected +guests, they appeared a very Palace Beautiful. Now, Daisy, I must tell +you something so sad. The rooms were ready, but the guests did not +arrive. Three guests were expected, but the kind lady who had prepared +the rooms, who had papered them with Goodness, and furnished them with +Self-Denial, and brightened them with Love, waited and longed for her +visitors in vain. + +"Two of the visitors were most anxious to come, but one--a little +one--although she looked very gentle and had a sweet expression and +blue eyes, and seemed quite the sort of little girl who would not +willingly hurt a fly, held back. It never entered into her head that +she was selfish, and was making two or three people who loved her both +anxious and unhappy. She preferred to live in rooms which, by +comparison, were like dungeons; for the owners had never put Love into +them, and had never thought of Self-Denial in connection with them. +There, Daisy-flower, I have done. It seems a pity that the little girl +should have been so selfish, does it not?" + +"But how does the story end, Mr. Arthur? You have really only just +begun." + +"I only know the beginning, Daisy," said Noel, as he rose to leave. "I +have not an idea whether that Palace Beautiful will ever receive its +visitors, whether that kind lady will ever be made happy, or whether +that little girl will ever cease to be selfish." + +A few moments afterwards Noel went away, and poor Daisy turned her +face to the wall and wept. + +Of course, the very obvious moral had hit her hard, poor little maid! +Oh! if she could really only confide in Arthur--he was so nice and +strong, and he looked so contemptuously at Mr. Dove that day when he +was carrying Daisy across the road to Miss Egerton's. + +"I don't believe he would be afraid of Mr. Dove," she whispered +softly, under her breath. "Oh dear! why am I so terribly frightened? +Why does he make my heart beat? and why do I shake so when I see him? +Well, I'll never tell about his bringing me up the sticky +sweetmeats--of course I'll not tell. I promised I wouldn't; it would +be dreadful to break one's promise. Of course I know where people go +who break their promises. No, I promised Mr. Dove, and I must always, +and always, and always keep my word; but I did not promise him that +I'd stay here. He wanted me to, and I just had it on the tip of my +tongue, for I was dreadfully frightened, but he heard a noise, and he +went away. I'm so glad I didn't promise, because the Prince says I +should go and live in the Palace Beautiful. He thinks I'm a selfish +little girl. Oh dear! how terrified I shall be, but I won't be a +selfish little girl, and keep Primrose and Jasmine away from the +Palace, and break the kind lady's heart. I must try and write a very +private little note to Mr. Dove, and tell him that though I am going +away I'll always and always keep my word about the sweeties, and I'll +always be his truest of friends, although I do fear him more than +anything in the world." + +Here Primrose came in, and poor little Daisy roused herself, and tried +to talk cheerfully. + +"Primrose," she said, "do you mind my writing a letter which nobody is +to see?" + +Primrose laughed. + +"You funny pet!" she said; "if no one is to see the letter why do you +trouble to write it?" + +"I only mean, Primrose," continued Daisy, "that you are not to see it, +nor Jasmine, nor Miss Egerton, nor Mr. Noel. It is to--to somebody; +but you are not to be curious, Primrose, nor to ask any questions. +It's a most terribly important letter, and when it's written I'm going +to put it in the post myself. I'll go out with you, and you must turn +your back when I drop it into the pillar-box. You'll be very happy +when it's written, Primrose, and I'm doing it for you and Jasmine, and +because I won't be a selfish little girl." + +Primrose stooped down and kissed Daisy. + +"You may write your letter and post it," she said, "and I'll try not +to be the least bit curious, Eyebright. Now sit down and write away, +you have a nice quiet hour before Jasmine comes in to tea." + +"So I have," answered Daisy; "thank you, Primrose. Please don't say +anything to me when I'm writing." + +Then Daisy in her corner blotted her fingers, and brought a deep flush +to her little pale face, and ruined several sheets of note-paper, all +of which she carefully tore up to the smallest fragments. At last an +epistle, over which she sighed and trembled, and even dropped tears, +was finished. It ran as follows:-- + +"MY DEAR FRIEND, MR. DOVE,--I always and always will be most true to +you. I would not be such a wicked little girl as to break my word for +anything I'm going always to keep it, and tortures, even the +Inquisition, and even the rack, wouldn't get it out of me. Did you +ever hear of the rack, Mr. Dove? but perhaps you had better not know. +Yes, I'll always keep my word, the word that I promised, and no one +shall ever know about you and me and the sticky sweetmeats; but I +won't keep the word that I didn't promise. You remember how you wanted +me to give you another word that I'd always stay here, and keep +Primrose and Jasmine here, instead of letting them go and going with +them to the Palace Beautiful. I almost promised you, for you looked so +fierce, and your eyes were so bloodshot, and cruel, and terrible, and +I'd great work to keep remembering that you were really my friend; but +I'm so glad I did not give you that word too, for now I know that I'd +have done very wrong. A Prince has come to me, Mr. Dove, and told me I +am very selfish to try to keep my sisters out of the Palace Beautiful. +He says the walls are covered with Goodness and the furniture is put +there by Self-Denial, and the windows are shining because Love has +polished them up. He says there's no Love and no Goodness here, and he +calls your rooms dungeons. He's a very, very strong Prince, and he +kills ogres--he even kills ogres who are friends to little girls. +Please, Mr. Dove, this is to say that I'm going away to the Palace +Beautiful, and that I'll always keep my word about the sweeties. + + "Your true little friend, + DAISY." + +Then Daisy fastened her letter, and directed it to Mr. Dove, No. 10, +Eden Street, and she asked Primrose for a stamp, and then she and her +eldest sister went out, and Primrose turned her back while Daisy +dropped the letter into the nearest pillar-box. + +The moment this was done the child gave a little skip, and caught +Primrose's hand, and squeezed it hard, and said, in an excited voice-- + +"Now I've done it! I'm not going to be the selfish little girl who +breaks people's hearts. Primrose, darling let us hurry back to the +dungeons, and put all our things together, so that we may reach the +Palace Beautiful to-night." + +Poor Primrose, who was not in Daisy's secret, and knew nothing of +Arthur Noel's allegory, was conscious of a momentary wild fear that +her little sister had taken leave of her senses; but she soon began to +see meaning in Daisy's words, and was only too glad to yield to the +child's caprice at once. + +That very night, therefore, Miss Egerton's nice rooms were occupied, +and that good lady laid her head on her own pillow with a light and +thankful heart. + +Fortunately for Daisy, Dove was out while the packing was going on, +and only Mrs. Dove, with a very black scowl on her face, saw the girls +drive away in a four-wheeler. She refused to say good-bye to them, +and was heard to mutter that the "ongratitude of some folks was past +enduring." + +"Here, Dove," she said, when late that night her lord and master came +in, "those pretty young ladies as you thought so much of--'the attics' +I called them, and always will call them--well, they're gone. They had +a four-wheeler, and off they've gone, bag and baggage. For my part I +ain't sorry, for now that them attics are painted up and cleaned, +which they did out of their own money, I may be able to rise my rent. +Those young ladies and I couldn't have kept together much longer. +Disobliging, I call them--disobliging, and shabby, and mistrustful; +it was only this morning I asked Miss Mainwaring for the loan of seven +and sixpence, and she up and said, 'I'm sorry I can't oblige you, Mrs. +Dove.' Those kind of young ladies don't suit me, and I'm thankful +they're gone. Why, Dove, how you do stare!--there's a letter waiting +for you on the table." + +Dove took up his letter and read it carefully once or twice; after his +second reading he put it into his pocket, and turned to his wife-- + +"They've gone round to Miss Egerton's; isn't that so, my love?" + +"Who do you mean by 'they,' Dove?" + +"The three young ladies, of course." + +"Oh, I suppose so; but I neither know nor care--I wash my hands of +them from this day forward!" + +"Well, then, look here, Mrs. Dove, my love," said the husband, "I +_don't_ wash my hands of them--no, not by no means. It's all right if +they're gone to Miss Egerton's--there are trap-doors in the roof at +Miss Egerton's; I know the build of the house. There are trap-doors in +the roof, and quarter-day is coming on, Mrs. Dove, my only love!" + +"Law, Dove! you have a most startling way of saying them poetic +lines," answered his wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +A "CONTINUAL READER." + + +A few days after the girls were comfortably settled in their new +quarters Primrose went out. She went out all alone, for by this time +London streets and London ways were familiar to her. Neatly and very +quietly dressed, with the usual serene light on her sweet face, and +that dignity about her whole bearing which prevented any one from ever +being rude to her, she went, not to her china-painting as usual, but +simply to take exercise in the London streets. + +The fact was, Primrose wanted to be alone--she wanted to think out a +problem. She was beginning to be perplexed, and even slightly alarmed. +Her alarm was not caused at present by anything in connection with +Daisy, for Daisy seemed almost bright and well again; but money +matters were not too prosperous with the young housekeeper, the life +of independence she had hoped to attain for herself and her sisters +seemed to recede from her view day by day--the china-painting brought +in no apparent results; Mr. Jones never did anything except "all but" +get customers--the quarter's allowance from Mr. Danesfield looked +smaller and more inadequate to Primrose the more her experience in +expenses grew, and now something about Miss Egerton added to her +cares. It seemed to Primrose that Miss Egerton was holding back +something--she had always been frank and open with the girls, but when +Primrose asked her how much their furniture had cost, and whether she +had opened Mr. Danesfield's letter to pay for it the good lady's brow +had grown troubled, and she had replied-- + +"I am busy to-day--I will go fully into the matter presently, +Primrose;" but when morning after morning Miss Egerton was still too +busy to go into the question, Primrose began to have nameless little +fears, and had to scold herself for being fanciful and nervous. + +On this afternoon she walked quickly, and without being herself aware +of it she presently found herself in the neighborhood of Regent's +Park, and at last not very far from Penelope Mansion. She was thinking +hard, and paying little attention to any of the objects that met her +eyes, when she was suddenly pulled up short by a round and hearty +voice, a fat hand was laid on her shoulder, and she found herself face +to face with Mrs. Dredge. + +"Well, my dear, how are you, Miss Mainwaring? Oh, yes, I'm delighted +to see you. You did give us the slip, you and your pretty sisters. I +don't think Mrs. Flint quite liked it; we all questioned her, me, and +Miss Slowcum, and Mrs. Mortlock, and we said, 'At any rate give us +their address, Mrs. Flint--we take an interest in them--they are +pretty-spoken young ladies, and they were a credit to the +establishment.' But Mrs. Flint only frowned and bit her lips, and +colored. Then Mrs. Mortlock put her foot in it as far as Miss Slowcum +was concerned, for she said 'I'm sorry the girls from the country have +departed, and that they found us so disagreeable that they had to do +it unbeknown and quiet, for it was a real pleasure for ancient females +like ourselves to have young and bonny creatures about us.' + +"Miss Slowcum got very stiff at this, for she apes youth, my dear, in +a way that's past belief, and Mrs. Mortlock had her little fling on +purpose. Well, dear, and how are you? You look thin to what you were, +and a bit pale. How is that pretty little sister of yours who wanted +the cheap lodgings, that was to be so clean you might eat on the +floor?" + +"We are all fairly well, Mrs. Dredge," replied Primrose, when she +could edge in a word--for Mrs. Dredge was extremely voluble--"we are +fairly well, only Daisy has been suffering from cold. We have got +clean rooms too, thank you, Mrs. Dredge." + +"Well now, dear, I'm glad to hear it; that pretty child amused me when +she spoke of cheapness and cleanliness going hand in hand. Bless her +little heart! little she knew. + +"We have learned a great many things we knew nothing about six months +ago Mrs. Dredge," answered Primrose, a tinge of sadness in her voice. +"Yes, I am very glad to see you again--please, remember me to all the +ladies at Penelope Mansion." + +"Oh, my dear, they'll be glad to hear I met you--even Miss Slowcum +will, though she's a little bitter on the subject of age; and as to +that poor Sarah Maria, or Sarah Martha--I forget which she is, only I +know she's Sarah, with something tacked to the end of it--why, she'll +be fairly skipping with delight. That poor girl, she just worships the +ground you three young ladies walk on." + +"Oh, do give our dear love to Poppy," said Primrose tears springing to +her eyes. + +Those sudden tears did not escape the notice of fat, good-humored Mrs. +Dredge. + +"I hope you're getting on comfortably in every way, dear," she said, +"money matters and all. I had sore worries myself in the money line +until poor Dredge made his fortune in the chandlery business. My dear, +I was almost forgetting to tell you that we've had an affliction at +the Mansion." + +"I'm very sorry," began Primrose. + +"Yes, dear, and it's an affliction which is likely to continue, and to +grow heavier. It's poor Mrs. Mortlock, dear--I'm afraid she's losing +her sight, and very troublesome she'll be, and a worry to us all when +it's gone, for poor woman, she has a passion for politics that's +almost past bearing. Miss Slowcum and me, we take turns to read her +the papers now, but though our throats ache, and we're as hoarse as +ravens, we don't content her. Mrs. Mortlock is looking out for what +she is pleased to call a 'continual reader,' dear, and what I'm +thinking is that perhaps you or your sister would like to try for the +post--I believe you'd suit her fine, and she can pay well, for she's +fairly made of money." + +Primrose colored. To read to Mrs. Mortlock was about the last +occupation she would have chosen, but the thought of the purse at home +which was getting so sadly light, and the feeling that after all her +efforts she might never do much in the china-painting line, caused her +to reflect anxiously. + +"May I think about it and let you know, Mrs. Dredge?" + +"No, no, my dear, not by any means, for she has advertised, and they +are pouring in. Poor Sarah Susan is almost off her head answering the +door to them. Stout readers and thin readers, old readers and young +readers, they're all flying to the post, as if there were nothing in +life so delightful as being 'continual reader' of politics to poor +Mrs. Mortlock. She ought to have been suited long ago, but I've a +strong hope that she isn't, for she's as fidgety and particular as if +she were a countess. Your best chance, dear, is to come straight home +with me--we'll see Mrs. Mortlock on the spur of the moment, and try +and arrange it all." + +In this way Primrose obtained her first situation, for Mrs. Mortlock +was glad to feel her soft young hand, and her gentle and refined tones +had an instant and soothing effect on the poor lady's irritable +nerves. + +"My dear," she said, "what with rasping voices, and piping voices, and +droning voices, to say nothing of voices that were more like growls +than anything else, I felt nearly demented. Yes, Miss Mainwaring, this +is a sore affliction that has befallen me, and I knew there was +nothing before me but the services of a 'continual reader,' for poor +Mrs. Dredge, though she did her best, was decidedly thick in her +utterance; and Miss Slowcum, oh dear! the affectations of Miss Slowcum +were quite beyond me, besides our differing altogether in politics--me +holding for Gladstone, and she fairly hating the poor man. You'll do +very well, Miss Mainwaring, and I hope you'll study your papers well +while you're at home, so that you may know what you are reading about, +and read intelligent accordingly. I always like both sides of the +question, which was my poor husband's habit, for he was a very +intelligent man, Miss Mainwaring. And then I like my bit of gossip and +my Court news. I adore my Queen, Miss Mainwaring, and it is a real +_bona fide_ pleasure to learn when and where she drives abroad. You'll +come, please, in the morning, and set to work at your continual +reading. Salary, fifteen shillings a week certain. Now, now, you +needn't hesitate at taking what I call a lofty salary, for it always +was my way to pay down handsome. There now, that's settled. Shake +hands, dear; good-bye till the morning. Sarah Maria, you needn't show +up no more of the 'continual readers,' for I believe I have made a +bargain with this young lady." + +"Oh, Miss Primrose!" said poor Poppy, as she showed her out, "I am +more than thankful that you are coming here, miss--that's for my sake, +miss, though I'm dreadful afraid you'll suffer yourself. I'm awful +afraid you'll get muddled in your head, miss, for as to mine, it has +swam away long ago. I begin not to know in the least who I am, miss. +Poppy, why it ain't nowhere! only I'm Sarah, with all the other words +in the dictionary tacked on to it. I don't mind it now; they say folks +can get accustomed to anything, so I don't mind being Sarah, and +everything else too, only it has a very swimming effect on the head, +Miss Primrose. Oh, my darling young lady! do ask Miss Jasmine and Miss +Daisy to let me come and see them." + +"Yes, Poppy, you shall come and see us all again, if you will only +keep our little secret, for just at present we don't want the people +at home to know where we are; and remember, Poppy dear, that you are +always Poppy to us three girls." + +"I'll hold on to that," said poor Poppy, "when my head's fairly +reeling. I'll clutch on to it, and hold firm. Poppy, which means a +tare, I am, to my own dear young ladies. Oh dear! oh dear! they're +calling me--it's Sarah Matilda this time. Good-bye until to-morrow, +dear Miss Primrose." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +JASMINE BEGINS TO SOAR. + + +When Primrose went home and told her sisters and Miss Egerton what she +had done, Jasmine's eyes had grown first bright, and then misty. + +"To be continual reader to Mrs. Mortlock!" she exclaimed. "Oh, +Primrose, it is an act of self-denial to you--it is, isn't it? Own at +once that you were very brave to do it, darling." + +"I don't think so," said Primrose; "there may be a certain little +amount of drudgery in it, and perhaps I would rather have orders to +paint beautiful roses and lilies on china plates, but you see, +Jasmine, this work has been sent to me--I think God sent it, and I +must not refuse it because perhaps I would like something else +better." + +"That's bravely spoken, Primrose," said Miss Egerton who was sitting +by, for she often spent odd half-hours with the girls. "Look at +everything in the same spirit, my love; try to see God's hand in all +the little events, and you will have a brave life and a happy one." + +"And a successful, I hope," added Jasmine. "Miss Egerton, how awful it +would be if we girls were to fail!" + +"My Prince says," here interrupted Daisy, "that whenever we do a good +thing and a right thing, we bring something fresh and lovely into our +Palace Beautiful. Isn't it nice to think that dear old Primrose has +done this?" + +"The money, too, will be of great help," added Primrose. "Why, +Jasmine, we may even be able to save a little." + +Thus encouraged, Primrose commenced her duties, and though her throat +ached--and she certainly found the continual reading of politics, +interspersed with very sharp discussions on the part of Mrs. Mortlock, +anything but agreeable--she did not give way. + +Miss Egerton was pleased to see Primrose so bright, and was glad to +know she was really earning something; and Jasmine and Daisy prepared +the cheeriest welcomes possible for her evening after evening on her +return. + +Jasmine, however, by no means intended Primrose to be the only one who +was to bring assistance to the household purse. + +Jasmine knew that they had all come up to London on purpose to be +educated, or to educate themselves, sufficiently to earn their +livings. She considered that six months' experience of the ups and +downs of London life might bear fruit in her case as well as in her +sister's. + +Jasmine was supposed to be having her style formed by Miss Egerton's +daily tuitions, but Miss Egerton's words of encouragement over her +pupil's productions were decidedly meagre; and Jasmine, though she +loved her, had long ago confided to Daisy that she considered Miss +Egerton's manner had a damping effect on enthusiasm. + +One bitterly cold March day Jasmine had been sitting for hours +scribbling away at her novel. Daisy petted the cat, looked over some +well-known picture-books, and finally sank back into the recesses of +one of the most comfortable chairs in the room and began to think +about the Prince. + +"Don't go to sleep, Daisy," called out Jasmine presently. "I'm coming +over in a minute to consult you." + +Nothing could possibly be more gratifying to Daisy than to know that +Jasmine wished to ask her advice. She accordingly roused herself, +ceased to think of the Prince, and said, in a very bright little +voice-- + +"I'll help you the best I can, Jasmine." + +"It's just this," said Jasmine, dashing down her pen on the top of +her manuscript, and causing thereby a great blot--"it's just this, +Daisy; I've got to do something, and you have got to help me." + +"Oh, I'm sure if I can," said little Daisy, still in that slightly +patronizing voice, for the little maid's head was almost turned by +being thus appealed to. "Is it to sew on buttons for you, Jasmine? for +though I don't like sewing on buttons, I'll do it, or even--even--I'll +darn your stockings, dear Jasmine." + +Jasmine laughed. + +"It's nothing of that kind, Eyebright; it's something much, much more +important. You know, Daisy, what we came up to London for--why, of +course you know why we left all our dear friends, and are living in +about the very dullest part of London--of course you know?" + +"Was it?" said Daisy, looking dubious; "was it--I never could quite +make out--because Primrose did not like Mrs. Ellsworthy?" + +"Oh, you silly, silly little thing! What a dreadful thing to get into +your head, Daisy-flower! I did think you knew why we came to town, and +gave everything up, and made ourselves so miserable." + +"We did make ourselves miserable," sighed Daisy, "and I had to take +Mr. Dove for my friend. I like to have him for my friend, though. What +was the reason, please, Jasmine?" + +"We came to London for the glorious privilege of being independent," +chanted Jasmine, in a majestic voice. "Daisy, I'm going to be it. I'm +going to fling my shackles to the winds. I'm going to soar." + +"It sounds lovely," said Daisy. "You always were a poet, Jasmine, and +I suppose poets do talk like that; but how are you going to be +independent, Jasmine?" + +"I'm going to earn money, little woman. Miss Egerton has kept me in +shackles. I've worn them patiently, but now I burst the bonds. Daisy, +I have formed a little theory. I believe girls are sent into the world +with a strong bias in a particular direction. You see, it always did +seem to be meant that dear Primrose was to be a companion, or +secretary, of some sort; for Mrs. Ellsworthy wanted her to be Mr. +Ellsworthy's secretary, and to write his letters for him. She would +not be that, even though it was her bent, and now she's got to accept +something far worse; for it really must be dreadful to be 'continual +reader' to poor old Mrs. Mortlock. Now, Daisy, what I say is +this--there's no use in wasting time or money looking after things +which don't suit us. Primrose was meant to be a secretary or continual +reader, and so she has to be one; and I have always been meant to +belong to the rather higher order of novelist or poet, and there's no +use in my being damped any longer by Miss Egerton. I don't mean to be +conceited, but I know that I have got the flutterings of a poet's +wings in my soul, and soar I must." + +Jasmine looked very pretty while she was speaking, and little Daisy +admired her high-flown words, and fully believed in her genius. + +"Do soar, Jasmine, darling," she said; "I have not a notion how you +are to do it, but do begin at once. It will make these rooms more than +ever like a Palace Beautiful if you take to soaring in them." + +"I've nearly finished my novel," said Jasmine; "and I've also written +a poem. It is called the 'Flight of the Beautiful,' and is in seven +parts. Each part would take up two or three pages of a magazine. +To-morrow, Daisy dear, I am going to take my novel and poem into the +market. I shall offer them to the highest bidders. I won't send them +by post, for I always notice in books that, when gifted authors send +their contributions by post, they are declined with thanks, because +they aren't read. I am going to take my own manuscripts to the +publishers, Daisy, and I shall propose to them to read aloud a few +extracts." + +"You can't be at all shy if you do that, Jasmine," said Daisy, looking +in a rather awe-struck way at her sister. + +"Shy?" echoed Jasmine. "If one feels it, one has only to get over it. +Is that the way to conquer difficulties, Daisy?--just to be baffled by +a little nervous feeling. No, I really want to fill the purse, and I +also wish to give the publishers what I am sure they must be always +looking for; for I have looked in vain, month after month, in several +magazines, and nowhere have I seen three or four pages of continual +blank verse. I suppose they can't get it, poor things! but they will +in my 'Flight of the Beautiful!'" + +"_I_ think blank verse a little dull," said Daisy, softly, and half +under her breath; but, when Jasmine frowned, she added hastily, "Of +course you're splendidly brave, dear Jasmine; and who'll go with you +to the publisher's when you do go?" + +"I've been considering that," said Jasmine; "and I think I'll take +Poppy. Poppy is to have a whole holiday on Tuesday next, because her +quarter's wages are due, and I'll ask her to come with me. She'd enjoy +it--Poppy would--and very likely in the evening I'll be able to tell +you and Primrose that I've made my first success. Oh, how happy and +how proud I shall be!" + +A few minutes afterwards Jasmine went out, and Daisy wondered solemnly +if her bent in life was to keep on friendly terms with Mr. Dove. + +"I'm very glad I took the Prince's advice," she said to herself. "I'm +much, much happier since I came to the Palace Beautiful, and I don't +think Mr. Dove minds much, for he has never answered my letter. Oh +dear! perhaps I was too much afraid of Mr. Dove. I am so glad the +Prince explained to me about being a selfish little girl. And, oh dear! +there is the Prince!" + +Arthur Noel often came to see Daisy. He came in the evenings at an +hour when the elder girls were often away, and then Daisy sat on his +knee, and chatted to him volubly. + +This afternoon she told him about both her sisters. + +"Is having a bent the same as destiny, Mr. Noel?" she inquired +anxiously. "Jasmine says she has a bent, and she must follow it, and +no one can prevent her." + +"The bent can be guided, Daisy," said Arthur; but he looked puzzled +and seemed uncomfortable at the little girl's news. The Ellsworthy's +had begged of Noel to promote the interests of these girls. He was +only too anxious to do so, but he found his task by no means an easy +one. What wild imprudence would poor little Jasmine commit if she was +not aided and helped; surely Primrose's work was too uncongenial for +her long to continue it. Why did the girls persistently reject the +kindnesses of those who would help them? Where was it all to end? +Their money could only hold out to a certain date. How fragile Daisy +looked, even now; had anybody been cruel to the little one? What was +the mystery about Mr. Danesfield's letter? and above all things, why +did not Mr. Danesfield reply to a long epistle which Arthur had sent +him some weeks ago? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +VISITING THE PUBLISHERS. + + +Jasmine had begged of Daisy to keep her secret from Primrose's ears. +She said that half her pleasure in bringing home money for her +contributions would be destroyed if Primrose knew about it beforehand. +Jasmine hoped that if she were very successful she might be able to +buy a little present apiece for both her sisters. Primrose badly +needed some new gloves, and Jasmine pictured to herself how her eldest +sister's sweet eyes would fill with tears, and how touched she would +be by her little offering. Yes, certainly Daisy must keep her secret +faithfully. + +On Tuesday morning, as Primrose was preparing to start for Penelope +Mansion, Jasmine announced her intention of accompanying her. Her face +had a slightly guilty look as she made this suggestion; and Daisy +quite blushed, and kept her eyes fixed on her plate, and wondered how +Jasmine would smuggle a large roll of manuscript out of the house. +Primrose immediately guessed that there was a little mystery afloat, +but she was not a curious girl, and was only too pleased to see that +her sisters had something to interest them. + +"You can walk with me if you like, Jasmine," she said; "but it is a +rather dull morning, and I fear it will rain." + +"Torrents wouldn't keep me in to-day," said Jasmine. Then fearing she +had betrayed herself, she added hastily, "I want to see Poppy. Poppy +is to have a holiday to-day, and I want to take her out." + +Primrose made no further objection, and Jasmine having packed her +manuscript into a small leather bag, and having given Daisy a somewhat +solemn farewell, the two girls set out. + +When they arrived at the Mansion Primrose went upstairs at once to +Mrs. Mortlock's sitting-room, but Jasmine began to enter into an +earnest conversation with Poppy. + +"Are you quite ready, Poppy? Oh, you've got your working dress on +still; how tiresome!" + +"I won't be a minute changing, Miss Jasmine; the hours for the working +maid's holiday are from ten to ten, and I won't be denied them. The +clock has just gone ten, miss, and not another stroke of work shall +Aunt Flint get out of me to-day, miss." + +"Quite right, Poppy," said Jasmine; "run upstairs now, and be as +quick as possible, and I will wait for you in the hall." + +Poppy did not need to be told to hasten; she flew up to the small +attic which she occupied at the top of the house, and made a hasty +and, she hoped, a brilliant toilet. She had been thinking for weeks of +this day; for since Primrose had come to Mrs. Mortlock's Jasmine had +promised Poppy that she was to spend her holiday with her, and Poppy +had been getting ready her toilet with a view to the occasion. + +Her dress, after all, was only an ordinary and somewhat shabby brown +one, but she had adorned her tight-fitting black jacket with a +sky-blue bow, which hung down in front with what she considered "truly +hartistic folds." Poppy's hat, however, was her master-piece; it was a +rather small white straw hat, trimmed with dark blue velvet, and +adorned with a scarlet tip and a bunch of yellow daffodils. + +Poppy's black eyes gleamed mischievously under the shade of this +brilliant hat, and her cheeks rivalled the scarlet tip in their color. + +With her little purse clasped tightly in her hand she tripped +downstairs and joined Jasmine. + +Jasmine was too excited and too eager to be off to notice Poppy's +attire particularly, and when her hat and general get-up were received +without a comment the little maid whispered to herself, "It's only +another of the _bitings_; life's full of them--choke-full." + +"Where are we going, Miss Jasmine?" she asked aloud, smothering back a +slight sigh. + +"Business first, Poppy," said Jasmine--"business first and then +pleasure. I thought we'd make a little programme in this way--we'd +visit the publishers at their seats of learning in the morning hours; +in the afternoon we might go to Madame Tussaud's or a picture +gallery--I'd prefer that, but of course naturally you'd go in for +Madame Tussaud's, Poppy; then in the evening we'll go and have tea +with Daisy. We'll bring something nice in for tea, and Daisy will be +so happy. I expect to have very good news to bring to my little sister +to-night, Poppy." + +"Oh, indeed, miss, I'm sure I'm gratified to hear that same. I think, +Miss Jasmine, that the programme sounds sensible--the dull part first, +and then the pleasure, and then the needed refreshment for our hungry +bodies. All things considered, Miss Jasmine, seeing that I eats the +bread of toil from morn to eve, and have a swimming head, owing to +being Sarah with every other name tacked on, I think it might be best +for me to be enlivened with the waxen figures, miss, and not to have +my poor brain worrited with picters." + +"All right, Poppy, we will certainly go to Madame Tussaud's--but you +must not consider the first part of our day dull, dear Poppy--it is +business, certainly, but you don't know what it means to me. To-day, +Poppy, I am about to take my first soaring flight." + +"Oh law! Miss Jasmine--I always knew you were clever, miss, and I +suppose it is because I'm so worried in my business days that I've got +that stupid that I can't see no meaning at all in your words, miss." + +"All right, Poppy, you need not see any meaning in them--all you have +to do is to come with me, and look very grave and solemn, and say +'Yes' when I say 'Yes,' and shake your head and look stern when I do. +You are older than me, Poppy, and you are coming as a sort of +chaperon. Oh dear! Poppy, I wish you would not wear that scarlet wing +and those yellow flowers in your hat." + +"The cruellest of all the bitings," whispered Poppy under her breath. +Aloud she said, in a meek but determined little voice-- + +"That hat's as it's trimmed, Miss Jasmine, and must remain according, +for it can't be denuded in the street." + +"All right, Poppy. Your own dear face looks sweet and home-like under +it; now let us get into the very first omnibus, and find our way to +the city." + +When the girls arrived within the sacred precincts of the far-famed +Paternoster Row, Jasmine held her breath a little, and stood still +while she eagerly considered as to which publishing house she should +offer her wares. Finally, she determined that her first pilgrimage +should be to the editor of _The Downfall_, who had not yet returned or +even written to her about her "Ode to Adversity." + +The office of _The Downfall_ was not in Paternoster Row, but in a very +narrow street adjoining, and Jasmine, followed by Poppy, plunged +boldly down this narrow alley, and then up, and up, and up, and up the +winding stairs to the editor's office at the top of the house. + +Jasmine had not been at all agreeably impressed by Mr. Rogers on the +occasion of her former visit. Unaccompanied by Poppy, she would +scarcely have again ventured to approach him, but Poppy looked quite +determined and resolute enough to give her little companion courage, +and Jasmine's childish voice was presently heard in the outer office +demanding to see the editor. + +It so happened that Mr. Rogers was not particularly engaged, for _The +Downfall_ was rapidly proving the truth of its title, and was having a +very quick descent into an early and untimely grave--consequently its +editor had very little to do. + +Mr. Rogers consented to see Miss Jasmine Mainwaring and her +companion, and accordingly the two girls were ushered into the +editorial presence. + +Mr. Rogers commenced his interview with Miss Jasmine by apparently +forgetting all about her. This had a most disconcerting effect on the +young author. + +"But surely you must remember that I came to see you nearly three +months ago, and brought you a poem called an 'Ode to Adversity,'" +pleaded Jasmine--"we had rather a long talk about it; I don't know how +you can absolutely forget." + +"My dear young lady, so many people call, and leave so many poems, and +each poem is so like the last, that really you must pardon me, but my +head gets confused." + +"Taken with a kind of swimming, sir?" here burst in Poppy. "I suppose +it is a sort of Sarah case over again." + +The editor stared rather fiercely at this unexpected interruption, +deigned no reply whatever to Poppy, and continued his conversation +with Jasmine. + +"I am sorry that I have forgotten both you and your poem--it is, +doubtless, docketed with others to be returned in due course--I am +sorry, but of course I could not use it--did you expect me to? Why, +the name alone--an 'Ode to Adversity,' was quite sufficient to make me +decline it." + +"But, but," said Jasmine, coloring crimson and very nearly crying, "I +was told by a lady who reads your paper that the name was just what +you like. She said that your paper was called by a melancholy name, +and of course you wanted melancholy subjects." + +The editor smiled in a very bland, though disagreeable manner--"_The +Downfall_," he said; "we chose that title for political reasons." Here +he sounded a gong. "Jones," as an attendant came in, "look in +pigeon-hole D, and put into an envelope for this young lady some +verses entitled an 'Ode to Adversity.' Sorry I can do nothing more for +you this morning, Miss Mainwaring. Good morning--_good_ morning." + +When the two girls got out on the landing Jasmine thrust her rejected +poem into Poppy's hand. + +"Put it into your pocket, Poppy," she said, "and don't on any account +let me see it--I must try to forget it, or my courage will go. +Evidently, Poppy, names go by contraries. I wrote some dismal papers +on purpose for _The Downfall_; I will now offer them to a magazine +which has a cheerful title." + +"Look there, Miss Jasmine," said Poppy, when they got into the street. +"Right there, facing us at the other side, is what I call a pleasant +magazine--it has lots of pictures, for see, it's pressed up to the +window wide open, and it's called _The Joy-bell_--I'm a great deal +more taken with that sound than with the sound of _The Downfall_." + +"So am I, too," said Jasmine, the April cloud quickly leaving her +expressive face--"I'm so glad I have you with me, dear Poppy; I was +feeling so low just now that I should never have noticed the office of +_The Joy-bell_--it has a very nice, high-class sound, and I should say +was a more attractive magazine than even a shilling one. We'll go +there at once, Poppy, and be sure you support me, and say 'Yes' when I +look at you; and if I happen to frown in your direction, you'll know +that I want you to help me not to accept too low a price. Now come, +Poppy; I feel that destiny leads my steps to the office of _The +Joy-bell_." + +The editor of _The Joy-bell_ happened also to be disengaged, and after +keeping the young aspirant for literary fame waiting for about a +quarter of an hour, consented to see her and her companion. + +Jasmine's interview with this editor caused her to come away in very +high spirits, for he had not only promised most carefully to consider +her poem, "The Flight of the Beautiful," but he had also said he was +wanting a serial story to run through the pages of _The Joy-bell_, and +if hers happened to suit him he would be happy to use it. Finally, she +went away, leaving both her story and her poems in his hands, and with +a large parcel of _Joy-bells_ under her arm. + +"I will let you know my decision in a few days," said the editor, with +a very suave smile. "Oh, yes, as to terms, we can talk them over when +I discover if your story is likely to suit me." + +Then Jasmine went away trembling with delight. + +"Oh, Poppy!" she said, "how very, very happy I am." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +A PLAN. + + +Mrs. Ellsworthy had by no means forgotten the girls--they had all +three taken her fancy, and, as she said to her husband, she could not +get them out of her head. Arthur Noel, who was a sort of adopted son +of the house, often now brought her information about her favorites, +but the good little lady was impatient to see the girls herself, and +felt much annoyed at not being able to induce Arthur to give her their +address. + +"I don't want them to succeed," she said, talking one day to the young +man. "I have plenty of money, more than I really know what to do with, +and I particularly want to spend some of it on these girls. If they +succeed in what they are about they won't want my money, and of course +that is the last thing I wish. If I cannot adopt all three, why at +least can I not have Jasmine?--Jasmine is my favorite, although I love +that little pet Daisy too. Arthur, you may talk to me from morning to +night, but you will never persuade me but that Jasmine is the sort of +girl who would shine better in prosperity than in adversity." + +"You cannot take her from her sisters," said Noel; "I do not believe +you would get her to leave them--but if you were to try and were to +succeed, you would certainly lower her character, and having done +this, you could not say she would be a better girl in prosperity than +in adversity." + +"You are so particular, Arthur," half grumbled Mrs. Ellsworthy; "you +must have forgotten your own very poor days, or you would not speak so +warmly for adversity." + +"I don't quite forget them," said Arthur, a cloud coming over his +face, which was a particularly bright one. "I have a dim memory about +them, and a very, very dim memory about a mother and an old nurse, who +loved me very much. I can just recall crying night after night for my +mother, and being beaten, and silenced, and half starved. Then I +suppose I was ill, for I know there is a blank which I never can fill +up; but I shall always remember that day when I stood in the snowy +street, and cried so bitterly, and tried to ask for pennies, and how +my hat blew off, and I ran to catch it, and then--" + +"Oh, it was horrible!" said Mrs. Ellsworthy, covering her face with +her hands. "I shudder at it even now--the coachman could not keep the +horses in, and they went over you, and we thought you were killed. You +were lifted into the carriage--such a ragged, thin little figure, +with such a lovely face. You came to--you were not so badly hurt--it +was nothing short of a miracle, for you ought to have been almost +killed. My brother Arthur was with me, and when you opened your eyes +you stretched out your arms to him. He just took you to his heart on +the spot, and you were his son from that day forward. Well, Arthur, I +don't think, prosperity has done you any harm." + +"I had no choice," said Noel. "Prosperity came to me as God's gift. It +so happens that I am now a rich man and I suppose even rich people can +find their mission. The girls at present are poor; our cases are in no +way parallel. Oh! how gladly I would help them, but believe me, I +would help them to keep their independence." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy frowned. + +"If you are going to thwart me, Arthur, I am done," she said. + +"Can you not help them without adopting them?" asked Arthur. + +"Oh! my dear boy, what am I to do? I know lots of influential people, +but I can't go to them and say, 'I know three charming girls; they are +all as ignorant as possible; they don't know any of our manners and +customs; they are not educated up to the required standard; they are +fearfully independent. Will you, my dear friend, take the eldest into +your family, and give her a governess's salary, although she cannot +teach? and will you, my other beloved friend, speak to the editor of +the magazine you most admire, and ask him to accept poems which do not +scan, and stories which are the feeble productions of an ambitious +child? And will you, my last friend, come to the rescue by employing a +certain sweet little girl to look after your kittens?' Arthur, how can +those girls be independent unless they are taught?" + +"Still I believe the girls can be helped; and that it is the right and +only thing to do," said Noel. "I propose to talk to Miss Egerton about +them. I will ask her to go into figures with me, and to state what sum +she thinks ought to be expended on their education. She probably knows +something about what talents they have by this time. After she and I +have talked our plans over together we will ask you whether you are +inclined to advance the necessary money. If you say 'Yes,' Miss +Egerton will speak to the girls, and tell them quite openly what you +are doing, and appeal to their common sense not to reject their only +real chance of obtaining an independence bye-and-bye. They can, if +they think right, arrange to pay you back within a certain term of +years. I believe you will do best for them by making such an +arrangement." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy both frowned and smiled, but finally agreed to allow +Arthur Noel to have his own way. + +That very afternoon the energetic young man went to see Miss Egerton. +They discussed the subject in an its bearings, and Miss Egerton +arranged to speak to Primrose at the first opportunity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +THEIR QUARTER'S ALLOWANCE. + + +"Two letters," said Daisy, holding them up in her hand; "actually two +letters; one for Primrose--oh, yes! of course that must be from Mr. +Danesfield; and one for Jasmine--oh! Jasmine's is such a funny-looking +letter, quite thick and interesting, and with a darling little picture +on the back. What can the picture be?--oh! some little bells, and _The +Joy-bell_ written over them." + +"Give it to me," said Jasmine, her face suddenly turning crimson. "Oh, +Daisy! why do you examine my letters so curiously? This was meant to +be quite private. Oh, oh, oh! how my fingers tremble." + +"We are all alone, you know, Jasmine," said Daisy; "dear Primrose is +not in. She went to her continual reading nearly an hour ago. Dear +Primrose! she sometimes looks quite pale and tired. Perhaps the letter +is about our secret, Jasmine; please do read it to me--please do." + +But by this time Jasmine had torn the envelope open, and was +oblivious to all Daisy's comments. Her eager eyes devoured the +contents of an official-looking sheet of paper, then she danced up and +down the room, then she tossed the paper up to the ceiling, and +finally caught Daisy in her arms, and covered her little face with +kisses. + +"Oh, Daisy, it's too good!--I'm so happy, I could almost cry. Daisy, +darling, he wants to see me about my story--he thinks it's very +fine--he says there are masterly bits in it--I'm to go and see him as +soon as possible." + +"Him?" repeated Daisy; "but who is he, Jasmine?" + +"He's the editor of one of the most powerful of all our magazines," +said Jasmine; "the magazine is called _The Joy-bell_--hasn't it a +delicious title? Oh, Daisy! I must go at once to see him." + +"Take me with you," said Daisy, coming up close to her sister--"take +me with you, darling, dear Jasmine. I'm much better, I've nearly lost +my cough, and the spring is coming; the air feels quite warm +to-day--do take me, Jasmine, for it is our own secret, and then, after +you've got your money--for I suppose you'll get a lot of money--we can +both tell Primrose to-night." + +Jasmine hesitated, but the sun was shining warmly, and Daisy's little +face was very pleading--Jasmine felt so happy at this moment that she +greatly longed to give happiness. + +"Yes," she said, suddenly, "I don't suppose Primrose will really mind, +and you must wrap up well; only there's just one thing, Daisy, we'll +have to call for Poppy. I would not on any account go to the +publisher's without Poppy." + +As Jasmine and Daisy were hurrying quickly down the street to catch +the first omnibus which went in the direction of the Edgware Road, +Daisy suddenly clutched her sister's hand, the color left her pretty +face, and she began to hurry forward at a very rapid pace. + +"What is the matter, Daisy?" said Jasmine: "you have quite hurt my +hand; has anything frightened you? have you seen any one?" + +"Oh, it's nothing--I mean I'm subject to starts," said poor little +Daisy, in a sad voice. "I'll be better when I get into the omnibus +with you, Jasmine; and please, Jasmine, may I sit very close to you? +and may I hold your hand?" + +"You poor little darling!" said Jasmine, affectionately, "you are not +a bit strong yet--you must have some more chemical food; I am told +there is nothing so good for starts as chemical food." + +Daisy gave another start and a very gentle sigh. She knew well in her +little breast that no amount of chemical food would take away the +terror which inspired her when she saw the face of Mr. Dove. She had +seen him just now, although Jasmine had not--he was standing with +several other men at the corner of the road, and his blood-shot eyes +had seemed to look through her, and as she passed by he had raised his +hand, and shaken it at her in a truly menacing manner. + +Dove had not forgotten Daisy, as Daisy had fondly hoped. Daisy +Mainwaring meant to him a certain amount of money. Dove was not the +sort of man to allow the chance of gaining money dishonestly to go by. +As to earning money, and coming by it as the sweet fruits of honest +toil, that did not at all suit his idea. When he saw the child going +out with her sister he recollected, with much pleasure, that +quarter-day was about due. Feeling in his own pockets, he confessed +they were unpleasantly light and empty, and then he wondered if he +might find any agreeable little pickings in the girls' trunks. He had +subjugated poor little Daisy so completely that he would have ventured +to rob even in her presence, but of course he preferred doing his +burglary work alone. + +He very quickly made up his mind to pay a visit that very day to the +girls' new rooms in Miss Egerton's house. He made an excuse to get +away from his companions, and then, walking quickly in the direction +of Miss Egerton's house, he took his bearings carefully. At this hour +Miss Egerton was busy with her school and Bridget was employed in the +kitchen. He might do what he liked, therefore, in that part of the +house which the girls called the Palace Beautiful. He knew a way by +which he could get on the roof--from the roof there was an easy +entrance to the girls' rooms. By the time Jasmine, Daisy, and Poppy +were joyously driving towards the city Dove had taken possession of +their nice bright rooms. When he got in he locked the outer door, and +then he felt quite comfortable, and at leisure to look around him. + +The first thing he saw was the letter directed to Primrose on the +sitting-room table. He took it up, and examined it closely. He could +spell out--for he was by no means a proficient reader--the word +Rosebury on one of the post-marks; that was enough for him; the letter +was tucked neatly into his pocket, and then he went round the room in +search of fresh spoil. + +He found very little, for the Palace Beautiful showed none of its +charms to his eyes; in Dove's opinion it was a poor sort of +place--clean, certainly, but what of that? Dove considered that +cleanliness meant poverty. Dove's tastes lay in the direction of rooms +thickly carpeted; he liked two or three carpets, one on the top of the +other, on a floor; he liked the rooms to be well crowded with +furniture--furniture of the good old mahogany type, heavy and +dark--and the windows draped with thick merino. A room so furnished +would, as Dove expressed it, look solid, and mean a heavy purse, and +perhaps a nice little nest-egg laid by tidily in one of the drawers or +bureaus. Such a room would be very interesting to examine, but this +sitting-room, with its crimson drugget, and its white flooring, its +one or two choice engravings on the walls, and its little book-case +filled with good and valuable books, was, Dove considered, very shabby +indeed. He found nothing more worth taking, and having given the Pink +a kick by way of a parting blessing, he left the room, made his exit +again by the roof, and so departed unperceived. He had Primrose's +letter in his pocket, and he thought himself very lucky to have so +nicely secured her quarter's allowance. He returned to his own house +in Eden Street, and in the privacy of his back parlor opened Mr. +Danesfield's letter. It was a short letter, and, as it happened was +not written by Mr. Danesfield at all. Dove, however, by patient +spelling and peering, presently mastered its contents. + + "The Bank, + "High Street, Rosebury, + "April 21. + +"MADAM, + +"In Mr. Danesfield's absence, I send you a cheque for L17 10_s._, +according to his orders. The cheque will require your signature at the +back, and if you will kindly sign it you, or any one else, can obtain +cash for the amount at the Metropolitan Bank, Strand. + +"I expect Mr. Danesfield home in about six weeks; he has been +wintering abroad. + + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN DAVIS." + +Dove took the greater part of an hour to make this letter out; next he +fingered the cheque, turning it backwards and forwards; then his face +grew very blank--for, unsigned, that cheque was valueless. He was a +violent man, and he uttered some strong expressions, and his wife, on +hearing them, took good care to keep out of his way. She could not +make out why Dove sat so long in the back parlor, and why he refused +to eat his dinner, which was very hot and tasty. After a time, with a +sigh of relief, she heard him go out. + +Dove had hastily fastened up the letter, trusting to no one's noticing +that it had been opened. Again he reached Miss Egerton's house; again +he made his way from the roof to the upper landing, and from the upper +landing to the girls' rooms; the letter was not placed on the table, +but was skilfully slipped down between some books which lay in a pile +on Jasmine's little writing-table. It might have been put there by +any one who was dusting the room, and it might have lain in its +present position unseen for many days. Dove hoped no one would +perceive it; he scowled at the poor little Pink, who crouched away +from him, and turning on his heel again, left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +_THE JOY-BELL_. + + +It is to be feared that Poppy stole away from her work that morning. +Poor Poppy was getting into a sadly defiant mood. She was getting +thoroughly tired of her aunt, Mrs. Flint, and when Jasmine appeared +and said a few coaxing words the naughty girl left her work undone, +disregarded the many cries for Sarah Ann and Sarah Maria, and putting +on her brilliant hat and her smart jacket, sallied forth citywards +with Jasmine and Daisy. In due time the three reached the office of +_The Joy-bell_ and were admitted into the presence of the editor. + +"You musn't let me accept too low terms, Poppy," said Jasmine, as they +were going in at the door. + +Poppy nodded very brightly in reply, and Jasmine took the seat the +editor offered her with a certain little air of modest elation. + +"I got your note," she began, "and I thought you'd like to see me +immediately, so I came. This is my sister; she knows all about it; +she's in the story herself. I've drawn all my characters from the +life; and my friend, Poppy Jenkins--you saw her a fortnight ago--she's +in the book too." + +The editor--Mr. Potter was his name--had a habit of waving his hand +when anything that he considered superfluous was being said; he now +waved both Daisy and Poppy into the background, and addressed himself +to Jasmine in a style which, as she said afterwards, riveted her +attention on the spot. + +"I wrote to you, Miss Mainwaring," he said, "because I saw germs of +promise in your composition--it is young, of course, for you are very +young, but it is fresh, and with due correctness, which I myself am +willing to supply, I do not see why 'The Pursuit of Happiness' should +not appear in our journal. We publish, however, only under certain +conditions, and before I make any offer for your writings I should +like to know whether you are able to fulfil them." + +"That sounds in the nature of a bargain," here burst from Poppy's +lips. "Now, Miss Jasmine, please will you listen very sharp, and see +what the gentleman is after? Bargains seem to me to be all in favor of +them that makes them. Aunt Flint made a bargain with me, and, oh my! I +thought it good enough to leave the country and come up to a town +whose name is wanity. Nothing have I got, Miss Jasmine, from my share +of the bargain but a swimming head and the name of Sarah!" + +"If this young person will cease to interrupt us," proceeded the +editor, in his blandest tones. + +"Oh, yes; Poppy, please stop talking," said Jasmine. "I beg your +pardon, sir; I only wanted Poppy to help me when we came to terms. We +have not come to the money part yet, dear Poppy. Yes, sir, I am most +anxious to listen to you." + +"Well, Miss Mainwaring, the facts are these--yes, I fear it is a +question of money, after all. _The Joy-bell_ is a new magazine; we are +most anxious to extend its circulation by every means in our power. We +have hit on what we consider a novel, but effective expedient. Each +contributor to our pages is expected to subscribe for a hundred copies +per month of our magazine--these copies he is asked to disseminate as +widely as possible amongst his friends. The magazine is only sixpence +a month. Of course you get your friends to take the copies off your +hands. Your story will, I think, run for six months--you are really +put to no expense, for, of course, you must know a hundred people who +will gladly take a magazine in which you appear. Thus you gain the +advantage of having your story widely read and published not at your +own expense." + +"But please--" began Jasmine. + +"If I might speak who am brought here for the purpose," here burst +from Poppy, "what pay is the young lady to have for the words of +genius that she has wrote upon the paper? Yes, Miss Jasmine, you said +I was to let my voice be heard here--I'm not afraid, not of nobody, +and here, I puts down my foot, and I says, 'What's the pay?'" + +"The pay?" echoed the editor. "Surely the young lady does not expect +to be paid for anything so very amateur--no, she cannot expect to be +paid in money--in another way she is paid, and largely; she obtains a +reputation, and what immature talent she has is brought to the fore! I +am afraid, Miss Mainwaring, I must not take up any more of your +valuable time--I think I have explained myself quite clearly--do you +accept my offer? If you are willing to become a subscriber for one +hundred copies monthly of _The Joy-bell_ your story shall appear; if +not, I must return you your MS. with regret." + +Poor Jasmine's white little face grew piteous. + +"Oh, Poppy!" she began. + +"Do you want it, Miss Jasmine?" said Poppy. "I calls it a cheat; but +do you want it?" + +"Oh, dear Poppy, I thought my words would look so lovely in Print--I +am disappointed!" + +"Then you shan't be, Miss Jasmine, darling. Here, sir, you're another +of the Aunt Flint tribe, but my darling Miss Jasmine shall not look +as she does now if I can prevent it. Please, sir, will you look in +this here little purse given to you by the honest hand of toil, and +see if it contains the price of a hundred of those nasty _Joy-bells_. +There's my three months' wage in that purse, sir, so I expect it will +prove sufficient." + +The editor opened the little purse gingerly. + +"Do you wish your friend to subscribe for you?" he asked, looking at +Jasmine. "I will allow you to have the first instalment at a +reduction. The full price for a hundred copies of _The Joy-bell_ at +sixpence a copy will be, of course, fifty shillings. On this occasion +you shall have these delivered to you at your residence for forty-five +shillings." + +"It's in the purse, sir," said Poppy, with an air of modest pride. +"Forty-five shillings, and fifteen shillings over, for my wage with +Aunt Flint comes exactly to three pounds a quarter. The fifteen +shillings will find me in boots and house shoes, Miss Jasmine; and as +my 'at is fresh trimmed, and I have enough cotton dresses to go on +with, you are more than welcome to the two pound five." + +"We will arrange it so, then," said the editor. "Miss Mainwaring, you +must give me your address, and you shall receive proofs in a day or +two. This sum of money provides for the appearance of the first +instalment of your story. From the sale of the hundred copies you will +be provided with funds for the second instalment, and so on." + +"But how am I to pay Poppy back if I must give you the money that I +get for the magazines?" asked Jasmine, her face becoming more crimson +each moment. + +"Ah! that," said the editor, with a slightly sarcastic smile, "that is +surely not my affair." + +After this a few comparatively trivial arrangements were made. Jasmine +gave the address of the Palace Beautiful to Mr. Potter, and walked +downstairs, feeling excited, pleased, and disappointed. + +"Oh, Poppy!" she said, "how light, how very light your purse is." + +"No, Miss Jasmine," answered Poppy, "you're out altogether there, for +fifteen shillings in silver weighs more than three pounds in gold. +It's my heart, not my purse, that's light, Miss Jasmine--it has done +me a sight of good to help you, Miss Jasmine; I know he is a cheat in +there, but never mind, when your pretty, beautiful tale appears +there'll be a run on it, I think, and that _Joy-bell_ will be asked +for high and low. You'll pay me back, never fear, and I'll be real +proud to my dying day to feel that I was the first to help you." + +That evening, as Jasmine and Daisy sat together waiting for Primrose +to return, Daisy said suddenly-- + +"Did you soar to-day, Jasmine, when you took Poppy's wages to have +your story printed?--was that what you call a soaring flight?" + +Daisy spoke innocently, and with real desire for information, but at +her words Jasmine covered her face and burst into tears. + +"What a cruel remark, Eyebright," she said. "Do you know I'm quite +miserable about this; I've been getting more and more wretched ever +since I left that man's office. Suppose, Daisy, I don't sell a hundred +copies of _The Joy-bell_; then I shall never be able to have any more +of my story printed, and I shall never have it in my power to pay +Poppy back. I think I must have yielded to temptation that time; +perhaps I'm nothing but a vain little girl, and think myself cleverer +than I am." + +"Oh, I'm sure you're a genius, Jasmine," said Daisy. "I know, for I +have studied your face a great deal; in the story-books I generally +notice that the geniuses have the same kind of face that you +have--they generally have a little discontented, surprised look about +them. I admire the expression very much myself, and sometimes when I'm +alone--for you know you and Primrose have to leave me a good deal +alone--I try to practice it before the glass. I think it's mostly +done with a rise of the eyebrows, but I never can keep mine up long +enough." + +Jasmine laughed. + +"I do hope I am a genius," she said; "I have always longed so to be +one. If I really am, it will be all right about Poppy's money, for, of +course, the public will try to buy my story. It's really rather a +striking story, Daisy. There's a girl in it who does such wonderfully +self-denying things--she never thinks of herself for a moment--she is +very poor, and yet she earns money in all sorts of delightful ways, +and supports her family--she has got two sisters--they are not half as +clever as she is at earning money. The story begins by the sisters +rather despising Juliet, but in the end they find out how much she is +worth. The leading idea in the story is the inculcation of +unselfishness--oh dear! oh dear! I hope I shall prove myself a genius +in having developed this character. If so, I shall be able to pay +Poppy back." + +"There is something so beautiful in unselfishness," said Daisy, in a +rather prim, moralizing little tone. "Do you know, Jasmine, that I was +once going to be frightfully selfish?--I should have been but for the +Prince, but he spoke to me; he made up a lovely little story, and he +told me about the Palace Beautiful." + +"I never can make out why you call these rooms the Palace Beautiful, +Daisy," said Jasmine. + +"It's because of the way they've been furnished," said Daisy. "They +are full of Love, and Self-denial, and Goodness. I do so dearly like +to think of it. I lie often on the sofa for hours, and make up stories +about three fairies, whom I call by these names; they are quite +playmates for me, and I talk to them. I often almost fancy they are +real, but the strange thing is, Jasmine, they will only come to me +when I have tried to be unselfish, and cheerful, and done my best to +be bright and happy. Then Goodness comes, and makes the walls shine +with his presence, and Self-denial makes my sofa so soft and easy, and +Love gives me a nice view through the window, for I try to take an +interest in all the men and women and little children who pass, and +when I sit at the window and look at them through Love's glass you +cannot think how nice they all seem. I told the Prince about it one +day, and he said that was making a real Palace Beautiful out of our +rooms." + +Jasmine sighed. + +"I hear Primrose's step," she said. "Oh, Daisy! you are a darling! how +sweetly you think. I wonder if these rooms could ever come to mean a +Palace Beautiful to me! I don't think fairies could come to me here, +Daisy. I don't think I could see things through their eyes. I want my +palace to be much larger and grander than this. Perhaps if I am a real +genius it will come to me through my story; but, oh! I hope I did not +do wrong in taking Poppy's money." + +"No, for you are a genius," said little Daisy, kissing her +affectionately. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +ENDORSING A CHEQUE. + + +Primrose's life was very busy at this time. Certainly nothing could be +more irksome than the daily task of reading to poor Mrs. Mortlock, but +the fifteen shillings a week which she now earned regularly was a +wonderful help to the household purse, and Primrose performed her +irksome duties with a cheerful, and even thankful heart. Her anxieties +about Daisy were almost laid to rest. Since the child had been moved +to Miss Egerton's house she seemed quite a changed creature. Her old +cheerfulness and sweet calm were returning to her. Morning after +morning she bade Primrose good-bye with a bright smile on her little +face, and however long and dull her day was, she greeted her sister +happily at night. What, therefore, was poor Primrose's consternation +to find, on returning home the evening after Jasmine had made +arrangements for the publication of her manuscript not only Jasmine, +but Miss Egerton and Bridget all surrounding poor little Daisy, who +lay on the sofa with a ghastly white face, and burst into nervous +troubled weeping whenever she was spoken to. + +"We found her in such a queer state," said Jasmine; but Miss Egerton +held up a warning hand. + +"Let it rest now, my dear," she said; "we need not go into the story +in Daisy's presence; she wants perfect quiet. Primrose, she has been +longing so for you; will you sit down by her, and hold her hand?" + +Daisy opened her eyes when she heard Primrose's name, and held up a +hot little hand to her sister, who clasped it very firmly. + +"I want to speak to you all by yourself, Primrose," she whispered. +"Please ask Jasmine, and Miss Egerton, and Bridget to go away. I want +to say something most important to you." + +"Leave us for a moment," said Primrose to the others; and Jasmine went +down with Miss Egerton to the sitting-room. + +The moment Daisy found herself quite alone with Primrose she raised +her head, ceased crying, and looked at her sister with bright feverish +eyes, and cheeks that burned. + +"Primrose," she said, "would you think it very, very wrong of me if I +did something that wasn't in itself the very best thing to do, but +something that I had to do to prevent a dreadful ogre putting me down +into a dark dungeon? Would it be very wrong of me to do a very little +thing to prevent it, Primrose?" + +"My darling," said Primrose, "your poor little head must be wandering. +I don't understand what you mean, my dear little one. Of course it +would be only right of you to keep away from an ogre, and not to allow +one to touch you--but there are no ogres. Daisy love--there never were +such creatures. You need not make yourself unhappy about beings that +never existed. The fact is, Daisy, you are too much alone, and your +little head has got quite full of the idea of fairies. I must ask Mr. +Noel not to talk to you in so fanciful a manner." + +"Oh don't, Primrose, for it is my one and only comfort. Oh! I am glad +you think I ought to keep out of the ogre's power. He is a dreadful, +dreadful ogre, and he has tried to get into the Palace, and I am +awfully afraid of him." + +Then Daisy laughed quite strangely, and said, in a wistful little +voice-- + +"Of course, Primrose, this is only fairy-talk. I always was fond of +fairies, wasn't I? Primrose, darling, I want you to do a little thing +for me, will you?" + +"Of course, Daisy. Why, how you are trembling, dear!" + +"Hold my hand," said Daisy, "and let me put my head on your shoulder. +Now I'll ask you about the little thing, Primrose; there's your +letter from Mr. Danesfield on the table." + +"Has it come?" said Primrose; "I am glad. I expected it yesterday +morning." + +"It's on the table," repeated Daisy. "Will you open it, Primrose? I'd +like to see what's inside." + +"Oh, there'll be nothing very pretty inside, darling; it is probably a +postal order for our quarter's money." + +"Yes, but let me see it, Primrose." + +Primrose moved slowly to the table, took up the letter, and opened it. + +"It's just as I said, Daisy," she remarked, "only, no--it's not a +postal order, it's a cheque. I must write my name on the back, and +take it to the Metropolitan Bank to cash to-morrow." + +"Let me see you writing your name on the back, please, Primrose," said +Daisy, in a queer, constrained little voice. + +Primrose smiled to herself at the child's caprice but, taking up a +pen, she put her signature across the back of the cheque. + +"May I take it in my hand, Primrose?" said Daisy. "Oh, thank you! My +hand shakes, doesn't it? but that's because I'm so dreadfully subject +to starts. Isn't it funny, Primrose, to think that this little paper +should mean a lot of golden sovereigns? Doesn't it make you feel rich +to have it, Primrose?" + +"It makes me feel that with it and the help of my weekly salary we +shall be able to pay for our bread and butter, Daisy." + +Daisy turned ghastly white. + +"Oh, yes," she said, "oh, yes, dear Primrose. Will you put the cheque +back into the envelope, and may I sleep with it under my pillow? I'll +stay so quiet and still, and I'll not start at all if I have the +cheque that you have signed under my pillow." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +DAISY'S REQUEST. + + +Primrose was so anxious to soothe Daisy that she allowed her without a +moment's hesitation to have her way. The moment the child felt her hot +little fingers clasping the letter with its precious enclosure she +became quiet, and ceased to speak. Primrose had undressed her, and +placed her in bed, and she now turned her back on her sister, and +still clasping the letter tightly, closed her eyes. Primrose hoped she +was asleep, and went softly out of the room to talk over matters with +Jasmine and Miss Egerton. Miss Egerton could throw no light on the +subject of Daisy's queer attack, and when Primrose at last went to bed +she had to own that her anxieties with regard to her little sister had +returned. + +The next morning she was obliged to leave earlier than usual, and +rather to Daisy's astonishment, and very much to her relief, said +nothing about Mr. Danesfield's letter. Primrose had not forgotten the +letter, but she knew she would not be able to go to the bank that +day, and she thought it would comfort Daisy to take care of it. + +"Jasmine," she said to her second sister, "must you go out this +morning? I think it is hardly well to leave Daisy alone." + +Jasmine's face clouded over. + +"Have you forgotten, Primrose, that Miss Egerton and Mr. Noel were to +take me to South Kensington Museum to-day? They arranged that I should +go with them quite a week ago, and it would never do to put them off +again now. I'll tell you what I'll do, Primrose; I'll take Daisy too; +I'll see that she is not over tired, and Mr. Noel will take great care +of her; they are very fond of each other." + +"Try to arrange it so, then, Jasmine," said Primrose; "for I do not +feel happy about her being left." + +Primrose went away to spend her day as usual with Mrs. Mortlock, and +sat down to her "continual reading" with a heavy heart. + +Mrs. Mortlock was losing her sight rapidly--cataract was forming on +her eyes, and she could now only dimly see the face and form of her +young companion. Primrose, however, always managed to soothe the +somewhat irascible old lady, and was already a prime favorite with +her. + +To-day she took up the newspaper with a heavy heart, and the anxiety +which oppressed her made itself felt in a certain weary tone which +came into her voice. + +Mrs. Mortlock was fond of Primrose, but was never slow in expressing +an opinion. + +"Crisp up, Miss Mainwaring," she said; "crisp up a little; drawling +voices give me the fidgets most terribly. Now, my dear, try to fancy +yourself in the House of Commons; read that speech more animated, my +love. Ah, that's better!" + +Primrose exerted herself, and for a few minutes the reading came up to +its usual standard, but then, again, thoughts of Daisy oppressed the +young reader, and once more her voice flagged. + +"There, my dear, you had better turn to the bits of gossip; they are +more in your line, I can see, this morning. Dear, dear, dear! I can't +tell what's come to girls these days; they don't seem to find no heart +nor pleasure in anything. Now, if there is a girl who, in my opinion, +has fallen on her feet, it's you, Miss Mainwaring; for, surely, the +handsome salary I allow is earned with next to no trouble. When once a +girl can read she can read continual, and that's all I ask of you." + +"I'm sorry," said Primrose; "some things at home are troubling me, and +I cannot help thinking about them. I shall do better over the gossip." + +"That's right, my love! I'd ask you about the home troubles, but my +nerves won't stand no worriting. Get on with the gossip, dear, and +make your voice chirrupy and perky, as though you saw the spice of it +all, and enjoyed it--do." + +Just at this moment, while poor Primrose was trying to train her +unwilling voice, the door was opened, and Poppy, red in the face, and +with her best hat and jacket on, came in. + +"Miss Primrose, I'm come to say good-bye, I am. No, Mrs. Mortlock, +when about to quit I don't fear you no longer--not all the Sarahs in +Europe would have power over me now. I'm going. Aunt Flint and me we +has quarrelled, and I has given her fair warning, and I'm going back +to my native place, maybe this evening. Never no more will this city +of wanities see me. I'm off, Miss Primrose; I leaves Penelope Mansion +now, and I go straight away to your place to bid Miss Jasmine and Miss +Daisy good-bye." + +"For goodness sake, Sarah Matilda Ann!" here interrupted Mrs. +Mortlock, speaking with great excitement, "before you go see you bring +me up my beef-tea--Mrs. Flint won't give it a thought, and my nerves +won't keep up without the nourishment. Run down to the kitchen this +minute, Sarah Mary, and bring me up the beef-tea, and a nice little +delicate slice of toast, done to a turn, to eat with it. Mind you, +don't let the toast get burnt, for if I can't see I can taste, and +well know when my toast is burnt." + +Poppy was about to give a saucy answer, but a look from Primrose +restrained her, and before she left Penelope Mansion she had provided +the old lady with her luncheon. Primrose said a few words of farewell +and regret, and then Poppy set out, determined to take her chance of +finding Jasmine and Daisy at home. + +"I'll go back to my own place to-night," she said to herself, "and +tell my mother that wanity of wanities is London--my fifteen shillings +will just buy me a single third, and I needn't eat nothing until +to-morrow morning." + +When Poppy arrived at Miss Egerton's she was told by Bridget that Miss +Jasmine was out, but that she would find Miss Daisy by herself +upstairs. Poppy ran nimbly up the stairs, and knocked at the +sitting-room door; there was no answer, and turning the handle, she +went in. Daisy was lying with her face downwards on the sofa--sobs and +quivers shook her little frame, and for a time she did not even hear +Poppy, who bent over her in some alarm. + +"Now, Miss Daisy, darling, I'm real glad I has come in--why, what is +the matter, missie?" + +"Nothing, Poppy; nothing indeed," said Daisy, "except that I'm most +dreadfully unhappy. If I was a really quite unselfish little girl I'd +go and live in a dungeon, but I couldn't do it--I couldn't, really." + +Whatever Poppy was, she was practical--she wasted no time trying to +find out what Daisy meant, but bringing some cold water, she bathed +the child's face and hands, and then she made her take a drink of +milk, and finally, she lifted her off the sofa, and sitting down in an +arm-chair, took her in her arms, and laid her head on her breast. + +"There now, pretty little dear, you're better, aren't you?" + +"My body is better, thank you, Poppy--I like to feel your arms holding +me very tight. My mind will never, never be well again, dear Poppy." + +"Would it ease it to unburden?" said Poppy. "Sometimes it's a +wonderful soother to speak out about what worries one. At Aunt Flint's +I used to let fly my worries to the walls for want of a better +confidant. You think over about unburdening to me, Miss Daisy. I'll +promise to be a safe receptacle." + +Daisy shook her head mournfully. + +"It would be no use," she said; "even telling now would be no manner +of use. Oh, Poppy, I wish I had been strong enough, and I wish so +dreadfully I had not minded about the dungeon. If the Prince was here +he would say I ought not to live any longer in the Palace Beautiful, +and I don't think the rooms do look like the rooms of a palace +to-day. Please, Poppy, look round you, and see if you can see any +goodness shining on the walls, and if you can see through Love's glass +into the street." + +"Oh lor! no, Miss Daisy; I'm not so fanciful. The walls is just fairly +neat, and the windows, they're just like any other attic windows. Now, +missy, you're just fairly worn out, and you shall shut your eyes and +go to sleep." + +Poor little Daisy was so weary and weak that she absolutely did close +her eyes, and comforted and soothed by Poppy's presence, she fell into +a short and uneasy doze. She awoke in about an hour, and lay quite +still, with her eyes wide open. Poppy said something to her, but she +replied, in an imploring tone. + +"Please let me think. I had a dream when I was asleep. I did something +in the dream, and I think I'll do it now really--only you must let me +think Poppy." + +"Think, away, pretty little miss," said Poppy: "and while you are +worriting your poor little brain over thoughts I'll take it upon me to +prepare a bit of dinner for you." + +Poppy made some tea, and boiled an egg, and toasted some bread to a +light and tempting brown. When the meal was prepared she brought it to +Daisy, who said wistfully-- + +"If I do what I want I must be strong, so I'll eat up that egg, and +I'll take some toast, and you must take something too, Poppy." + +"Seeing as I can't get no meal till to-morrow morning I'm not inclined +to refuse a good offer," said Poppy. "You don't know, missy, as I'm +going back to my native 'ome to-night." + +"Poppy," said Daisy, suddenly, taking no notice of this remark, "do +you know if Mrs. Ellsworthy is a very rich woman?" + +"Mrs. Ellsworthy of Shortlands?" said Poppy; "why, in course; ever +since I can remember, my mother has said to me, 'Poppy, child, them +there Ellsworthys is made of money.'" + +"Made of money," repeated Daisy, a little shadowy smile coming to her +face; "then they must be really rich. Do you think, Poppy, that Mrs. +Ellsworthy is rich enough to give away L17 10_s._ to buy the daily +bread, and to help a little girl who could not help being selfish out +of a dreadful dark dungeon? Mrs. Ellsworthy has always been very kind, +and I used to love her when I lived at home, but if I thought she was +not really very, very rich, I would not ask her, for that might be +putting _her_ to great trouble. Losing money makes one's heart ache +terrible, Poppy, and I would rather bear my own heartache than give it +to another person." + +"Mrs. Ellsworthy is made of money," repeated Poppy, "and L17 10_s._ +would be no more than a feather's weight to her. All the same, I can't +make out what you're driving at, Miss Daisy." + +"I wonder if Mrs. Ellsworthy is at Shortlands now," continued Daisy. + +"To be sure she is, Miss Daisy; shall I take her any message when I +goes back home?" + +"Oh, no, Poppy, thank you very much. Poppy, I wish you had not lent +all that money to Jasmine two days ago--you have not any money in your +pocket now, have you, Poppy?" + +Poppy gave a slight sigh. + +"Just the price of a third single to Rosebury, and no more, Miss +Daisy, darling." + +"Oh, dear me," said Daisy, "it's just exactly that much money which +would make me perfectly happy. Must you go to Rosebury to-night, +Poppy?" + +"Well, missy, I'd do something to make you 'appy, but I don't know +where to go if I don't go to my home--to be sure, Aunt Flint would +give her eyes to get me back again, but I fears that even for you, +Miss Daisy, I can't bear no more of that Sarah game." + +"But don't you think you might be able to bear it just for a week, +Poppy? If I loved you always and always all the rest of my life, do +you think you could bear it just for one little week longer? I'd be +sure to let you have the money back again then, dear Poppy." + +Poppy gazed hard at the child, who was sitting upright on her sofa, +with her cheeks flushed and her eyes shining, and a fitful quiver +about her pretty lips. + +"What does it all mean?" thought practical Poppy; "it's more than +common worries ails the little dear. I'm sure I'd bear Sarah to my +dying day to help her, the sweet lamb! I wonder, now, has she lost +some of Miss Primrose's money. I know they're short enough of means, +the darling ladies, and maybe the child has mislaid some of their +money, and is frightened to tell. Dear me, I shouldn't think Miss +Primrose would be hard on any one, least of all on a sweet little lamb +like that; but there's never no saying, and the child looks pitiful. +Well, I'm not the one to deny her." + +"Miss Daisy," said Poppy, aloud, "I have got exactly fifteen shillings +in my purse, and that's the price of a third single to Rosebury, and +no more. It's true enough I meant to go down there to-night, and never +to see Aunt Flint again, but it's true also that she'd give her eyes +to have me back, and was crying like anything when I said good-bye to +her. 'Sarah,' she says, 'it's you that's ongrateful, and you'll find +it out, but if you comes back again you shall be forgiven, Sarah,' she +says. So I can go back for a week, Miss Daisy, and if you have lost +fifteen shillings, why, I can lend it to you, dearie." + +"Oh, Poppy, you are a darling!" said little Daisy. "Oh, Poppy, how can +I ever, ever thank you? Yes, I have--lost--fifteen shillings. You +shall have it back again, Poppy, and Poppy, I will always love you, +and always remember that you were the best of good fairies to me, and +that you took me out of the power of a terrible ogre." + +"All right, Miss Daisy," said Poppy, returning the child's embrace; +"here's the fifteen shilling, and welcome. Only I never would have +called sweet Miss Primrose an ogre, Miss Daisy." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +THE JOURNEY. + + +Poppy went away presently, and the moment she was gone Daisy began to +make some hasty little preparations. + +"I'll take the Pink with me," she said to herself. "I'll empty all the +things out of my little work-basket, and my darling Pink can sleep in +it quite snugly, and she'll be great company to me, for I cannot help +feeling very shaky, and I do start so when I see any one the least +like Mr. Dove in the distance. I mustn't think about being frightened +now--this is the least I could do, and if I'm terrified all over I +must go through with it." + +Then Daisy wrote a tiny note--a little note on half a sheet of +paper--which she tore out of her copy-book. It was blotted with tears +and almost illegible. This was what she said:-- + +"Primrose, darling, I and the Pink, we have gone away for a little +bit. Your money is lost, Primrose, and I cannot look you in the face +until I get it back again. Don't be a bit frightened about me--I and +the Pink will come back when we have got the money. + + "Your loving little + "DAISY." + +This note was left open on the table to greet Primrose when she came +in, and then Daisy buttoned on her little jacket, and put on her +strongest pair of boots, and the neat little hat which Primrose had +trimmed for her the week before, and popping the Pink into her +work-basket, she stole softly downstairs and out of the house without +old Bridget, who was busily engaged in the back kitchen, hearing her. + +The poor little maid got into the street just when the shades of +evening were beginning to fall. She had the Pink in her basket, and +fifteen shillings clasped tightly inside one of her gloves. Fifteen +shillings paid for a third single to Rosebury, and she was going to +Rosebury--so far her plans were definite enough; beyond this broad +fact, however, all was chaos. + +Daisy knew very little more about London than she had known nine +months before, when first she and her sisters arrived in the great +city. She had gone out much less than the other two, and she had never +gone alone. Whenever she had walked abroad she had gone with a +companion. + +Now her only companion was the Pink, and the poor little heart felt +very lonely, and the little feet trembled as they walked along the +pavement. + +She had been so terrified about Poppy finding out what she really +wanted to do with the fifteen shillings that she had been afraid to +ask her any questions about Rosebury. She had not an idea from what +railway station she was to go, and she feared, as she walked through +the streets, that she might have to walk many miles. + +At first she walked very rapidly, for she was anxious to get out of +Mr. Dove's neighborhood, and she also thought it just possible that +she might meet Primrose or Jasmine returning home. Besides the fifteen +shillings which were to pay for her ticket she had threepence of her +own in her pocket. When she had walked about half an hour, and thought +that she had gone a long way, and felt quite sure that she could not +be very far from the railway station which led to Rosebury, the Pink +awoke, and twisting and turning in her narrow basket began to mew +loudly. + +"Oh, poor Kitty Pink," said Daisy, "she must be wanting her supper, +poor dear little kitty! I'm not at all hungry myself, but I think I +ought to buy a penno'th of milk for my kitty. I'll just go into that +shop over there--I see that they sell bread and milk. Perhaps they'll +give me some bread and milk for kitty for a penny, and oh, perhaps +they will know if I am near the right railway station for Rosebury." + +Summoning up all her courage, for Daisy was naturally a timid child, +she ventured into the shop, and having asked for some bread and milk +for her cat, which was given with a little stare of amusement by a +good-natured looking woman, she put her important question in a very +faltering voice. + +"Rosebury, my little dear?" said the shopwoman; "no, I never heard of +the place. Is it anywhere near London, love?" + +"No," said Daisy; "it's miles and miles away from London. I know the +county it's in--it's in Devonshire and a third single costs fifteen +shillings, and I have got fifteen shillings in my glove. Now, perhaps, +you'll know where it is." + +"In Devonshire?" repeated the woman. "And a third single costs fifteen +shillings? Surely, miss, you are not going all that long way by +yourself?" + +"Yes," said Daisy, in a dignified little tone. "I'm obliged to go. +Thank you very much for Pussy's milk. How much am I to pay? Oh, a +penny? Thank you. Good evening." + +The Pink was once more shut down into her basket, and Daisy hurried +out of the shop. The good-natured woman stared after her, and felt +half inclined to call her back; but, like many another, she reflected +that it was no affair of hers. The child went on to the end of the +long street, and then stood at a corner where several omnibuses came +up. A conductor, seeing her wistful little face, jumped down from his +stand, and asked her if she wanted to go anywhere. + +"To Rosebury, in Devonshire," said poor little Daisy. "It's fifteen +shillings a single third." + +The man smiled at the anxious little face. + +"You want to get to Devonshire, missy," he said. "Then I expect +Waterloo's your line, and this here 'bus of mine goes there. Jump in, +missy, and I'll put you down at the right place." + +"I've only got two pennies," said Daisy, "Will two pennies pay for a +drive to Waterloo for me and kitty?" + +The man smiled, and said he thought he might manage to take her to +Waterloo for that sum. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT. + + +There are little girls of ten years old who in the present day are +possessed of a large amount of self-possession. Some of these little +maids are, in their own way, quite womanly--they can ask their way +without faltering, and they can even walk about alone in a great world +like London without losing themselves. + +But to this class of self-possessed little girls Daisy Mainwaring did +not belong. She had a charming, babyish little face, and was something +of the baby still in the confiding and wistful way in which she leaned +on others for support. Daisy was, perhaps, in all particulars younger +than her years. When at last, after inconceivable difficulties--after +being jostled about by an indifferent crowd, and pushed rudely against +by more than one stupid, blundering porter--she did find her way to +the right ticket-office, and did secure her single third to Rosebury, +and then get a very small allowance of room in a crowded third-class +carriage her heart was beating so loudly that she almost wondered it +did not burst. The great train, however, moved out of the terminus, +and Daisy felt herself whirling away through the night, and then she +became conscious of a little sensation of thankfulness. Surely the +worst of her journey was over now; surely she and the Pink would be +received very kindly and very lovingly by Mrs. Ellsworthy; surely Mrs. +Ellsworthy would listen with full credence to the little tale Daisy +would make up about an ogre having stolen away her money, and would +hasten to fill the poor empty little purse from her own abundant +stores. Daisy thought such happy and hopeful thoughts as she was +commencing her weary journey, and then she clasped the basket which +contained the Pink tightly in her little arms, and presently, from +sheer weariness, dropped asleep. When the little head bobbed forward +two or three times a good-natured neighbor put her arm round the +child, and after a little even took her into her arms, where Daisy, +after many hours of deep slumber, awoke. The night train to Rosebury +went very slowly, stopping at every little wayside station, and +sometimes seeming to the exasperated passengers scarcely to move at +all; but all these weary hours Daisy slumbered peacefully, and when +she awoke the sun was shining brightly, and a new day had begun. + +"Well, my dear, you have had a hearty sleep," said the good-natured +woman; "and where are you bound, if I may make so bold as to ask, +little miss?" + +"I am going to Rosebury," said Daisy. "Oh! how kind of you to let me +sleep in your arms. I've had quite a nice nap, and I'm not so very +tired. Thank you very much for being so very good to me. Are we near +Rosebury now, please?" + +"In half an hour you'll get there, dear. Now I must say good-bye, for +this is my station. Good-bye, missy, and a safe journey to you." + +"I'm so sorry you are going away," said Daisy, and she raised her +little lips to kiss her friend. + +"God bless you, love," said the nice, pleasant-faced woman, and then +she got out of the carriage, nodding her head to Daisy as she walked +away. + +The loneliness which had more or less been soothed or kept in abeyance +by this good woman's company now returned very strongly, and Daisy had +to feel a certain empty little purse which she held in her pocket to +keep up her resolution. She did not seem so certain about Mrs. +Ellsworthy being nice and kind as she was the night before. The +third-class carriage in which she had travelled was now nearly empty, +and when she at last arrived at Rosebury she was the only passenger to +alight. She gave up her ticket and walked out of the station, a +forlorn and unnoticed little personage. It was still very early in the +morning, not quite six o'clock, and there were very few people about, +and the whole place had a strange, deserted, and unhomelike feeling. +Could this be the Rosebury where Daisy was born, where she had been so +petted and loved? She did not like its aspect in the cold grey morning +light. There was a little drizzling mist falling, and it chilled her +and made her shiver. + +"I know I've been very, very selfish," she kept murmuring to herself. +"I oughtn't to have minded the dungeon. I ought not to have been so +terrified at the ogre. I'm afraid God is angry with me for being so +dreadfully selfish, and for letting the ogre take Primrose's money. I +always did think the sun shone at Rosebury, but perhaps even the sun +won't get up because he is angry with me." + +Daisy knew her way down the familiar and straggling village street, +but there were one or two different roads to Shortlands, and she +became puzzled which to take, and what with the drizzling rain, and +her own great fatigue of body, soon really lost her way. + +An early laborer going to work was the first person she met. She asked +him eagerly if she was on the right road; but he answered her so +gruffly that she instantly thought he must be a relation of Mr. Dove's +and ran, crying and trembling, away from him. The next person she came +across was a little boy of about her own age, and he was kind, and +took her hand, and put her once more in the right direction, so that, +foot-sore and weary, the poor little traveller did reach the +lodge-gates of Shortlands about nine o'clock. + +But here the bitterest of her disappointments awaited her, for the +woman who attended to the gates said, in a cold and unsympathizing +voice, that the family were now in London, and there was no use +whatever in little miss troubling herself to go up to the house. No +use at all, the woman repeated, for she could not tell when the family +would return, probably not for several weeks. Daisy did not ask any +more questions, but turned away from the inhospitable gates with a +queer sinking in her heart, and a great dizziness before her eyes. She +had come all this weary, weary way for nothing. She had taken dear +Poppy's last money for nothing. Oh, now there was no doubt at all that +God was very angry with her, and that she had been both wicked and +selfish. She had still twopence in her pocket--for the good-natured +omnibus conductor had paid her fare himself. She would go to the +nearest cottage and ask for some milk for the Pink, and then she +wondered--poor, little, lonely, unhappy child--how long it would take +her to die. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +MRS. DREDGE TO THE RESCUE. + + +High tea at Penelope Mansion was an institution. Mrs. Flint said in +confidence to her boarders that she preferred high tea to late dinner. +She said that late dinner savored too distinctly of the mannish +element for her to tolerate. It reminded her, she said, of clerks +returning home dead-beat after a day's hard toil; it reminded her of +sordid labor, and of all kinds of unpleasant things; whereas high tea +was in itself womanly, and was in all respects suited to the gentle +appetites of ladies who were living genteelly on their means. Mrs. +Flint's boarders were as a rule impressed by her words, and high tea +was, in short, a recognized institution of the establishment. + +On the evening of the day when poor little Daisy had disappeared from +her Palace Beautiful Mrs. Flint's boarders were enjoying their genteel +repast in the cool shades of her parlor. They had shrimps for tea, and +eggs, and buttered toast, and a small glass dish of sardines, to say +nothing of a few little dishes of different preserves. Mrs. Dredge, +who was considered by the other ladies to have an appetite the reverse +of refined, had, in addition to these slight refreshments, a mutton +chop. This she was eating with appetite and relish, while Miss Slowcum +languidly tapped her egg, and remarked as she did so that it was +hollow, but not more so than life. Mrs. Mortlock, since the +commencement of her affliction, always sat by Mrs. Flint's side, and +when she imagined that her companions were making use of their sight +to some purpose she invariably requested Mrs. Flint to describe to her +what was going on. On this particular evening the whole party were +much excited and impressed by the unexpected return of Poppy, alias +Sarah. + +"It took me all of a heap!" said Mrs. Flint; "I really thought the +girl was saucy, and had gone--but never a bit of it. If you'll believe +me, ladies, she came in as humble as you please, and quite willing to +go back to her work in a quiet spirit. 'Sarah,' I said to her in the +morning, 'you'll rue this day,' and she did rue it, and to some +purpose, or she wouldn't have returned so sharp in the evening. She's +a good girl, taking her all in all, is Sarah, and being my own niece, +of course I put up with a few things from her which I would not take +from a stranger." + +"She spoke pretty sharp this morning about you, Mrs. Flint, to my +continual reader," said Mrs. Mortlock; "I wouldn't take no airs, if I +was you, from Sarah Maria. Miss Slowcum, I'll trouble you for the +pepper, please. Seeing that I'm afflicted, and cannot now use my +eyesight, I think there might be a little consideration in the small +matter of pepper shown to me, but feel as I will I can find it in no +way handy. Thank you, Miss Slowcum; sorry to trouble you, I'm sure." + +"She grows more snappish each day," whispered Miss Slowcum to Mrs. +Dredge; but just then the attention of all the good ladies was +diverted by a ringing peal at the hall door-bell, followed by eager +voices in the hall, and then by the entrance of Poppy, alias Sarah, +who broke in upon the quiet of high tea with a red and startled face. + +"An awful trouble has happened," she began, breathlessly. "Oh, ladies, +you'll pardon me, but this is no time for standing on ceremony, when +my own darling little lady, Miss Daisy Mainwaring, has gone and left +her sheltering home." + +"Good gracious! my continual reader's little sister!" exclaimed Mrs. +Mortlock. "Left her home! you must be mistaken, Sarah Jane." + +"No, ma'am, it's a most sorrowful fact," said poor Poppy, who looked +terribly dejected, and nearly sobbed as she spoke; "the other two dear +young ladies has come for me, and I must go back with them. I'm +sorry, Aunt Flint, to part again so soon, but this is unexpected, and +my duty lies with my young ladies." + +"Your duty lies with your aunt, miss," here exclaimed the exasperated +Mrs. Flint. "Sarah, I was taking your part, but your airs are now past +standing. Ladies three, I feel convinced that this story is all a +make-up. I don't believe for a moment the child has gone away. It's a +make-up of Sarah's, who is turning into a most wicked girl." + +"I don't believe it," here exclaimed Miss Slowcum. "Sarah Bertha has +spoken the truth, I feel convinced. I had a warning dream last night. +I dreamt of white horses, and that always signifies very great +trouble. It's my belief that the poor dear innocent little child has +been murdered!" + +"Murdered!" almost screamed Mrs. Mortlock. "Miss Slowcum, I'll thank +you to come and take the seat next me, my dear, and tell me all your +reasons in full for making this most startling remark. My dear, I +don't object to holding your hand while you're pouring forth the tale +of woe. How and where, Miss Slowcum, did the child meet her death?" + +Meanwhile, during this wrangling and fierce disputing, Mrs. Dredge, +more kind-hearted than the others, had left the room. She had gone +into the hall, where Primrose and Jasmine stood side by side. She had +listened to their bewildered and agitated little story, and then +asking them to sit down and wait for her, she had returned to the +parlor. + +"Mrs. Flint," she said, "I have been talking to the two elder +Mainwaring girls; they are in the hall. No, Mrs. Mortlock, you can't +see Miss Primrose at present. The girls are in great trouble, for the +little one has gone away, and there seems to be a mystery about it +all. Your niece Sarah seems to be the last person who has seen the +child, Mrs. Flint, and, of course, Miss Primrose and Miss Jasmine want +to talk to her, and she had better go home with them. The friend they +live with, a Miss Egerton, left home this very afternoon to spend a +week in the country, and so the girls are quite defenceless, and have +nobody to consult. That being the case, I'm going back with them also +to their lodgings in a four-wheeler. Sarah Ann, go and fetch a +four-wheeler this instant, and don't stand gaping. Mind, a +four-wheeler, girl, and don't bring a hansom on no account near the +place. Yes, ladies, it's my duty to go with the poor orphans, and go I +will." + +While Mrs. Dredge was speaking Mrs. Mortlock ceased to hold Miss +Slowcum's very thin hand. Miss Slowcum's face looked decidedly +jealous, for she would have dearly liked to have been herself in Mrs. +Dredge's interesting and sympathizing position. Mrs. Mortlock raised +her almost sightless eyes to the fat little woman's face, and remarked +in a slightly acid voice-- + +"I'm obliged to you, Mrs. Dredge, for thinking that in the moment of +trial the sight of me and a sympathizing squeeze from my hand would +have done my continual reader any harm. It's very good-natured of you +to go with the orphan girls, Mrs. Dredge, and I'm glad to think you've +just had the support of your chop to sustain you under the fatigue. +Please remember, Mrs. Dredge, that we lock up the house in this home +at ten o'clock, and no latch-keys allowed. Isn't that so, Mrs. Flint?" + +"Under ordinary circumstances, quite so, ma'am," answered Mrs. Flint, +who would not have minded snubbing Miss Slowcum, but was anxious to +propitiate both the rich widows; "under ordinary circumstances that is +so, but in a dire moment like the present I think the ten minutes' +grace might be allowed to Mrs. Dredge's kind heart." + +"Here's the four-wheeler!" exclaimed Mrs. Dredge. + +"Good-bye, ladies. If I'm not in at ten minutes past ten don't look +for me until the morning." + +When Mrs. Dredge, Primrose, Jasmine, and Poppy got back to the girls' +pretty sitting-room the good-natured little widow proved herself a +very practical friend. First of all, she listened carefully to Poppy's +account of all that had transpired that day. She then got Primrose to +tell her as much as possible about Daisy. All the child's distress and +nervousness and unaccountable unhappiness were related, and the sage +little woman shook her head several times over the narrative, and said +at last, in a very common-sense voice-- + +"It's as clear as a pikestaff to Jemima Dredge that that sweet little +child has been tampered with. Somebody has been frightening the bit of +a thing, Miss Primrose, and it's for you to find out who that somebody +is. As to where she's gone? Why, she has gone back to where she was +born, of course, and you and me will follow her by the first train in +the morning, my dear." + +"She was taking care of a cheque of mine for seventeen pounds ten +shillings," exclaimed Primrose, "and in her little note she speaks of +the money being lost. I think nothing of the loss of the money beside +Daisy, but, Mrs. Dredge, Jasmine and I cannot afford even a +third-class ticket to Rosebury just at present." + +"Tut, tut, my dear," said Mrs. Dredge, "what's the good of a full +purse except to share it? My poor husband Joshua was his name--we was +two J's, dear--he always said, 'Jemima, thank God the chandlery is +prospering. A full purse means light hearts, Jemima. We can shed +blessings with our means, Jemima.' Those was Joshua's words, Miss +Mainwaring, and I hear him now telling them to me from his grave. You +and me will go down to Rosebury in the morning, dear, and Miss +Jasmine will stay at home with Sarah Mary for company, for there's no +sense in waste, and one of you is quite enough to come." + +While this conversation was going on Bridget knocked at the girls' +door, and presented Jasmine with a thick parcel, which had just +arrived for her by post. It was some of the manuscript, and the first +proofs of her story. The parcel came to hand at a sorrowful moment, +and Jasmine laid it on the sofa, made no comment about it, and did not +attempt to open it. Primrose scarcely raised her head from her hands, +and was not the least curious, but Poppy's eyes gleamed brightly, for +sharp Poppy guessed what the parcel contained, and she sincerely hoped +that whatever happened this story would prove a great success, and +that it would bring in so many gold coins to her young lady that she +would become not only rich herself, but able to pay back what she had +borrowed from her. For although Poppy was the soul of generosity, she +_did_ want her wages back. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +A NEW EMPLOYMENT. + + +At an early hour the next morning Mrs. Dredge and Primrose started for +Rosebury, and poor Jasmine and Poppy prepared to have a long and +lonely time by themselves. Poppy hoped that Jasmine would cheer up, +and look at that lovely printed story of hers, and perhaps read it +aloud to her; but poor Jasmine was really nearly broken-hearted, and +said once almost passionately-- + +"How can I look at it, Poppy, when I don't know where our little +darling is? Did she not share my secret? And she was so proud of me +and she always would believe I was a genius. I can't look at it, +Poppy--no, I can't; but if you like to open the manuscript, and read +what is printed of the story, why you may. Yes, I expect you will find +it exciting. Sit down and read it, Poppy, and I will go to the window +and look out. Oh, dear! oh, dear! Primrose promised to send me a +telegram when she got to Rosebury. Oh, what shall I do if I don't soon +hear some news of my darling little Daisy?" + +"Seeing as I can't comfort you, Miss Jasmine, I may as well take to +reading the mysterious, lovely story," answered Poppy. "Maybe when +you're having your dinner bye-and-bye, miss, you won't object to me +telling you what I thinks of it." + +"Only I shan't care in the least what you think to-day, dear Poppy," +answered poor little Jasmine, in a tone of deep melancholy. + +She went and stood by the window, and Poppy ensconced herself +comfortably on the sofa, and began to enjoy herself as best she could +under the circumstances. + +In about an hour there came a tap at the door, and Arthur Noel came +in. Jasmine gave a little pleased exclamation when she saw him; then +she ran forward, took his hand in hers, and burst into tears. + +"Daisy is lost," she said; "our sweet little Daisy, who loved you so +much, is lost." + +"It's inferred that she's gone down with a single third to Rosebury, +sir," here interposed Poppy. + +"Come and tell me all about it, Jasmine," said Noel, in his most +sympathizing tones. He led the poor little girl to the sofa, and, +sitting down by her, listened attentively to her story. + +"But the Ellsworthys are in London," he said, when he heard that Daisy +had gone to them. + +On hearing this news poor Jasmine burst into floods of fresh weeping. + +"Oh, then she's sure to be quite lost!" she said. "Oh, Mr. Noel, if +you are in any sense a true friend, won't you try to find her?" + +"Yes, Jasmine; I will never rest until I find her. I am glad I came in +to-day. I came to ask you to do something for me, but I find you want +my help instead. I will come here this evening, about the time your +sister is likely to be back, and I will then go and look for Daisy, in +case she is not found. Don't be frightened, Jasmine, I am quite sure +we shall soon get tidings of the dear little girl." + +"And do you know," said Jasmine, who felt a little comforted, "that we +have not only lost Daisy, but all our quarter's money. It is most +mysterious. Primrose gave Daisy a check to take care of for her, and +Daisy says she has gone away because the cheque is lost. We have no +money now that the cheque is lost, except just what Primrose earns +from Mrs. Mortlock." + +"There's a likelihood of some more earnings presently, Miss Jasmine," +here interposed Poppy, in a cheerful voice; "there's a likelihood of a +good bit more money when this powerful and thrilling romance is +published." + +"Your story, Jasmine?" said Noel, "and in type? Who did you get to +publish it, my dear child? Oh, you must let me read this." + +"Another time, please, Mr. Noel. I don't think I could quite bear it +to-day," said Jasmine. + +Noel looked at her earnestly. + +"I wonder, Jasmine," he said, "even though you are in such trouble, if +you would be brave enough to help _me_, and to earn a little money to +day? I want you to do quite a simple thing, and something you will +probably enjoy. I have never read any of your romances, but I have +often noticed that you possess rather remarkable artistic tastes, and +that you have a very correct eye for the arrangement of color. I have +been struck with this even in this little room, and I happened to +mention my observations one day to a lady who is a friend of mine. +That lady is giving a dinner-party to-night, and she wants some one to +arrange the flowers on her table in as fresh and new a style as +possible. Will you come with me to her house now, and see what you can +do? She will provide you with the flowers and the glasses to put them +into, and you can arrange them on the table just as you like best. She +will give you a guinea for the work, and I think you will find it +light and pleasant." + +Jasmine's eyes began to sparkle. + +"Oh! at another time it would be delightful," she said. + +"But don't you want a guinea very badly now? Don't you think you had +better put on your hat and come away with me, and try to earn it?" + +"I will," said Jasmine, with sudden enthusiasm. "Oh, Mr. Noel, how +good you are! How I wish I had a brother, and that you were he!" + +Noel took Jasmine to his friend's house, where the little girl began +by being almost frightened, but soon forgot herself in the strong +interest of her pleasant work. Noel was right when he said Jasmine had +true artistic instincts. Certainly, hers was untaught genius, but her +unerring taste came to her aid, and Mrs. Daintree's dinner-table never +looked prettier or fresher than when the little maiden had completed +her work. The room was bright and sunny, but Jasmine gave the table a +bower-like and cool effect, and she not only dressed the dinner-table +but placed flowers here and there about the room. Mrs. Daintree was +delighted, and asked the pretty little girl to come again to arrange a +dinner-table for her the following week. + +With her golden sovereign and her shilling tucked tightly away in her +glove Jasmine did not feel altogether miserable as she went home; even +though Daisy might still be lost, those first earnings were sweet. She +rushed upstairs and told her tale to Poppy, who sympathized most +warmly with her. Very soon after her arrival a four-wheeler was heard +to draw up to the door, and Mrs. Dredge alone returned. + +"I have left Primrose at Rosebury," she said; "we have made inquiries, +and there is no doubt a child resembling Daisy went down by the night +train yesterday. We have searched high and low, however, but cannot at +present get any trace of her. Don't look so pale, Jasmine, she must +soon be found. Primrose is staying with Miss Martineau, and they are +not leaving a stone unturned to find her. Most likely they have done +so by now. Don't cry, Jasmine; take example by your sister--she's a +fine plucky bit of a lass, and does not waste her time in tears when +there's something to be done." + +"Yes, that's just it," said Jasmine; Primrose has got something to do, +but I haven't--I can do nothing to find my little darling! Oh, Mrs. +Dredge, are not you awfully frightened about her?" + +"Tut, tut, my dear, not a bit of it! Of course, when a little lass +runs away all by herself there are most times difficulties in getting +trace of her, but don't you be in a way, for they won't last long." + +Poor little Jasmine sighed, and all her deep depression returned. She +was soothed again, however, by the sight of Noel, who came in very +soon afterwards. He said he had seen the Ellsworthys, and meant to go +down to Rosebury by the night train. + +"I'm pleased to hear it, young man," said Mrs. Dredge; "you're doing +just what my Joshua would have approved of had he been alive. Even +though Joshua was in the chandlery line he had a truly noble heart, +and one of his mottoes was that the strong should help the weak, and +if shoulders are made broad they should carry big burdens, so you go +down to Rosebury, young man, and prosper in your work." + +Noel smiled. + +"I will certainly do my best," he said; "I quite agree with your +husband's sentiments." + +"Well, well, young man, Joshua would have liked to know you in his +day. Dear, how stupid I am! but I didn't rightly catch your name. What +are you pleased to call yourself, sir?" + +"My name is Arthur Noel." + +"Well, what a small world we live in; it was only to-day I heard talk +of you. When Miss Primrose and I were down at Rosebury we came across +a gentleman of the name of Danesfield, and he came straight up to Miss +Primrose and said he had had a letter from you which he had not been +able to answer, because he was away. He said a lot to Miss Primrose +about the letter you wrote him; it seems that somebody must have +stolen three five-pound notes, which Mr. Danesfield put into a closed +envelope, and gave Miss Primrose for a kind of emergency fund when +she left her home. The poor lassie turned as white as a sheet when he +talked to her. Well, young man, you look white enough yourself at the +present moment, but I'll tell you, now, what has struck me, that +whoever took the three five-pound notes helped himself or herself to +that cheque of Miss Primrose's, and that poor little Daisy knows about +it." + +"I should not be the least surprised if you were right, Mrs. Dredge," +answered Noel. "Well, I must go now if I want to catch my train. +Good-bye, Jasmine keep up your heart--expect good news soon, and get +all the orders you can for dressing dinner-tables." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +IN THE FIELD. + + +Poor little Daisy, very faint and tired, and with a feeling of almost +despair in her little heart, presently crept through a gap in one of +the hedges, and sat down on the grass in a large field. She was so +foot-sore she could not walk another step; she was also terribly weak +from long fasting, and as she now had no hope at all of bringing +Primrose back her money, she felt disinclined to walk another step. + +"I suppose I'll soon die," she said to herself. "I wonder if God will +take me to heaven? I know I was very selfish about the dungeon. I +might have gone to the dungeon, and dear Primrose would have had her +money, and she and Jasmine would not have starved; but Mr. Dove did so +terrify me I really had not courage. Please, dear Jesus, I had not +courage. I'm only a very weak, frightened little girl, and I gave Mr. +Dove Primrose's money, and now I can't get it back from him, and I +think my heart is broken. I know, Jesus, you are angry with me, but +please don't go on being angry; please forgive me, for I am all alone +now without Primrose and Jasmine, and I think I'll soon die, for I +feel so very weak. I didn't tell a lie, either, Jesus; I never told +any one about Mr. Dove and the sticky sweetmeats--no, though I am a +coward about the dungeon, I would not go so far as to break my word. I +often longed to tell the Prince, for I felt he would deliver me from +the ogre, but I couldn't tell a lie even to be saved. Please, Jesus, +forgive me for being such a cowardly little girl." + +By this time the drizzling mist of the early morning had passed away, +the sun had come out, and the robins and thrushes in the hedge close +to Daisy began to sing. They poured out full notes of thrilling +sweetness and their music comforted the child, and she began to smile +very faintly to herself, and to hope that as God had let the sun come +out, and the birds sing, so He had forgiven her. + +The poor little Pink began to mew loudly in her basket, and Daisy let +her out of her prison, and when kitty rubbed her soft head against her +little mistress's sleeve the child felt some fresh thrills of comfort. +She felt terribly disinclined to move, however, and was really more +weak and exhausted than absolutely hungry. The day wore on, and the +little girl and her cat remained unnoticed in their corner of the +large field. There was a right of way through the field, and +foot-passengers came and went, but Daisy in her sombre little black +dress failed to attract any attention. She was quite in the shade +under her hedge-row, and it is to be doubted if any one saw her. At +last from utter weariness she sank down on the ground and fell asleep. +The Pink curled herself up by her little mistress's side and slept +also. It was then that the sun, slowly travelling across the heavens, +found them out in their shady corner, and kissed them, and made +pussy's soft little grey coat shine. The child and the cat were thus +made visible, and attracted the attention of a woman who was walking +across the field with a market-basket on her arm. She came up at once +to examine the little group; then she bent down close, then she gave +an exclamation half of horror, half of delight, and then she took the +sleeping child up in her arms, and covered her with passionate kisses. + +[Illustration: SHE CAME UP TO EXAMINE THE LITTLE GROUP. Palace B] + +"Oh! my own little Miss Daisy--my own little darling precious lamb! +And is it thus you have come back to your poor old Hannah again!" + +Nothing could have comforted Daisy more under present circumstances +than to find herself in her old nurse's arms. She quite gasped with +the joy and relief, and putting up her little hand to Hannah's face, +she stroked it fondly. + +"Now, my darling, where have you come from? and what are you doing? +and--why, if that isn't the little Pink, I declare! Now, my pet, tell +me, have you all three come back to Rosebury again?" + +"No, Hannah, I'm the only one who has come back. Oh Hannah, will you +please take me to our little cottage for a few hours--I should so like +to die there--I was born there, wasn't I, Hannah?" + +"Yes, love, but you're not going to die there, nor nowhere else. I +can't take you back to the cottage, dearie, for it's let, and I'm not +living there. I've a little bit of a place of my own in the village of +Teckford and I keep a small shop, and don't do so bad. You must come +home now with me, darling. Oh, yes, you must--not a word must you say +against it; then, when you've rested, and have had some nice bread and +milk, you shall tell old Hannah your story; and if so be as you're in +any trouble, why, your old nurse Hannah will set her wits to work to +find a way out of it. Now, my darling, I'm going to carry you to my +cottage." + +Daisy was certainly very weak. She tried to expostulate with +Hannah--she tried to say that her one and only duty was to try and get +tidings of Mrs. Ellsworthy's whereabouts, and then to follow her on +foot if necessary; but if the little spirit was willing, the flesh was +weak. The comfort of seeing her nurse again was too much for +Daisy--the knowledge that those were the very arms which had carried +her as a baby, and soothed her and tended her as a little child, was +quite too cheering to be resisted. Daisy made a valiant effort to say +"No," but instead, her lips formed a faint "Yes, Hannah, take me to +your home," and then Hannah, who was a strongly-built woman, lifted +the slight little girl in her arms, and carried her across the fields +to her tiny cottage at Teckford. All the time, while she was being +carried in those kind arms, Daisy kept repeating to herself, "I'll +have some bread and milk, for I am a little hungry, and I'll rest for +perhaps an hour, and then I'll go away on foot with my dear Pink to +find Mrs. Ellsworthy." + +But when the child and the woman reached the house in the village +Daisy was too faint and weary to take more than a spoonful or two of +bread and milk, and long before the night arrived she had forgotten +that she meant to undertake any journey, and lay with burning cheeks +and bright, feverish eyes on Hannah's bed in her little home. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +TOO MUCH FOR DOVE. + + +Mrs. Dredge's remarks had by no means been lost on Noel. When he left +Miss Egerton's house he consulted his watch, and found that he had +still an hour to spare before he need try to catch his train. He +thought for a moment or two, recalled certain expressions on Daisy's +face, certain words which dropped from her lips, and, above all, a +look which had filled her pretty eyes on the one and only occasion +when they had met Dove together. + +Noel began to feel more and more certain that this man, to whom he had +taken a great dislike, had something to say to all the child's misery. +Noel knew, however, that suspicion in such a case would be of little +avail--he must have certainty, and certainty could only be his by +cautious and wary movements. + +Again he consulted his watch, and now he determined on a bold course. +He remembered that the girls had once told him that Dove was a painter +by trade, but that he seldom or never had anything to do. Noel was +extremely fastidious, and, if possible, almost over-refined in the +arrangements of his own home. He made his little plan with a sigh, but +he would have done more than this for the sake of pretty little Daisy. + +Walking quickly, he soon found himself at the Doves' address in Eden +Street. His knock at the hall door was answered by Tommy Dove, who +assured him that both his father and mother were having high tea with +shrimps and watercresses in the back parlor. + +Noel said he wanted to see Dove on business, and Tommy, remarking that +the back parlor was as good a place as any other for this purpose, +ushered the visitor in direct. + +"I believe you are a painter," said Noel--"I have chambers at +Westminster, and want to have my balcony and front windows painted. +I've heard of you through the Miss Mainwarings, and as I'm in a hurry +to get the job completed at once, I have called round to know if you +are disengaged." + +"Of course you are, Dove," said his wife. + +"Softly, my only love," replied her husband. "Sir, be pleased to take +a seat. I shall be glad to do my best for you, and any recommendation +from the young ladies you mention is most gratifying to me. Sweet +young ladies they was, and ever will be--and my wife and me, we +mourns unceasing for their departure." + +"Speak for yourself, Dove," said the wife--"we are doing better with +our present attics than we ever did with our late attics. Sir, you'll +excuse me, but truthful I ever will be at all costs." + +"Can you paint my windows or not?" said Noel, rising to his feet, and +speaking with some asperity. "If you are too busy to undertake the +work pray say so, and let me seek some one else, for my time is +precious." + +"Of course he'll do it, sir," said Mrs. Dove. "Say yes to the +gentleman, Dove, and thank him, and have done with it." + +"Well, sir, I am very busy," said Dove. "I haven't a moment to call my +own for weeks to come, but all the same, I wouldn't disoblige the late +attics for a good deal, so I'll just put off the Cooks, who are wild +to get their house-cleaning through, and Mr. Martin, who keeps the +bacon and 'am shop, must wait. Yes, sir, I wait your pleasure, sir--I +can come." + +"To-morrow morning, then, early," said Noel, "this is my address. Ask +for my servant when you arrive, and he will show you what you are to +do, and will also give you directions as to the colored paint I wish +used. I must hurry off now, for I'm going down to the country on some +very sad business. You will be sorry to hear, Mr. Dove, that Miss +Daisy Mainwaring has lost a considerable sum of money, and the poor +little child is in such trouble about it that she has run away. Of +course, I don't believe for a moment that she has really lost the +money--of course it was stolen from her. Well, good-bye, I'm going to +seek her, and to try to catch the thief. Be sure you arrive at my +house in good time in the morning, Dove." + +"Yes, sir, very sorry to hear your bad news," said Dove, in a +self-possessed voice, but Arthur saw that his color had changed, and +he wanted no stronger clue to confirm his suspicions. When he got into +the street he not only consulted his watch, but a time-table. A later +train than he had intended to travel by would take it to Rosebury +early in the morning. He would go by this train. Now he jumped into a +hansom and drove to his chambers. His servant came to him, to whom he +gave hasty directions. + +"You're to buy the paint yourself, Lawson; see that it is properly +mixed, and the right shade. Move the plants from the balcony early in +the morning--the man will arrive in good time, and listen, Lawson, I +don't want him to be too closely watched." + +"What do you mean by that, sir?" said Lawson. + +"Only that you need not stay in the room all the time--come in and +out, of course--but don't imagine the man to be a thief until he is +proved such." + +"Well, sir, your commands must be obeyed, of course, but you have many +articles of virtue and elegance about." + +"Never mind that, Lawson--do as I tell you." + +When his servant left the room Noel took a five-pound note out of his +pocket, and enclosing it in an open envelope laid it carelessly on the +chimney-piece. There was no writing on the envelope, and the note +might well have been slipped into it by mistake. Noel also slipped a +ring of some value from his finger, and dropped it into a little tray, +which contained odds and ends of different descriptions. + +"Now I've laid my trap," he said to himself. "My poor little Daisy, I +hope I may ensnare your ogre to his destruction." + +The next morning early Dove, well pleased with his job, and never +guessing that the smallest suspicions had attached themselves to him, +arrived at Noel's rooms. He was a most idle man, and seldom cared for +work, but he was pleased at Noel's singling him out, and imagined that +notwithstanding her running away, he owed this visit to little Daisy. + +"She's a pert little thing," he said to himself, "and if she's so true +to me as all this, why I suppose I must leave her alone in the future. +I made a nice little haul out of her the other day, and I've got +several of them sovereigns about me still; but lor, wasn't she in a +piteous fright when I took that cheque away with me!" + +Dove was highly pleased with the appearance of Noel's rooms. He could +see no beauty in the simplicity of the girls' Palace Beautiful, but +although he was quite incapable of judging of the value of the +pictures and exquisite little statuettes which adorned the walls, he +was judge enough of the depth and richness of the Turkey rugs, and of +the wealth which must have been expended over the very select +furniture of Noel's sitting-room. + +Lawson, wondering much at his master's directions but supposing that +Dove must be a very special _protege_, received him with much +cordiality, gave him directions with regard to his work, and then left +him alone. Dove painted and cleaned, and whistled as he worked; he +felt quite cheerful and virtuous, and began to consider that the +position of British workmen was not such a bad one after all. He felt +more and more pleased with Daisy Mainwaring for having put him in the +way of such agreeable and profitable occupation, and more and more +resolved to leave her alone for the future. + +"Maybe if I was to talk to the pretty little dear she'd find me a deal +more jobs of this yere sort," he said to himself. "A little lady she +is, and no mistake, and she keeps very genteel friends, as any one can +see with half an eye." + +After Dove had worked for two or three hours he began to feel thirsty, +for he was quite unaccustomed to any continuous labor. The sun was +shining brightly on the balcony, and he was also a little hot, and the +inside of Noel's room looked deliciously cool and inviting. He had +just seen Lawson walking down the street, too, so he was quite sure of +having the premises to himself. Slipping off his shoes he stepped into +the room and began to look about him with an appreciative air. He +handled some of Noel's choicest books, and looked through a portfolio +of rare engravings but neither books nor engravings were quite in +Dove's way, and after a time he strolled over to the mantel-piece, as +he said, to see how he looked reflected in the over-mantel glass. +There were letters there directed to Noel. Dove would have dearly +liked to acquaint himself with their contents, but he was a slow and +deficient reader. Some cigars lay in a little cigar-case at one end. +Dove, as a matter of course, and without weighing the question at all, +slipped a couple into his pocket. After doing this he did not feel +quite so virtuous, nor so like the proverbial British workman; he +jingled some of Daisy's sovereigns in his pocket, and laughed when +they made a pleasant sound. Still eagerly peering at all the articles +on the mantel-piece his quick eyes presently detected amongst a heap +of rubbish and odds and ends Noel's valuable signet-ring; it was of +heavy workmanship, and its gold alone made it worth money. + +"Why, Isaacs the Jew would give me two pound ten, or perhaps three +pounds for this," queried Dove. "It has plainly been forgotten here, +and if the gent does miss it he'll lay the blame on that fine fellow +Lawson." + +It took a very small parley with Dove's seared conscience to make him +pocket the ring, and by the time Lawson returned to the house the +five-pound note had also been appropriated. Dove whistled more +cheerily than ever over his work that afternoon, and in the evening he +went home quite unsuspecting any little trap which might have been set +for him. + +He had scarcely gone before a boy arrived with a telegram directed to +Lawson, and with a reply pre-paid. Lawson read the following words:-- + +"Look on the mantel-piece in my sitting-room for a blank envelope, +open, which contains a five-pound note--No. 11267. I also left my ring +in the cigar tray. Wire reply if note and ring are safe.--ARTHUR +NOEL." + +The address to reply to was added. + +Poor Lawson spent an agonized ten minutes in searching over the +contents of the mantel-piece. In the end he had to fill in the reply +telegram with the news that nowhere could the five-pound note nor the +ring be found. + +A little over two hours passed, and again the worthy servant was +startled by a telegraphic dispatch. This was what it contained:-- + +"Have reasons to believe that the painter Dove is the thief. Go +instantly to the nearest police-station, give them the number of the +note, and go with one of their staff to Dove's house. His address is, +10, Eden Street, Junction Road, Holloway. The note and ring will +probably be found on his person. Get him apprehended if possible. Take +all necessary cabs.--ARTHUR NOEL." + +Thus it came to pass that when that evening Dove sat down tranquilly +to a luxurious supper of lobster salad, chops, and bottled stout, he +was unpleasantly interrupted. When two policemen, accompanied by +Lawson, came into his room, he was guilty of using very violent +language, and altogether conducted himself in a most excited manner; +but, notwithstanding his resistance, and Mrs. Dove's hysterics, and +some terribly distressing chuckles, really sounding more like laughter +than tears, which were heard to issue from the lips of that naughty +boy, Tommy, a strict search of his person was instituted, and in +consequence he was that very night locked up in jail. + +Oh, if only poor little Daisy, tossing on her hot and feverish pillow, +could have known! + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +THE PRINCE TO THE RESCUE. + + +Hannah was doing well in her little shop at Teckford. She had always +been a most saving body, and although Mrs. Mainwaring had never been +able to pay her high wages, she had managed to put the greater portion +of what she received away. Hannah was one of those fortunate +individuals on whom even a shabby dress will look neat. Her boots +lasted twice as long as any one else's, her caps retained their starch +and their whiteness long after another servant's would have had to be +resigned to a fresh cleaning process. Hannah therefore required little +or no money to spend on dress, and in consequence, when the Mainwaring +girls went away, she had a little nest-egg laid by to stock a shop. +She found a suitable little house at Teckford, laid in her little +store of provisions with care, for she argued wisely that however poor +people were they required food, and was living very comfortably on the +proceeds of her sales. Hannah, as a rule, had a smooth and unruffled +brow; she was a careful woman, but not a troubled one. At the present +moment, however it could scarcely be said of this good soul that she +was without cares. The neighbors who came in to buy their bacon, and +fresh eggs, and candles, and tea, remarked that Hannah had no longer a +cheery word and a pleasant smile to give them, and the children, when +they tumbled out their halfpennies and asked for "a little piece of +taffy, please, ma'am," noticed that Hannah's eyes had red rims round +them, and they wondered if she was naughty, and that was why she +cried. + +Yes, poor Hannah had a troubled heart during those early summer days, +for Daisy lay so weak and languid, and indifferent to all external +things, on her tiny little bed, never giving Hannah any information as +to why she had wandered alone to Rosebury, never saying anything about +the weight of sorrow which rested on her little heart, only now and +then moaning out that she must get up and go to Mrs. Ellsworthy, and +now and then feebly saying that she wished so very much that the +Prince was there. + +Hannah knew all about Mrs. Ellsworthy, and how she had taken the girls +up, and tried to help them, after their mother's death; but who was +the Prince? + +Finding that the child continued slightly feverish, and most +unnaturally weak--finding that the dainties she prepared were only +just tasted by the little sufferer--Hannah looked well into her little +store of hardly-earned money, and finding that she had sufficient to +pay him, called in the village doctor. + +Of course, with his limited experience, this good man could little +understand Daisy's case. He ordered medicine for her, and plenty of +cooling drinks, and said that he could not find anything very much the +matter, only she was most unnaturally weak. + +"It's my thinking, sir," said Hannah, "that this is the kind of +weakness that ends in death. My little lady is all on the pine for +something or some one, and unless she gets what she wants soon she +will die." + +Hannah's view of the case was rather puzzling to the doctor, who +stared at her, and considered her from that day forward a very +fanciful woman. He repeated his injunctions to give Daisy plenty of +milk, and to see that she took her tonic three times a day; and then +he took his leave. + +When he was gone Hannah went to her next-door neighbor and asked her +if she would be so very kind as to go and sit in the child's room for +a couple of hours. Then she put on her bonnet and neat black cloak, +and started off on foot to Rosebury. She had made up her mind to get +Mrs. Ellsworthy's address from some one, and to write to her about +Daisy. In due time she arrived at the lodge, saw the woman who kept +the gates, obtained from her without much difficulty Mrs. Ellsworthy's +address, and then prepared to return home. Just as she reached the +stile, however, which led into the field where she had found Daisy, a +thought struck her--she had no writing-paper in the house, and what +could be bought at Teckford was almost too bad to use. Hannah made up +her mind to go to Rosebury, which was a much more important village +than Teckford, and get a few sheets of note-paper, and an envelope or +two. She walked very fast, for she did not like to leave Daisy so long +by herself, and, panting and hurried, she at last arrived at the +little stationer's shop. The stationer's wife knew Hannah, and greeted +her with effusion. + +"I'm truly pleased to see you, Mrs. Martin," she said. "Why you're +quite a stranger in these parts, and I did not expect to see you round +now, with one of your young ladies returned and all." + +Hannah heaved a profound sigh. + +"She's very, very ill, poor darling," she said. "Very dangerously weak +and ill; and I must trouble you to hasten with the paper, Mrs. Jones. +One penn'orth of your most shining note, and two envelopes to match. +Mind you, give me a paper with a good gloss on it, Mrs. Jones." + +Mrs. Jones stared at Hannah Martin; but fetching down a box of +note-paper, prepared to wrap some sheets in tissue paper. + +"I shouldn't say Miss Primrose was ill," she remarked as she did so, +"though she do seem worried, dear young lady." + +When the shop-woman made this observation Hannah's pence tumbled down +on the counter with a crash. + +"Goodness gracious me, ma'am!" she exclaimed, "you don't mean to tell +me that Miss Primrose Mainwaring is at Rosebury?" + +"Why, of course, ma'am; why, don't you know? why you said but now how +weak and ill she was." + +"Never mind the paper," answered Hannah, "and never mind a word I said +about anybody; just have the goodness to tell me where I'll find Miss +Primrose." + +"She was staying with Miss Martineau but yesterday and there's a +gentleman come down, too--a very 'ansome, harristocratic-looking young +man, I call him, and for all the world as like our pretty Miss Jasmine +as if he was own brother to her--and they two and Miss Martineau are +fairly scouring the place for that poor little tot Miss Daisy, who it +seems 'as run away from home. Why, Hannah--Hannah Martin, woman! are +you daft?" + +For Hannah had rushed from the shop while Mrs. Jones was speaking, +leaving her neglected paper and two or three pence behind her on the +counter. A few moments later the good soul was knocking at Miss +Martineau's door, and very soon Primrose and Arthur Noel too were in +possession of all the facts that Hannah could give them. + +"Oh, Hannah! it is so good to think you were the one to save her and +find her," said Primrose, as she kissed her old nurse, and shed some +thankful tears. + +"You had better come back with me now, Miss Primrose," said Hannah, +"and perhaps the gentleman or Miss Martineau will send a telegraphic +message to poor Miss Jasmine." + +But Primrose's difficulties had not come to an end. She instantly +started to walk across the fields with Hannah; but when Daisy heard +she had come she absolutely refused to see her, and cried so +piteously, and got into such an excited state, that Primrose felt +herself obliged to yield to the child's caprice, and to keep out of +the room. + +"I can't see her, Hannah," poor little Daisy said. "Of all people in +all the world, I can't see my own Primrose. Oh, if only I were well +enough to go to Mrs. Ellsworthy, or if only the Prince would come!" + +Primrose heard Daisy's weak little voice through the thin walls of +Hannah's cottage. + +"Hannah," she said, "I know who Daisy means by the Prince. The Prince +is that kind Mr. Noel, who has been helping me to find the little +darling. If he has not gone back to London, for he said he would go +back at once after he knew we had found Daisy, he could come to her. +Oh, Hannah," continued poor Primrose, "I cannot think what has +happened to your dear baby, Daisy. I begin to believe what Mr. Noel +has been hinting to me--that some one has got a secret influence over +her." + +"We had better see and find this Mr. Noel at once, miss, now," said +practical Hannah. "We can think of secret influences and all that sort +of thing when we have found the gentleman whom the dear child is +pining to see. If Mr. Noel is still at Rosebury you had better put on +your hat, Miss Primrose, and walk across the fields to the village, +and bring him back with you. I'll stay with Miss Daisy and soothe her +the best way I can. She's dreadful agitated and very weak and +trembling ever since you came in, miss." + +Primrose said she would go back to Rosebury directly, and she was so +fortunate as to meet Noel as he was starting for London. + +"You must come with me," she said earnestly. "I fear our dear little +Daisy is even worse than Hannah represented her to be. She has +absolutely refused to see me, and talks only about you and Mrs. +Ellsworthy. I don't know what she can want with either of you, but it +is quite evident that she thinks you can help her and save her from +some great trouble. Poppy said she wanted Mrs. Ellsworthy to give her +money; I suppose to replace what she lost of mine. Well, Mrs. +Ellsworthy is not here; so can you come to see her to-night?" + +"I will come at once, Miss Mainwaring," answered Noel. "If we walk +down this street we shall pass the post-office, and I can send a +telegram to Mrs. Ellsworthy and also to my servant, Lawson. I must try +and get into town some time to-morrow, however, for I have got to +attend the trial of no less a person than your old landlord, Dove. He +was apprehended for stealing a bank-note and a ring from my +mantle-piece." + +"I never liked that man," said Primrose; "indeed, I never thought +either of the Doves quite honest. Mrs. Dove made a rule of keeping +back a little of the money she borrowed from me on all occasions." + +Then Primrose and Noel walked as quickly as they could down the +village street. Noel despatched his necessary telegram, and in a short +time they both found themselves in Hannah's humble cottage. + +"She is asleep," said Hannah, as she came out to meet them. "She is +moaning in her sleep, and she gives sighs enough to break your heart. +You had better, both of you, stay in my little sitting-room until she +awakes." + +"If you will allow me," said Noel, "I will go and sit beside her bed; +she is accustomed to me. I will promise to be very careful in my +dealings with her. I believe I can talk to her without startling her +in the least." + +Hannah looked dubious, but Primrose interposed in her gentle voice-- + +"Yes, Hannah, Mr. Noel will not startle Daisy; he has always had a +most happy influence over her." + +Poor little Daisy! the sight of her wan face, the anxious expression +which seemed indelibly stamped on her childish brow, gave Noel so +strong a sense of pain and indignation that he sincerely longed to +secure for Dove as severe a punishment as the law would give. He sat +down gently by the humble little bed, and when the child moaned and +tossed in her sleep he laid his cool hand on her forehead. That hand +had a magnetic effect--even in her sleep Daisy seemed to know it. She +murmured, "The Prince, has he come?" and a moment after she opened her +dark blue eyes and fixed them on Noel, while a very faint smile +flitted across her little face. + +"You have come at last, Mr. Prince. I am very, very glad; I have +wanted you," she said. + +"I have wanted you, Daisy; I have been looking for you everywhere. I +have been in great trouble about you," answered Noel, in his gentlest +tones. + +"Have you?" said little Daisy; "I am sorry you have been in trouble. +Do you know that Primrose came to-day and I could not see her? I can +see you, but not Primrose. Please let me hold your hand. I don't feel +so dreadfully weak when I hold your hand. Will you stoop down, and let +me talk to you. I can't talk at all loud, for I'm dreadfully weak. Do +you know, Mr. Prince, that I'm going to die?" + +"No, Daisy, I don't think you are," answered Noel. I am the Prince who +delivers little girls from ogres. I never heard of a little girl dying +after she was delivered from the ogre." + +"Wicked little girls are not delivered," answered Daisy. "I was so +dreadfully cowardly. I was afraid of a dark dungeon, and so--and +so--but I mustn't tell you. I did lose Primrose's money, and I was a +coward, but I haven't been so bad yet as to tell a lie. You mustn't +ask me to tell you what it all means, Mr. Prince, for I can't. I hope +very much you'll forgive me for being a cowardly little girl; God has, +long ago, for I asked Him, and I am not really afraid to die. I +shouldn't feel a bit afraid or unhappy about it if I thought Primrose +and Jasmine could have their money." + +Here Daisy's voice quite failed her, and she looked so dreadfully +white and weak that Noel began to fear there was some truth in her +poor little words. He saw that their interview must not be prolonged, +and that he must give the child relief as soon as possible. + +"Daisy, you have got to listen to me," he said. "You need say very +little yourself, but you can listen to my words. I know why you want +to see Mrs. Ellsworthy--yes, dear, you can hold my hand as tightly as +possible. No, don't tremble; you want Mrs. Ellsworthy to give you some +money. She is not here; I know she would help you, and feel sorry for +you, but there are others who do that. Daisy, suppose I give you back +your money instead of Mrs. Ellsworthy? Give me your little hand, dear, +and let me put the money into it. Here; it makes quite a small +parcel--a ten-pound note, a five-pound note, two sovereigns and a +half. Now, Daisy, shall we keep this as a little secret between +ourselves? Primrose will ask no questions if you beg of her not, and +when you have put that money into her hand will you not be able to +have her with you again?" + +Daisy's little hot hand closed tightly over the money. She did not +speak, or even attempt to thank Noel, but her eyes, wider and wider +open each moment, were fixed intently on his face. + +"That is settled, then, Daisy," continued Noel, "and we need not think +of Mrs. Ellsworthy just at present, for you do not now need her +services. Of course a Prince is the right person to deliver a little +girl from a dreadful ogre. I don't see that Mrs. Ellsworthy should +have anything to do with it. Now, my dear, I'm going to say one or two +other things to you--you need not feel the least frightened." + +"May I really keep the money?" whispered Daisy at last. + +"Of course, I said so. We will not say any more on this subject at +present. I have given you the money to-night, because I want you to +have Primrose sitting by your side and nursing you and comforting you. +When Primrose is with you again you will cease to think those gloomy +thoughts about dying. Now I have something else to add before I leave +you." + +Noel had now taken a very firm hold of Daisy's little hand. She had +been trembling a good deal, but she had certainly grown calmer. +Perhaps the knowledge that she really did possess some money to give +to Primrose was comforting her. Noel felt a sense of distress at +disturbing even for her eventual good the child's present calm. It +must be done, however, and he thought a moment how he could most +gently deal with her. + +"I'm going to tell you a story, Daisy," he said--"a very sad story, +and, alas, a true one. There lives a little girl, I will not tell her +name, although I know it, who has been unfortunate enough to get into +the power of a very bad man. The man is very, very bad, but I will +not mention his name here, although I know it also. The man came to +the little girl and talked to her, and no doubt he threatened her, and +at last he made her promise him something--what, I cannot say. From +the moment this little girl made this promise she became thin and +white, and anxious and unhappy. She struggled against the terrible +promise which seemed to bind her with fetters of iron, but she could +never get away from it, and the man appeared like a terrible ogre to +her, and she longed for a Prince to come and deliver her from him. The +wicked man having terrified this poor little girl, did his best to use +his influence over her to his own ends. At one time she lived in the +house with him, but although she struggled against it her friends +induced her to go elsewhere. Even in the new palace, however, she was +not safe from the terrible ogre; he followed her, and, it is to be +feared, although nothing is absolutely known, that he used cruel +threats to induce her to give him some money which was not hers to +give. The poor little weak girl was afraid to consult any one on +account of her promise. It was quite natural she should think it right +to keep her promise, although it was very sad. She was so completely +under the power of the wicked man, or the ogre, as we will call him, +that she gave him her sister's money--the money that was to support +them all for some months, and then in her great despair she ran +away." Here Noel paused--Daisy's eyes were fixed on him. Her face was +white as death. + +"You see, dear, it is a painful story," he said, "but it is not quite +finished yet. The poor little girl ran away, but she never knew what +was happening to the ogre. That wicked man was not allowed to continue +his evil ways without punishment. At the present moment he is locked +up safely in prison, where he can hurt no one. He was put there +because he stole a five-pound note and a ring from the gentleman whom +the little girl used to call the Prince. It is believed, though of +course nothing is certainly known, nor will be until the little girl +is taken out of the thraldom of the ogre and confesses what has +happened, that this wicked man has also stolen a good deal of money +from an envelope which the elder sister used to consider her +'Emergency Fund' envelope. In short, it is thought that his one object +in frightening the poor little girl was simply to rob her and her +sisters. Now that he is in prison, however, and quite out of the way +of harming any one, it is greatly hoped by those who love her that the +poor little one, who was made to suffer so cruelly, will be released +from the thraldom of the wicked ogre, and be made to see that there +are times and circumstances during which even the most truthful little +girl would do better to break her word than to keep it. Now, Daisy, +that is the end of my story; I've got nothing more to say about it, +for at present I know nothing more. Good-night, dear--I will send +Primrose to you. I will come to you when you want me again." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +DELIVERED FROM THE OGRE. + + +"Here's the money, Primrose--here's all the money," said little Daisy, +in a weak, weak voice, when her sister came up to her bedside, and +bent over her. "It was lost and the Prince brought it back; you won't +ask me any questions about it, will you, Primrose?" + +"No," exclaimed Primrose, in her very quiet and matter-of-fact +voice--the kind of voice which was most soothing to the excitable and +nervous child at the present moment. + +"I'm glad to have it back, Daisy, dear, for I have missed it; but of +course, I shan't ask you any questions about it. I shall just put it +into my purse, and you shall see what a nice fat purse I have got once +more." + +Then Primrose held her little sister's hand, and shook up her pillows, +and tended her as only she knew how, but all that night Daisy grew +more and more restless. The drowsy state in which she had hitherto +been had changed to one of wakefulness. All through the long night +the little creature's bright eyes remained open, and her anxious face +had a question on it which yet she never spoke. At last, as the bright +summer's morning broke, she turned to Primrose and said eagerly-- + +"Kneel down, Primrose, and ask God what a very ignorant, very unhappy +little girl ought to do. Oh, Primrose, it's all about a promise--a +promise that was most faithfully given. What shall I do about it?" + +"Do you want to keep it, or to break it?" asked Primrose. + +"It seems to me I ought to keep it, Primrose, because a promise, +faithfully given, ought always to be kept; but Mr. Noel says I ought +to break this promise; oh, I don't know what to do!" + +"Your heart won't be at rest, Daisy, and you won't really get better, +until you do know what to do," answered Primrose. "Of course, I will +kneel down and ask God to tell you." + +Then the elder sister prayed aloud a very few earnest words, and the +little one joined her in whispered sentences. The prayer was not long, +but in Daisy's case it was quickly answered. When the morning quite +broke, and the real working-day had begun, Primrose sent a message to +Noel to come at once to see the child. Daisy received him with a +touching little smile. + +"Was the little girl me?" she asked. "And was the wicked, wicked ogre, +Mr. Dove?" + +"It is clever of you to guess that much, Daisy," answered Noel. + +"Am I the little girl?" continued Daisy, "who made a promise which she +ought now to break? Will God forgive me for breaking a promise which I +made so very, very faithfully? Mr. Noel, I will tell you something. +That promise has nearly killed me. The old Daisy went away when that +promise was made, and such a poor, cowardly, wretched Daisy came in +her place. She'd have been selfish, too, but for you; but you taught +her a little bit about the Palace Beautiful, and she was trying to be +good in spite of the dreadful promise. Then the ogre came again, and +the second time he was so dreadful that she even became very selfish +to get rid of him. Oh, Mr. Noel, is it right for me--will God think it +really right for me--to break that dreadful promise?" + +"He will, Daisy. The promise ought never to have been made. Only an +innocent and ignorant little child would have made it; yes, Daisy, +dear, yours is one of the rare cases of a promise better broken than +kept. See, I am the Prince, and I'm going to take the spell of the +ogre from you. The wicked ogre is locked up in a dungeon instead of +you, and the Prince commands the poor little captive to tell him +everything." + +Then Daisy, with some broken sobs, and with a piteous light in her +blue eyes, told Noel the whole cruel story. He listened without once +interrupting the little narrator. When she had finished, he kissed +her, and told her that she now had nothing to fear, and then, bidding +her sleep away all her troubles, he left her to Primrose's care. By +the next train he himself went to London in full time to attend Dove's +trial. + +That worthy was at first inclined to brazen matters out, but when +Noel, primed with Daisy's confession, appeared on the scene, his face +underwent a remarkable change. Its rubicund tints quite deserted it, +an alarming pallor spreading over every feature. Tommy Dove, who might +have been seen in a foremost position amongst the crowd of spectators, +was heard audibly to exclaim-- + +"Law, I guess there ain't no leg for my respected pa to stand on now!" + +This, although not expressed aloud, seemed also to be Dove's opinion, +for he then and there made a full confession of his wicked practices, +and of the cruel threats he had employed to terrify Daisy. He received +his sentence, which was a severe one, with much stoicism, and, as he +was led away from his place in the prisoner's dock, addressed a +parting word to his affectionate and hysterical spouse-- + +"Never mind, Mrs. Dove, my only love, even fourteen years comes to an +end somehow, and when we meets again we'll make a rule for there being +no attic lodgers." + +"To the very end his was a poetic turn," his wife afterwards remarked +to her favorite cronies. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +ALMOST DEFEATED. + + +With the weight of her secret removed Daisy began slowly, very slowly, +to mend. The strain she had undergone had been too great for her +quickly to recover her strength; but little by little a faint color +did return to her white cheeks, she slept more peacefully, and began +to eat again. + +"There's nothing at all for you to do, Miss Primrose," said Hannah, +"but to give up that post of continually screaming out book and +newspaper stuff to a deaf old lady." + +"She isn't deaf, Hannah," interrupted Primrose. "She wants me to read +to her because her sight is very bad." + +"Well, well," replied Hannah Martin, in a testy tone, "whether she's +deaf or whether she's blind, it ain't no way a fit post for you, Miss +Primrose. You've got to stay here now, and take care of that precious +little lamb, and you had better send for Miss Jasmine to keep you +company." + +"I am certainly not going to leave Daisy at present," replied +Primrose. "I've got money enough to go on with, but I must go back to +town as soon as possible in order to earn enough to return Mr. Noel's +money to him. As to Jasmine, do you know, Hannah, she has got quite a +nice way of making a little income? You remember how cleverly she +always arranged the flowers in our drawing-room at dear Rosebury, and +how our mother always asked her to make bouquets for her? It now seems +that Jasmine has got rather remarkable taste, and some fine ladies in +London are employing her to arrange flowers on their dinner-tables. +They pay her very well indeed for this, and the labor is nothing at +all." + +"Hoot!" said Hannah; "I think it's rather demeaning of herself. Well, +Miss Primrose, I suppose the poor dear will want a holiday the same as +the rest of you. To tell the truth, Miss Primrose, my old eyes ache to +see the darling, she was always such a bonny one." + +Primrose smiled. + +"When the fine ladies go out of town, Hannah, we will have Jasmine +down, and you shall squeeze us all into that nice, cosy little bedroom +of yours. What a good thing it was, Hannah; that you did not follow us +to London, but that you started this nice shop in the country, for +now we three girls can have our change in the country at such small +expense." + +Tears started to Hannah's eyes. + +"I've been always saving up for this, Miss Primrose, and if you will +talk of paying me at all, I'll never forgive you; aren't you my +nurslings, all three of you, and the only creatures I have got to live +for?" + +In the meantime while things were mending for Primrose and Daisy, and +Daisy was beginning once more to get that soft pink in her cheeks +which gave her such a curious and touching likeness to her +name-flower, poor little Jasmine, left behind in her Palace Beautiful, +was not having quite so good a time. + +Jasmine was beset by several worries and anxieties; she was also +extremely lonely, for Miss Egerton, owing to the dangerous illness of +a near relation, was still absent from home, and Poppy, driven by the +dire necessity of earning bread to eat, had been obliged to return, as +little maid-of-all-work, to Penelope Mansion. + +Jasmine was alone, but she was a brave child, and her strong longing +now was to help Primrose, and above all things not to ask for any +money from her. + +For the first few days after Primrose had gone to the country the poor +little girl's resources were very meagre indeed. She had thought that +first sovereign she had earned simply inexhaustible, but it was +surprising how it melted in her inexperienced grasp, and how very, +very little it seemed capable of purchasing. + +In her first delight at finding herself capable of earning money she +had written an extravagantly hopeful letter to Primrose. + +"You need not think at all of me, dear Primrose," she wrote; "keep all +the money you can collect to buy nice nourishing things for dear +little Daisy. Perhaps I shall become quite famous as an arranger of +flowers on great London dinner-tables. If I do get orders, and I think +I am sure of them, I shall not only be able to pay my own London +expenses, but will save something towards our emergency fund. Oh, +Primrose, my heart burns with longings to earn lots of money, and to +be great and strong and famous!" + +This poor little enthusiastic letter reached Primrose when Daisy was +at her worst, and it so happened that it lightened her cares about the +little sister alone in London. She felt quite sure that Jasmine was +getting plenty of orders, and was earning sufficient money for her own +modest wants in the pretty way she spoke of; and in consequence she +did not send her any of the money which Daisy had returned to her. + +But poor little Jasmine was not receiving orders so fast as Primrose +anticipated. One or two other ladies did ask her to dress their +dinner-tables for them, and one or two more promised to do so, and +then forgot all about it; but no one paid her as well as Mrs. Daintree +had done. Noel was out of town, and was unable to interest himself in +her behalf, and so it came to pass that the slender purse could not +supply the modest needs, and Jasmine was much too proud, and too +determined to help herself, to write to Primrose for money. + +These were hard days for the little girl--days which were to prove the +stuff she was made of to the very uttermost--but doubtless they gave +her, as all anxious days of pain bravely borne do, a valuable +experience and a depth of character which she could not otherwise have +acquired. + +The lesson she was to learn, however, was a painful one, and its +sharpness was to be felt very quickly. + +Jasmine's hope of hopes lay in her beloved manuscript. That story, the +first-fruits of her young genius, must surely make her purse bulky, +and must wreathe her little brow with laurels. That story, too, was to +refund poor Poppy the money she had lent, and was to enable Jasmine to +live in comfort during her sister's absence. + +One day, about ten days after Primrose had gone to Rosebury, Jasmine +stood by the windows of the Palace Beautiful to watch the postman. He +was coming up the street, and Jasmine greatly, greatly hoped he would +stop at Miss Egerton's and drop into the letter-box, perhaps, a letter +from Primrose, and more delightful still, a roll of proofs of her dear +story. The postman, however, passed on his way, and gave his loud +rat-tat at the doors to right and the doors to left, but neither +sounded the bell nor gave his double-knock at Miss Egerton's door. +Jasmine sighed deeply, and retiring from the window, sat down to her +frugal breakfast. She looked pale, and her eyes were not as bright and +starry as usual. Presently she took out her purse and looked at its +contents. This was Thursday. She had dressed a dinner-table on Monday, +and had received seven and sixpence. Her purse now contained three +shillings, and she certainly could not accuse herself of any +extravagance in the matter of diet. + +"This will never do," she said to herself. "I believe if I do not get +any more money I shall be obliged to apply to Primrose, and it was +only last night I heard from dear old Rose saying how glad she was +that I was able to support myself. She said Daisy's illness had cost a +great deal, and we must all economize in every possible manner for +some time. Dear darling old Primrose, I will not ask her to help me--I +will manage for myself. Now how shall I do it? I am afraid those +ladies did not care for the star arrangement of flowers which I made +at that last house. I thought them lovely, peeping out through their +dark green leaves, but I heard Mrs. Lee whispering to Mrs. Mansell, +'How peculiar! _do_ you quite like it?' and then Mrs. Mansell said +nothing more about my dressing her dinner-table. Her dinner-party was +to have been to-day, and she _almost_ promised to have me when I +arrived in the morning. Well, there is no use thinking of that; I +cannot swell my purse in that manner this day, that is very evident. +Oh, dear! oh, dear! what shall I do?" + +Here a sudden thought came to Jasmine. Under its influence her cheeks +flushed, and her eyes began to shine. + +"Why, of course," she exclaimed; "how very silly of me to forget!--my +hundred copies of _The Joy-bell_ ought to have arrived by now. Yes, of +course they ought, and perhaps I shall be able to sell some of them. I +have no doubt Mrs. Dredge would buy a couple if Poppy asked her and +perhaps Mrs. Mortlock and Miss Slowcum would also like to see my first +story in print. Yes, of course, I can sell a few copies. Bridget said +she would buy one, and she said she had two cronies who would be sure +to take a copy each. Yes, I expect I shall make a few shillings by the +sale of _The Joy-bell_ to-day, and that will keep me going fine. Oh, +dear! the very moment I have earned a little money by them I must +send a copy down to Daisy. Won't the darling like to show my words of +genius to Primrose? I'll run downstairs this minute, and ask Bridget +if she has not got a parcel for me." + +But alas! no _Joy-bells_ had arrived for Jasmine, and after the little +girl had wondered a great deal, and talked the matter over with +Bridget she determined to put on her hat and go off to consult with +Poppy. + +She was not long finding her way to Penelope Mansion, and Poppy opened +the door for her, but greeted her in a sad voice, and looked decidedly +depressed. + +"I have come about _The Joy-bell_" began Jasmine at once, in an +excited voice. "It ought to have come--my hundred copies, you know, +and they haven't. I must go to inquire about it at once; and, Poppy, +dear, could you come with me?" + +Poppy turned very red. + +"No, Miss Jasmine, darling, I couldn't," she said, in the meekest +voice. + +Poppy's tones were so unlike those she usually employed that Jasmine +glanced at her in some surprise. + +"Why, Poppy, how funny you are!" she exclaimed. "Is anything the +matter?" + +"Don't you notice it, Miss Jasmine, but I'm a bit low-like," said +Poppy. "I has my low fits and my high fits same as t'other folks, and +this is a low fit day--that's all, miss." + +"Oh! I am so sorry. Poor Poppy! And is the swimming in your head as +bad as ever?" + +"It's continual, Miss Jasmine. It seems to have become a kind of +habit, same as the smuts and the Sarah Janes. A swimming head is most +certain the London style of head for a girl like me. Yes, I am sorry I +can't go with you, Miss Jasmine, darling, but I can't this morning. I +hope you will get safe to the City, miss, and that you will see the +editor, and give it to him sharp for not sending you your _Joy-bells_. +Oh, my, Miss Jasmine! to think that your beautiful words is in print +at last! Most likely the whole of London is flooded by them now, and +the editor will be asking you for more of your words of beauty and +wisdom. You make a sharp bargain with him, Miss Jasmine, and before +you put pen to paper again for him, you get your money down. There's +nothing so safe in clinching a bargain as money down. Oh, dear! I wish +I could go with you. And, Miss Jasmine, if you could find it +convenient to pay me back say one and sixpence of the little loan, +I'll be for ever obliged, darling." + +At this moment Mrs. Flint's voice was heard calling Poppy, and +demanding who she was standing gossiping with. Mrs. Flint's voice +sounded quite sharp, and Jasmine guessed that something unusual must +have occurred to disturb her, for Mrs. Flint was known on principle +never to excite herself. + +"What is the matter with her?" she inquired of Poppy, who flushed up +at her tones. + +"Oh, nothing, miss. She's only a bit put out about the broken boots. +There, I must run." + +Poppy almost shut the door in Jasmine's face. She was certainly very +unlike her usual self. + +Jasmine walked down the steps of the Mansion, and slowly, very slowly, +went up the street to meet the omnibus which was to convey her +Citywards. + +She was quite a clever little Londoner now, and knew which were the +right omnibuses to take, and, in short, how to find her way about +town. She hailed the City omnibus, and hastily and humbly took her +place amongst its crowded passengers. She was the unlucky twelfth, and +her advent was certainly not hailed with delight. The bright morning +had turned to rain, and the passengers, most of them women, were +wrapped up in waterproof cloaks. Jasmine, when she entered the +omnibus, looked so small, so timid, and unimportant, that no one +thought it worth while even to move for her, and at last she was +thankful to get a little pin-point of room between two very buxom +ladies, who both almost in the same breath desired her not to crowd +them, and both also fiercely requested her to keep her wet dress from +touching their waterproofs. + +At another time Jasmine would have been quite spirited enough to +resent the unfriendly behavior of the inmates of the City 'bus; but +her interview with Poppy had depressed her greatly, and she had a kind +of terrified little fear that she knew the reason of Mrs. Flint's +sharp tones, that she could guess why Poppy's bright face should look +so dismal, and why she was obliged so earnestly to beg of her to +return her one and sixpence. + +"She wants her own money--her wages, that she earned with a swimming +head and all," thought poor Jasmine. "How selfish of me not to +remember before that of course, poor Poppy would want her wages; it is +perfectly dreadful to think of her doing without them. Why, of course, +Mrs. Flint would be likely to scold her if she went about with her +ragged boots when she earns such good wages. Poor, dear, brave Poppy! +she would never tell what she did with her money. Well, she must have +it all back to-day. Yes, I am determined about that, she shall have it +back, to-day." + +Jasmine was thinking so hard, and so absorbing was her theme, that she +leaned unconsciously against the fat neighbor on her right. This good +person immediately pushed her with some vigor into the arms of the +portly neighbor on her left, who exclaimed, in a cross voice-- + +"Lor' sakes! my dear, sit upright, do." + +"I hope the young person will soon get out," exclaimed the other +neighbor. "I call it downright unconscionable to crowd up Christian +women like this. Might I make bold to inquire, miss, when you are +thinking of alighting?" + +"I am going to Paternoster Row," said Jasmine, in a meek voice. "I do +not think I am very far from there now." + +"Oh, no, miss! we have only to go down Newgate Street, and there you +are. It's a queer place, is Paternoster Row, not that I knows much +about it." + +"A mighty bookish place," took up the other neighbor "they say they +are all bookworms that live there, and that they are as dry as bits of +parchment. I shouldn't say that a bright little miss like you had any +call to go near such a place." + +Jasmine drew herself up, and her face became sunshiny once more. + +"You would not think," she began, with an air of modest pride, "that I +belong to the booky and the parchmenty people, but I do. I am going +down the Row to inquire about one of my publications, perhaps I ought +to say my first, so I am anxious about it." + +"Lor', who would have thought it!" exclaimed both the ladies, but they +instantly fell back and seemed to think it better to leave so +alarmedly learned a little girl alone. For the remainder of the ride +they talked across Jasmine about the price of onions, and where the +cheapest bacon was to be purchased, and they both breathed a sigh of +relief when she stepped out into the rain and they could once more +expand themselves in the space which she had occupied. + +Meanwhile the forlorn little adventurer walked down the narrow path of +this celebrated Row. It was still raining heavily, and Jasmine's +umbrella had several rents in its canopy. Now that she was so close to +her destination she began to feel strangely nervous, and many fears +hitherto unknown beset her. Suppose, after all, _The Joy-bell_ which +contained the first portion of her story had not had a large success; +suppose, after all, the public were not so delighted with her flowing +words. Perhaps the editor would receive her very coldly, and would +tell her what a loss her story had been, and how indisposed he felt to +go on with it. If this was the case she never, never would have +courage to ask him to give her Poppy's wages. If the editor scolded +her she felt that she would be incapable of saying a word in her own +defence. Nay, she thought it extremely probable that then and there +she would burst into tears. Undoubtedly, she was in a very low frame +of mind to-day. She, as well as Poppy, had her low fit on, and she +greatly trembled for the result of the coming interview. Since that +pathetic little last speech of Poppy's about her broken boots Jasmine +had quite forgotten how sorely she needed money for herself. Her one +and only desire just now was to restore Poppy's money. + +"I must do it," she said to herself; "I must do it, and I will. I have +made up my mind, and I really need not be so frightened. After all, +Poppy and Daisy are both quite sure that I am a genius. Daisy says +that I have got the face of a genius, and Poppy was in such great, +great delight at my story. It is not likely that they would both be +wrong, and Poppy is a person of great discernment. I must cheer up and +believe what they told me. I daresay Poppy is right, and London is +half-flooded with my story. Ah, here I am at the entrance of the court +where the editor of _The Joy-bell_ lives. How funny it is to be here +all alone. I really feel quite like a heroine. Now I am at the +office--how queer, how very queer--I do not see any _Joy-bells_ +pressed up against the window. No, not a single one; there are lots of +other books and papers, but no _Joy-bells_. Dear, dear! my heart does +beat, for I am thinking that perhaps Poppy is right, and that all the +copies of _The Joy-bells_ are bought up; that, of course, is on +account of my story." Then Jasmine entered the house, and went into a +little office where a red-haired boy was sitting on a high stool +before a dirty-looking desk. The boy had a facetious and rather +unpleasant face, and was certainly not remarkable for good manners. + +"I want to see the editor of _The Joy-bell_," asked Jasmine, in as +firm a tone as she could command. + +The red-haired boy raised his eyes from a huge ledger which he was +pretending to occupy himself over, and said, "Can't see him," in a +laconic tone, and dropped his eyes again. + +"But why?" asked Jasmine, somewhat indignantly. "I have particular +business with him; it is most necessary that I should see him. Pray, +let him know that I am here." + +"Very sorry," replied the boy, "but can't." + +"Why not?" + +"'Cause he ain't in town." + +"Oh!" + +Poor Jasmine fell back a pace or two; then she resumed in a different +tone-- + +"I am very much disappointed; there is a story of mine in _The +Joy-bell_, and I wanted to speak to him about it. It was very +important, indeed," she added, in so sad a voice that the red-haired +boy gazed at her in some astonishment. + +"My word," he said, "then you do not know?" + +"Don't know what?" + +"Why, we has had a funeral here." + +"A funeral--oh, dear! oh, dear! is the editor of _The Joy-bell_ dead?" + +Here the red-haired boy burst into a peal of irrepressible laughter. + +"Dead! he ain't dead, but _The Joy-bell_ is; we had her funeral last +week." + +Poor Jasmine staggered against the wall, and her pretty face became +ghastly white. + +"Oh, boy," she said, "do tell me about it; how can _The Joy-bell_ be +dead, and have a funeral? Oh, please, don't jest with me, for it's so +important." + +The genuine distress in her tones touched at last some vulnerable +point in the facetious office-boy's breast. + +"I'm real sorry for you, miss," he said, "particular as you seems so +cut up; but what I tell you is true, and you had better know it. That +editor has gone, and _The Joy-bell_ is decently interred. I was at her +birth, and I was at her funeral. She had a short life, and was never +up to much. I never guessed she'd hold out as long as she did; but the +editor was a cute one, and for a time he bamboozled his authors, and +managed to live on them. Yes, _The Joy-bell_ is in her quiet grave at +last, and can't do no more harm to nobody. Lor', miss, I wouldn't +take on if I was you, you'd soon get accustomed to it if you had a +desk at an office like this. In at the births, and in at the deaths am +I, and I don't make no count of one or t'other. Why, now, there was +_The Stranger_--which went in for pictorial get up, and was truly +elegant--it only lasted six months; and there was _The Ocean Wave_, +which did not even live as long. And there was _Merrie Lassie_--oh, +their names is legion. We'll have another started in no time. So you +must be going, miss? Well, good morning. If I was you, miss, I +wouldn't send no more stories to this yere office." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +ONE SHOE OFF AND ONE SHOE ON. + + +"I must see you, Poppy--I must see you, and I can't come into the +house. I could not face Mrs. Mortlock, nor Mrs. Dredge, nor Miss +Slowcum. I am a dreadful failure, Poppy, a dreadful, dreadful failure, +and I cannot look any one in the face. Do come out with me, dear +Poppy, and at once; for if I can't speak to you at the present moment +my heart will break." + +"They're teaing just now," said Poppy, in a reflective tone; "they are +all in the dining-room as snug as possible over their high tea. They +have shrimps for tea, and a wonderful new kind of paste that Aunt +Flint brought in to-day. It's called Gentlemen's Relish, and eats well +on hot toast, and I made a lot. Oh, my! won't the ladies go in for it! +Though Miss Slowcum always is so bitter against gentlemen, she will +eat their relish, and no mistake. Well, Miss Jasmine they are all +engaged over the pleasures of the social board, and what's to hinder +you and me going down to the back scullery and having our talk there? +You see, miss, if I went out with you I'd have to tidy up a bit first, +and that would take time." + +"You are quite sure they won't hear me, Poppy, if I walk across the +hall. Miss Slowcum is dreadfully curious, and if she heard my step in +the hall she would run out even though she was eating Gentlemen's +Relish. I do not want any one to see me now that I am a failure." + +"Step on this mat," said Poppy--"now on this; now make a spring here. +There you are. Now we'll be down in my scullery long before Miss +Slowcum can get to the dining-room door. Now, miss, let me put a seat +for you. The scullery ain't so damp to-day, is it, Miss Jasmine?" + +"I don't know," said Jasmine, who looked very tired, and almost ill. +"Poppy, dear, I have not brought the one and sixpence." + +"Oh, it don't matter," said Poppy. "One and sixpence never fretted me +yet, and it ain't going to begin. You'll pay me when you can, Miss +Jasmine, and there ain't no hurry." + +But Jasmine noticed that Poppy moved her little feet out of sight, and +in spite of her brave words Jasmine observed a look of dismay creeping +into her bright eyes. + +This slight action on Poppy's part--this little lurking gleam of +disappointment--were as the proverbial last straw to poor Jasmine. Her +fortitude gave way, and she burst into the bitterest tears she had +ever shed. + +Poppy was much alarmed, and stood over her dear little lady, and +brought her cold water, and tried to comfort her by every means in her +power. + +When Jasmine had a little recovered herself she told the whole bitter +story of her morning's adventure to Poppy. That young person's +indignation knew no bounds. + +"The editor must be put in prison," she said; "he must be caught and +put in prison. Mrs. Jones the charwoman has a second cousin once +removed, whose first cousin is married to a policeman, and Mrs. Jones +is coming here to-morrow, and I'll get her to see her second cousin, +and the second cousin shall see her first cousin who is married to a +policeman, and he will tell us what is to be done. That's going to the +fountainhead, ain't it, Miss Jasmine? Never you fear, miss, darling, +that editor shall be locked up in prison, and be made to give back +your money. Never you fear, dear Miss Jasmine, it will all come right +when Mrs. Jones sees her second cousin who has a first cousin who is +married to a policeman!" + +Poppy became quite cheerful when she remembered Mrs. Jones's +remarkable means of getting at a policeman, but Jasmine could not be +comforted; she shook her head almost petulantly. + +"It's all most puzzling for me," she said, "about Mrs. Jones and her +policemen; it sounds exactly like the House that Jack Built, and I +shall have a swimming head myself if I listen to you. No, Poppy, that +policeman will never lock the wicked editor up in prison; he is a +great deal too clever to allow himself to be locked up. Oh, dear! +Poppy, what shall I do? All your money is gone, and my story is gone, +and I know you are wanting boots as badly as possible. You are a dear, +brave Poppy, but I know you have not a boot to your foot." + +"Yes, Miss Jasmine, I has, I has one boot and one shoe; the shoe is an +out-door one, and heavy, and the boot is a light one. Worn together, +they make one walk a little one-sided, and the ladies, in particular +Miss Slowcum, don't like it, but, lor', that don't matter nothing to +speak of; they can't do nothing to me except tack on a few more names +to Sarah. It don't fret me, Miss Jasmine, and it needn't fret you." + +"All the same, I am going to get you your money, Poppy. I have +absolutely made up my mind. I don't know how to do it, but do it I +will. I had to come here to-night to tell you what had really +happened; but now I am going home. You won't have to wear that +dreadful boot and shoe together much longer." + +After this Jasmine managed to walk through the hall without being +detected by Miss Slowcum; and very tired and weary, in process of time +she found her way back to the Palace Beautiful. She drank a glass of +milk which Bridget had laid ready for her, and ate two or three slices +of bread and butter. Then she went into the little bedroom, with its +three pretty white beds, and opening her own special trunk began to +examine its contents. She was dreadfully frightened at what she was +about to do, but all the same she was determined to do it. She would +pawn or sell what little valuables she possessed to give Poppy back +her wages. + +When the girls left Rosebury, Primrose made a very careful division of +her mother's possessions. To Jasmine's share had come some really +beautiful Spanish lace. Jasmine had not particularly admired it, but +Primrose fancied that it would some day suit her speaking and +vivacious face better than it would herself or Daisy. Jasmine had +jammed the lace into a corner of her trunk, and but for the memory of +dear mamma which it called up, would have made it a present to +anybody. But one day it so happened that Miss Egerton caught sight of +it; she exclaimed at its beauty, and said that it was really worth a +considerable sum of money. + +The lace consisted of a handsome shawl of black Spanish, and what was +more beautiful, and also rarer, two very lovely flounces of white. + +Miss Egerton was quite right when she spoke of the lace as valuable, +but her ideas of value and Jasmine's were widely different. Jasmine +would have thought herself well repaid if any one had given her +Poppy's wages for the old lace; she would indeed have opened her eyes +had she known at what sum Miss Egerton valued it. In addition to the +lace Jasmine had a little thin gold ring which Mrs. Mainwaring had +worn as a guard to her wedding-ring. Jasmine much preferred the ring +to the lace, but she slipped it on her finger, intending to part with +it also, if the lace did not fetch enough money. She knew that +Primrose would be deeply hurt at the lace being sold, for she had over +and over said that come what might, they would not part with their few +little home mementoes; but Jasmine was past caring even for what +Primrose said to-night. With her lace wrapped up in an untidy parcel +she slipped downstairs. Bridget came into the hall to speak to her. + +"Look here, missie, is it not a little late for you to be going out?" + +"Oh, not at all, Biddy, dear. I am going a little way. I won't be +long." + +Then Jasmine went up to the old servant and spoke in her most coaxing +and fascinating tones. + +"Biddy, what did you say was the sign of a pawnshop?" + +"A pawnshop, Miss Jasmine? Why, bless us and save us, miss, what have +you got to say to such places?" + +"Oh, nothing in particular, Bridget, only I thought I would like to +know. I am always trying to get information on every kind of subject. +Is the pawnshop the sign of the three balls, Biddy?" + +"Yes, yes, miss--what a curious young lady! There, run out and take +your walk quick, and come back as soon as possible, for though it's +close on Midsummer Day we'll have the night on us before you return if +you are not quick." + +Jasmine left the house, nodding brightly to Bridget as she did so, and +the old servant returned to her interrupted work. + +"She's a bright bonnie girl," she said to herself, "and hasn't she got +a winsome way? I hope she drank up her milk, for she is looking a bit +pale, and I hope she won't stay out late, for it may turn damp when +the dew begins to fall." + +Bridget was busy over her work, and was thinking of Jasmine after all +in only a very lazy and comfortable fashion when a cab drew up to the +door, and Miss Egerton most unexpectedly returned. She was not in the +house a moment before she asked for Jasmine. + +"She's just gone out, ma'am," answered Bridget. "She had a parcel in +her hand, and she said she was going out for a run. No, ma'am, I don't +say she's looking at all particularly well. She's very white and +worried looking, and she is scarcely ever in the house. She says she +must improve her mind, and that is why she is out, and she do ask the +funniest questions. Just now it was to know what was the sign of a +pawnshop." + +"The sign of a pawnshop?" echoed Miss Egerton; "and did you tell her, +Bridget?" + +"Why, of course, ma'am. She said she wanted to know for the improving +of her mind. She had a little parcel in her hand, and she said she +would be back again in no time. Shall I get you a cup of tea, ma'am?" + +"No, thank you, Bridget. I cannot eat until I find out about Miss +Jasmine. I do not like her asking you those questions, Bridget, and I +do not like her taking a little parcel with her. The child may be in +want or trouble. I must see to it at once. Bridget, have you any idea +which is the nearest pawnshop to this?" + +"Oh, ma'am, there's Spiller's round the corner, and there's Davidson's +in the main road. Now, Miss Egerton, I am most certain Miss Jasmine +wanted to hear about the pawnshop for the sake of improving her mind, +and for that reason only. I wish you would stay, ma'am, and have your +cup of tea, for you look real tired." + +But Miss Egerton was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +SPANISH LACE. + + +She walked quickly down the street, hoping every moment to overtake +Jasmine. Miss Egerton had old-fashioned ideas about many things, and +nothing could exceed her horror at the thought of this pretty and +refined-looking child finding her way alone to a pawnshop. + +"Poor little girl!" she said to herself. "She must be really in +absolute want. What has she taken to pawn? Oh, dear! this anxiety is +terrible--and yet, and yet, how glad I am to know those orphan girls." + +Miss Egerton was very tired, had just returned from the death-bed of +her dearest friend, had certainly heaps of worries of her own; but +that did not prevent her whole heart from going out to Jasmine with an +affection which was almost motherly. + +When at last she found the little girl just coming out of Spiller's +pawnshop she laid a trembling hand on her arm. + +"Jasmine, oh, my dear child, you have been in there! You have been +pawning something." + +Jasmine was in such a depressed state of mind that even Miss Egerton's +unexpected return failed to astonish her. She said, raising two sad +eyes to the good lady's face-- + +"It was only that old Spanish lace. I always knew it was not worth +much. The man only laughed when I asked for Poppy's wages for it. He +has given me ten shillings, and I am going off with it to Poppy +to-night. Yes, Miss Egerton, I must, I really must." + +"What have you tried to pawn, Jasmine?" asked Miss Egerton, when she +could find her voice. "Surely not that lovely, valuable Spanish lace. +My dear child, come back with me into the shop this moment." + +"But I must keep my ten shillings," exclaimed Jasmine "Oh! Miss +Egerton, don't, don't! You don't know what has happened to me!" + +Miss Egerton took Jasmine's little hand in hers. + +"My poor child, you shall tell me all. Jasmine, dear, that lace is +worth pounds. I shall redeem it at once, for my sake, if not for +yours. There, poor little girl, keep your ten shillings, if it makes +you happy." + +The man who had lent Jasmine half a sovereign on the Spanish lace of +course knew little or nothing of its true value, and the good lady had +therefore small difficulty in getting it back. She walked home holding +Jasmine's hot little hand, took her into her own pretty drawing-room, +feasted her on many good things, which she had brought from the +country, and finally made her tell her all her sorrowful little story. + +"You always said that my writing was not up to much," said Jasmine, in +conclusion. "I did not like you to say it, and I was most anxious to +prove you wrong, but now I know that you are right." + +Miss Egerton looked quietly at the excited child. + +"My dear," she said, in her gentle tones, "I do not know--no one +knows--whether in the future you will be able to write. Our writers +ought to be our teachers. Do you think you are fit to teach, Jasmine?" + +"I do not know," said Jasmine, hanging her head. + +Miss Egerton got up, and laid her hand tenderly on the pretty little +curly head. + +"This day has taught you a grand though painful lesson, dearest. You +will be better able to write in the future for and because of the +suffering you have gone through to-day. Now, Jasmine, I will say no +more--you must go straight to bed and to sleep. In the morning you can +take your ten shillings to Poppy. Yes, dear, of course it is yours, +and for the present the Spanish lace is mine." + +Jasmine, notwithstanding all her troubles, slept soundly that night, +but Miss Egerton lay awake. + +"The time has come," she said to herself, "when energetic measures +must be taken. The girls--dear, brave, sweet girls--have undoubtedly +to a certain extent failed. Poor little Jasmine! she might have had a +worse experience than the loss of that silly manuscript. But what +terrible dangers sweet little Daisy ran! Yes, I shall go and have a +talk with Mrs. Ellsworthy to-morrow--I know she is in town." + +Accordingly, when Jasmine went off to see Poppy holding her +half-sovereign firmly inside her glove, and dimly wondering if she +would have any money of her own left to buy some dinner with +presently, Miss Egerton stepped into an omnibus which presently put +her down in the vicinity of Park Lane. She was fortunate in finding +Mrs. Ellsworthy at home, and also disengaged. + +The good little lady received her with delight, for Miss Egerton was a +prime favorite with her. + +"Arthur tells me that you know my girls," she said presently. "He +hints to me that you and he have a secret knowledge of the address of +my naughty, troublesome girls." + +"I do know where they are to be found," said Miss Egerton in her +gravest tones; "but before I begin to talk about them I want to +transact a little business with you. I know how kind you are, and how +fond of helping people in distress. At the present moment a lady of my +acquaintance is in great poverty; she has got some valuable Spanish +lace. I should like to sell it for her." + +"I adore Spanish lace," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, her eyes sparkling. + +"I thought I once heard you say you did, so I have brought it with me. +May I show it to you?" + +"How good of you, dear Miss Egerton; let me see it at once. Real +Spanish lace is of great value. Oh, and white, too! What lovely +flounces!" + +"The lady to whom they belonged know nothing of their real value; she +was disposing of both shawl and flounces yesterday evening for ten +shillings." + +"Oh, Miss Egerton! oh, poor, poor thing! I will gladly give her fifty +pounds for them." + +Miss Egerton coughed, and colored slightly. + +"The fact is," she said, "I do not think she ought to sell them; they +are mementoes, and belonged to her mother. Mrs. Ellsworthy, I won't +deceive you any longer. This lace is now the property of Jasmine +Mainwaring. She took it to a pawnshop last night, and but for me would +have absolutely given it away; I was just in time to redeem it. Now +the fact is, I happen to know that Primrose does not wish this lace to +be sold; I offered, long ago, to find a purchaser for it, but she +looked terribly distressed at the idea. What I should like to do would +be this; in short, in short--I do not quite know how to put it--" + +"I know, I know," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, clapping her hands, "you want +me to be a pawnbroker, and to lend money on it. I will, I will, with +pleasure; oh, this is quite a fresh and delightful idea." + +"Give me ten pounds to help the poor child over her present +difficulties," said Miss Egerton, tears in her eyes. "Yes, ten pounds +is quite enough. I will not take a penny more." + +"Now, Mrs. Ellsworthy, as we have comfortably disposed of this little +matter, I want to talk to you most seriously about the girls." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy bent her head to listen with rapt attention; and the +two women were engaged for a couple of hours in most earnest +conversation. + +That afternoon, when Jasmine, very weary and very depressed, toiled up +the stairs to her Palace Beautiful, she found two letters awaiting +her. One was from Primrose, containing very cheerful news about Daisy. +Daisy was really getting better, and had even been out for a few +minutes. The other letter had not come by the post, and Jasmine +wondered who her correspondent could be. She opened it eagerly. It +contained a folded sheet of paper, out of which dropped two crisp Bank +of England notes for five pounds each. The sheet of paper itself +contained the following words:-- + +"DEAR JASMINE:--I have found a pawnbroker who better understands the +value of your old lace. I have borrowed ten pounds for you on it, with +liberty for you to redeem the shawl and flounces at your convenience. +You can pay me back the ten shillings I lent you last night when you +get change; but there is no hurry. Come and have tea this evening at +six, dear. I have much to talk over with you. + + "Your affectionate friend, + "AGNES EGERTON." + +Poor little Jasmine's delight can scarcely be conceived. She found it +an easy matter to change one of the notes, and Poppy was in possession +of the balance of her money long before the evening. Her radiant face +seemed scarcely to belong to the same girl when she entered Miss +Egerton's room in time for that good lady's tea. + +"Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, when the meal was over, and Jasmine had +exhausted her many expressions of rapture, and astonishment, and +gratitude, "I have news to tell you. That dreadful man Dove has +received a long term of imprisonment. He won't trouble our dear little +Daisy again." + +"And Daisy is beginning to get better," said Jasmine. "I heard from +Primrose to-day, and she wrote quite hopefully about her. Yes, I +suppose I am glad that Mr. Dove is locked up; it was so very wicked +of him to frighten our little pet." + +"I also had a letter from Primrose," said Miss Egerton. "She is +unhappy because she thinks that I am at personal inconvenience for the +money which I lent her instead of that which Dove stole. I am not +inconvenienced for it--I can never regret making matters a little +smooth for you poor children. I am going to write to Primrose +to-night; but before I do so I should like to have a little talk with +you, Jasmine." + +"Oh, yes," said Jasmine, "I feel very humble to-night, and very +thankful. I am in the kind of humor to-night when I could listen to +any amount of good advice." + +"Notwithstanding, Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, with a slight smile, +"that advisers are never considered the most agreeable people. +Jasmine, dear, I have seen Mrs. Ellsworthy to-day." + +"Our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy," said Jasmine, flushing brightly; "and +how was she? Does she know that I still care for her?" + +"I think she does, Jasmine, and undoubtedly she cares for you. She +again offers to help you, and, Jasmine, dear, I think the time has +come when you must accept her help." + +Jasmine smiled, and flushed brightly. + +"I do not mind," she said; "I mean I do not mind as Primrose minds, +but I know, I fear that it will go very hard with Primrose." + +"It is often very hard to do right, Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, "and +I can quite believe that Primrose will find it difficult to accede to +our plan. At the same time I feel convinced that although she will +have a great struggle, in the end she will yield to it. This is like +the 'Hill Difficulty' to Primrose, but she is not the sort of girl to +turn away from it without conquering its steepness and its toils. +Jasmine, dear, you three have tried bravely to help yourselves, and +you have--yes, I must say it, dear--you have failed. Primrose cannot +spend her life as continual reader to Mrs. Mortlock; you see now, my +dear little girl, that you are much too young to earn anything by your +pen, and little Daisy--ah! Jasmine, how thankful we ought to be that +we have our little Daisy still with us--but Daisy must never again +have her peace of mind so seriously imperilled. Jasmine, you three +girls want two things--you want education, and you want protection. +You want to be thoroughly educated, first of all, in those general +matters which all cultivated women ought to know about; and secondly, +in the special matter which each of you has a taste for. That special +taste or talent ought to be developed to the very uttermost, so that +bye-and-bye each of you girls can take up a profession and earn her +living usefully to others, and with ease and comfort to herself. If +Primrose feels that she can after a time paint very exquisitely and +very beautifully on porcelain, she ought to be apprenticed to one of +the best houses, and there properly learn her trade; and you, Jasmine, +whether you eventually earn your bread by writing beautiful stories, +or lovely poems, or whether the artist within you develops into a love +for making painted pictures instead of word pictures, you must for +many years to come be taught to think and have your little mind and +vivid imagination fed on the wise and great thoughts of others. +Daisy's future we none of us can talk about, but I have no doubt she +also has her special gift. + +"Now, Jasmine, what a long, long lecture I am giving you, only the sum +and substance of it all is, dear, that I want to protect you, and Mrs. +Ellsworthy is willing and anxious to advance a sufficient sum of money +to have you all properly educated. When you go to bed to-night I am +going to write very fully to Primrose on the subject." + +"I wonder if she will refuse," said Jasmine, speaking in a very +thoughtful tone; "she is very, very determined. You think she will +regard it as a 'Hill Difficulty' which she ought to climb. I think she +will regard it as a fearful, dreadful temptation which she ought to +put away." + +Miss Egerton smiled, for Jasmine's sunny little face looked so grave +and anxious, and there was such a disturbed frown between her brows. + +"At any rate, dear," continued the governess, "you will not oppose my +scheme. You will see, dear, that the greatest strength sometimes shows +itself in yielding. Jasmine, dear, are you not quite tired of having +your own way?" + +"A little," answered Jasmine. "I mean," she added, "that I never again +will offer my stories to papers recommended by people like Mr. and +Mrs. Dove." + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +A DAZZLING DAY. + + +Mrs. Ellsworthy felt very much excited when Miss Egerton left her. She +paced up and down her pretty boudoir, her cheeks were flushed and her +pretty eyes bore traces of tears. Miss Egerton had told the good +little lady for the first time the sad story of Daisy's terrible +adventure with Mr. Dove. All the poor little child's terror, and her +final flight into the country, were graphically described by the good +woman. + +"She went to find me, little darling, little darling," repeated Mrs. +Ellsworthy, tears running down her cheeks. "Oh, my dear little girl! +to think of her being turned away from my very gates." + +When Miss Egerton at last took her leave Mrs. Ellsworthy felt too much +excited to stay quiet; and when her husband came into the room he +found her much perturbed. + +"Joseph," she said, running up to him, "I have such a story for you," +and then she once again repeated little Daisy's adventure. + +"And Joseph," she added, "Miss Egerton and I have quite agreed that +you and I are to educate the girls; and, Joseph, the dear good +creature is resolved that they shall stay with her in town, and that +you and I are only to have the pleasure of spending any amount of +money on them; but I will not have it. Joseph, I am resolved that they +shall come to us at Shortlands, and have the instructions of the very +best governess I can procure for them, and then in the spring the +darlings shall come up to town, and have masters for every conceivable +sort of accomplishment. Oh, Joseph, we shall have our Jasmine yet, as +our very own." + +Mr. Ellsworthy smiled, kissed his wife, patted her on the cheek, told +her to do just what she liked, and went downstairs to his beloved +books. But Mrs. Ellsworthy's excitement kept her on thorns for the +greater part of the evening. + +That night she dreamt of the Mainwarings; dreamt that she saw Daisy's +piteous little face when she was turned away from her gates; dreamt +again a brighter dream, that Jasmine had her arms round her neck, and +was calling her mother; that Primrose, with none of her sweet dignity +abated, was smiling at her, and saying gratefully, "I accept your +kindness; I will gladly take your money; I will come and live with you +at Shortlands, and be to you as a daughter." And Daisy was saying, in +that funny little sententious voice of hers which she sometimes used, +"Weren't we all naughty, and aren't we good now, and is it not a good +thing that our pride should have a fall?" + +Mrs. Ellsworthy sighed deeply when she awoke from this beautiful +dream. + +"It was but a dream," she said to herself, and she went downstairs +sadly and soberly to her breakfast. + +Mr. Ellsworthy had breakfasted at a much earlier hour, and the little +lady had her beautifully-appointed table to herself. + +"Now, if the girls were all here," she thought, "how pleasant and +cheerful it would be! Primrose should sit just opposite to me, and +pour out the coffee; she would do it very nicely and deftly, and would +look so sweet and daughterly. And Jasmine--little witch!--I do not +suppose she would keep the same seat two mornings running, and I +should have to tell her over and over not to jump up every moment to +rush to the window. Daisy would sit near me, and, of course, I should +have to have a special chair made for that funny kitten of hers. I +would dress the three girls in white--white is so sweet for girls--and +how Jasmine and Daisy would chatter; their voices are very sweet in +tone, and they never talk too fast, so as to make one's head ache. I +often fancy I hear Jasmine talking to me now, her voice is so +bright--and--oh, dear! is not that very like her voice? Who is that +asking for me in the hall? Surely, surely, it must be Jasmine +Mainwaring. No other voice that I know has such a ring about it." + +Mrs. Ellsworthy half rose from her seat, half sat down again, and the +color of eager anticipation flushed her cheeks. + +The eager voice outside came nearer, light steps sounded in the hall, +and the next moment Jasmine had her arms round her friend's neck, and +was kissing her, while both woman and girl wept. + +"I had to come to you," said Jasmine, while she wiped some bright +falling tears away. "I have not come to stay, nor to give you our +address, nor to do anything of which Primrose would not approve; but +after Miss Egerton told me last night all that you wanted to do for +us, and how you still loved us, I just had to run round and thank you +and kiss you. Primrose and Daisy are still in the country, and Daisy +is better. Aren't you glad she will be all right again soon?" + +"Have breakfast with me, Jasmine," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "I was +thinking so much about you, and so longing to see you, and to have you +in the room seems like a beautiful dream realized. Sit down now and +have some breakfast with me." + +"I did not have any at home, so I will," answered Jasmine. "I stayed +awake half the night thinking about you. Oh, you are a real, real +friend!" + +"And I spent the greater part of the night dreaming about you three +girls," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Have some buttered toast, Jasmine, and +some of this apricot preserve." + +"Did you dream about us last night?" asked Jasmine. "Did you really? +You must love us very much." + +"I believe I do. Now, Jasmine, I will not ask you for your address. I +will do nothing more to really help you until we get Primrose's +letter, but I want you all the same to spend this whole long day with +me." + +Jasmine smiled, and her cheeks flushed. + +"It would be very luxurious," she said, "and such a change from our +attics, although Daisy does call them a Palace Beautiful. Will you +take me for a drive, if I stay, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and will you let me +imagine myself quite a rich little girl all day long? You must not +give me any presents, you know, for Primrose would not like that; but +I can imagine I have got all kinds of things, and I wonder, oh! I +wonder, if we might call to see Poppy this afternoon?" + +"We will take her too for a drive in the Park," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. +"I have heard a great deal of that Poppy of yours, and I think she is +quite a splendid kind of girl." + +Thus a very delightful programme was unexpectedly realized by two +little hard-working London girls, for Mrs. Ellsworthy gave herself up +to be enchanting, and took Poppy away from her work of drudgery, and +from the astonished ladies of the boarding-house. + +Poppy, in her dazzlingly brilliant hat, and with her cheeks quite +flaming with excitement, stepped into the carriage, and drove away, +facing Mrs. Ellsworthy and Jasmine, to the great scandal of the +footman, who was obliged, sorely against his will, to assist her to +her place. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy took the girls all round the Park, and then to a place +of amusement, and finally she presented Poppy with a very neat brown +dress and jacket, and hat to match, saying, as she did so, that really +Jasmine, even though she forbade her to offer her any presents, could +not lay a like embargo with regard to her friends. + +"It's of all the dazzlings, the most blindingly beautiful," was +Poppy's oft-reiterated comment. "Oh! won't I have something to tell +them ladies about bye-and-bye! Oh, my! Miss Jasmine, what a neat hat, +miss! I don't mind denuding this one now, for I has got a 'at from a +West End shop what beats anything that Miss Slowcum wears for +gentility." + +Finally, Jasmine and Poppy both returned to their respective homes, +tired, but wonderfully happy little girls. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy also laid her head that night on her pillow with a +wonderful sense of satisfaction. + +"Even if they do not come to me--although they must come," she +soliloquized, "I am glad--I shall all my life be glad that I gave +Jasmine a happy day." + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +A LETTER. + + +A morning or two after this, when Daisy had greatly advanced towards +convalescence, and was sitting up in Hannah's tiny little sitting-room +to partake of a very dainty little breakfast, Primrose received a long +letter from Miss Egerton. This was what it contained:-- + +"MY DEAR PRIMROSE, + +"You of course know that that wicked man Dove has received the +sentence which he so richly deserves. Alas, we cannot get back all the +stolen money, but we must manage without it, dear, and you are never +even to talk of repaying me for the furnishing of dear little Daisy's +Palace Beautiful. It has been a joy to me to have you, dear, and I +hope you will be able to bring Daisy back with you, and to live here +in peace and comfort next winter. Dear Primrose, it is more and more +evident to me that young girls should not venture to come to London +alone. You showed much bravery in your undertaking; but, my dear +girl, the pitfalls you exposed yourselves to were awful to +contemplate. I don't want to make you unhappy, dear, after all you +have suffered with regard to Daisy, but I must now tell you of a +little adventure which our poor dear Jasmine has had. You know how +very anxious she has been to see herself in print. Of course, I could +not conscientiously encourage her, for although she may have talent +(this I am not prepared to say), yet she is a great deal too young to +have anything printed. All books worth anything should teach, and +surely our dear little girl is only at the age to be taught herself. + +"Well, Primrose, the little maid was fired with the strongest +ambition. She wrote her novel in secret, and one day, accompanied by +that good-natured Poppy Jenkins and sweet little Daisy, went +Citywards, and simply plunged--for I can use no other word--into the +unknown and to me rather awful realm of publishers. + +"Poor child, of course none of the good houses would even look at her +immature productions; but she was taken in by a man who professed +himself to be the editor of a monthly paper--_The Joy-bell_ was its +silly title. On an understanding that her story was to be printed in +the pages of _The Joy-bell_--of course I've never seen the paper, and +should not dream of reading anything so rubbishy--poor Jasmine was +induced to subscribe two pounds five shillings, or, in other words, to +undertake to buy one hundred copies of _The Joy-bell_. Of course she +imagined that her printed words would immediately bring her fame. She +paid her money, and looked out for her story." + +"Where did she get the money from?" thought the anxious reader. + +"Primrose, how wrinkled up your brows are;" called out little Daisy. + +Primrose sighed, and resumed her perusal of the closely-written +sheets. + +"On the very evening our little Daisy ran away Jasmine received her +first proofs. They were barbarously printed on wretched paper, but the +poor child was in such trouble then that she scarcely noticed them. +Afterwards she did read them with care, and was surprised to find what +a very small portion of her story had been printed. + +"You know that I was unexpectedly detained in the country by the +serious illness and death of my poor cousin. Jasmine was not doing as +well as we supposed by her profession of dressing dinner-tables. The +dear child was determined not to ask help from any one, not even from +you, Primrose, and she made a valiant effort to support herself on her +tiny earnings. Alas, her purse was all too soon emptied, and she had +also upon her the awful load of debt, for Poppy Jenkins it seems, lent +her the money to get that rubbishy story published. In her despair she +thought of _The Joy-bell_, and went off to see the editor. + +"She was met at the office (poor child, how she could venture there +alone is a mystery to me) with the intelligence that _The Joy-bell_ +had ceased to exist, and the editor had decamped with poor Poppy's +wages. + +"Luckily I came home that evening, and found your poor little sister +in sad trouble. I am thankful to say I have been able to relieve her +present necessities without the slightest inconvenience to myself. +Jasmine has been greatly shaken, but she is better again now, and is +most anxious that you should not be troubled. I only tell you this +much, dear Primrose, because I consider it my bounden duty that you +should know how matters really stand. Rest happy about Poppy; her +money has been returned to her, and Jasmine has sufficient for her +present necessities. On second thoughts, I had better perhaps let you +into my little secret. I have borrowed ten pounds for Jasmine on that +valuable Spanish lace of her mother's. Do not imagine that the lace is +gone; it will be returned to Jasmine whenever she can refund the +money. It was necessary, dear Primrose, to take it, and I acted as I +am sure you would think right in the matter. Poppy had to be paid her +wages. + +"Now, dear Primrose, I want to talk with you very seriously on another +matter. You must own, dear, that though you have tried bravely you +have not yet, any of you, succeeded in earning your living. It is +almost a year since you began to try, and you have made, I fear, but +small headway. You, Primrose, have done best, and have made fewer +mistakes than your sisters, but even you would not care to spend all +your life in continual reading to Mrs. Mortlock. Jasmine can only earn +a precarious and uncertain living by dressing dinner-tables. Of +course, no one even expects dear little Daisy to contribute to the +family purse at present, but at the same time she need not put us into +terrible frights, nor be in the power of wicked and designing people. +My dear girls have had a trial of their own way; and now I think they +ought to take the advice of those older and wiser than themselves. + +"If, dear Primrose, you want to earn your living well--and nothing +makes a woman braver and better than being able to support +herself--you must be educated to take up some one profession in an +efficient manner. Money must be spent for this purpose, and you must +not be too proud to accept money from those who really love you. I +have been to see Mrs. Ellsworthy, and she and I had a long, long talk +about you girls. She is full of kindness, and she really and truly +loves you. It would be worse than folly, it would be wicked, to throw +such friendship away. Mrs. Ellsworthy tells me that she has been +consulting your old friend Mr. Danesfield about you. Both he and Mrs. +Ellsworthy are arranging plans which they trust you will all listen to +with patience. These plans shall be fully disclosed to you on your +return to town, but I may as well mention here that it will be +absolutely necessary that you should give up your present lives, and +should enter seriously on the great work of education. Money must be +spent for this object; but when you are able to earn well, bye-and-bye +it will be in your power to repay the money to the kind friends whose +happiness it is now to lend it to you. + + "Dear Primrose, + "I am, yours affectionately, + "AGNES EGERTON." + + +There was much in this letter to pain Primrose, and a year before she +might have torn it up and determined in no way to be guided by it; but +a year had brought her some very strange and some very sad +experiences. She was troubled and shocked to think that Jasmine should +have taken poor Poppy's hard earnings. She was deeply distressed at +owing herself so much to Miss Egerton, and now also so large a debt to +Arthur Noel. She had worked hard, and had done wonderfully well +considering, but nevertheless at the present moment, owing to adverse +circumstances, she was plunged in debt in many directions, and saw +little hope of repaying what she owed. Life seemed very difficult to +Primrose just then, and hot tears rose to her eyes. + +Should she go still farther in debt, and give up the great struggle to +be independent? Oh, no, she could not--she could not. Her pride rose +up in rebellion; her passionate longing to be free and her own +mistress, to be beholden to no one for the necessaries of life, was +too strong to be easily crushed. Better the dullest life, better be a +"continual reader" all her days than take the money of strangers. This +was her feeling, and it grew so strong moment by moment, that she +might have sat down to answer Miss Egerton's letter there and then but +for a rather innocent little remark made by Daisy. + +"Dear Primrose, I forgot it in all the other great trouble, but I do +want to send fifteen shillings as soon as possible to dear good Poppy. +She lent me fifteen shillings to buy a single third to come to +Rosebury, and I forgot all about it. Please, Primrose, try and spare +me fifteen shillings to send to Poppy." + +"So you too are in debt, Daisy," said Primrose. "Oh, dear, what shall +I do? Daisy, dear, forgive me, I ought not to mind anything now you +are growing better, but my heart is heavy, and I feel almost crushed. +Yes, Daisy, dear Poppy must have her money. I won't write to Miss +Egerton until to-morrow." + +Here Primrose wiped some tears from her sweet brown eyes, but she took +good care not to allow Daisy to see that she was crying. + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +"I LOVE MRS. ELLSWORTHY." + + +The next afternoon, to the surprise of both Primrose and Daisy, Noel +arrived. Daisy greeted her Prince with rapture, but refused to hear +any particulars of Dove's trial. + +"I want to forget him," she said. "You say he is in the dungeon now. I +don't want to think of it. If I think of it long I shall begin to be +so sorry for him." + +"We will talk of something better and pleasanter," said Noel. "How +soon are you coming back to your Palace Beautiful, little Princess?" + +Daisy looked anxiously across the room at Primrose. Primrose was +bending over some needlework, and a ray of sunlight was shining on her +fair head. She did not raise her eyes or respond in any way to the +little sister's glance. + +"We did think of coming back to Miss Egerton's in the autumn," said +Daisy, "but last night Primrose--May I tell, Primrose?" + +Primrose put down her work suddenly and came up to where Noel and +Daisy were sitting. + +"It is just this," she said; "Daisy did not know she had such a proud +and obstinate sister. We had made our plans for the autumn--at least +we simply intended to struggle on, and hope and watch for brighter +days--but yesterday I had a letter from Miss Egerton, and some of its +contents troubled me a good deal. Daisy saw that I was unhappy, and I +told her what Miss Egerton wanted. I thought the dear little one would +object, but she only said, 'Oh, let us be brave, Primrose; our Palace +Beautiful will be all the brighter if we really earn it.' Then she +added, 'I am beginning to wish to earn a little money myself, for I +want to give a very kind person back what he gave me.'" + +Noel gave Daisy's thin little hand a squeeze. Primrose looked at the +two, and stopped speaking. After a moment's pause she said suddenly-- + +"I don't like the plan; I never can like it. Mrs. Ellsworthy is all +that is kind, but she is no relation of ours. She lived in the same +place with us for years, and she never even called on our mother. Oh, +I don't blame her; she naturally thought that people who lived in an +humble little cottage at Rosebury were not ladies, but you see we are +ladies, and we cannot help feeling sore. I may agree to the plan--I +may be forced to agree to it for Jasmine's and Daisy's sakes--but I +can never, never like it." + +Here Primrose went out of the room. + +"She was crying for a long time last night," whispered Daisy; "it +hurts her dreadfully to take Mrs. Ellsworthy's money. I don't suppose +I mind it so much, because I was coming to Mrs. Ellsworthy to ask her +for some money. I did not find her, and I was miserable until you +found me and helped me, Prince. Then I love Mrs. Ellsworthy, and so +does Jasmine." + +"That is it, Eyebright," answered Noel; "we do not mind receiving +kindnesses and favors from those we love. Yes, I am very sorry for +Primrose; I wish matters could be differently arranged for her." + +While Noel was speaking Hannah came into the room with a cup of +beef-tea for the little invalid. + +"You have done her a sight of good already, sir," she said, peering +with her short-sighted eyes into the young man's face. "I don't know +what we'd have done for her if you hadn't come that day, and talked to +her, and got her to tell you what that most villainous person in +London was after." + +"Oh, don't, Hannah," said Daisy, "he's in a dungeon now--poor, poor +Mr. Dove; I must not think about him if I mean to get well." + +Here Daisy shivered, and added under her breath, with her little pale +face working-- + +"I did promise it very faithfully that I would never tell about the +sweetmeats." + +"He was a bad man, Daisy, and he richly deserves his punishment," said +Noel, in an almost stern voice, for he wished to check any unhealthy +sentimentality on the part of the delicate child. "You must think of +what you and your sisters have suffered, and be glad he has been +prevented doing any more mischief." + +"Drink up your beef-tea, missy," said Hannah. "Please, Mr. Noel, sir, +will you hold the cup for little miss? Oh, my heart alive, what--what +is that?" + +"I don't see anything," said Noel, "what has frightened you, Hannah?" + +But Hannah had grown white, and looked very queer, and a moment after +she hurried out of the room. + +"I never knew your servant was nervous," said Noel to Daisy. + +"Nervous?" she repeated, laughing merrily. "Is it Hannah? why she +always says she hasn't a nerve in her whole body. She's sometimes +almost cross with me for being nervous, Mr. Prince." + +Noel stayed some little time longer with the sisters, and then +returned to Rosebury in time to catch the evening train to London. +When he got there he went straight to Mrs. Ellsworthy's house. That +little lady was anxiously expecting him, and plied him with many +questions on the spot. + +"How is she taking it, Arthur?" she asked. "I have been forming and +maturing my plans, and I now think a resident governess at Shortlands +would be the nicest arrangement for the girls. They cannot be parted, +that is very evident, and as Primrose must be more than eighteen she +would not care to go to school. Yes, a resident governess seems the +plan of plans. I would take them up to London early in the spring, and +give them the advantage of the very best masters." + +"Primrose seems very unhappy about it," replied Noel. "She may in the +end consent to some scheme for perfecting her education, but I'm quite +sure she will not go, nor allow her sisters to go to Shortlands to +live a life of simple luxury. I am sorry for you, Mrs. Ellsworthy, but +I know Primrose will never consent to that." + +"I don't think you are sorry for me, Arthur," answered the pretty +little lady. "In your heart of hearts you quite agree with that +naughty, bad Primrose. You had rather the girls lived in their attic, +and encountered another dreadful Mr. Dove, and fell into the hands of +another designing publisher, than have them safe and happy at +Shortlands. Oh, it is a plot between you all to deprive me of my great +pleasure. Oh, why will girls, and young men, too, be so perverse?" + +Noel smiled. + +"I am sorry for both you and Primrose," he said. "I am convinced she +will never agree to your present scheme, although she may allow you to +help her to perfect her education." + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +TELEGRAPH WIRES. + + +Daisy was quite right when she said that Hannah was not subject to +nervous attacks. Hannah scorned nerves, and did not believe in them. +When she was told that the human body was as full of nerves as an +electric battery was full of electricity, that nerves, in short, were +like numberless telegraphic-wires, prevailing the whole human frame, +she stared at the speakers, and pronounced them slightly daft. + +Yet Hannah went out of her own little sitting-room on that summer +afternoon with, as she expressed it, trembling sensations running down +her back, and causing her fingers to shake when she handled her cups +and saucers. + +"Dear, dear," she said to herself, "one would think I had some of +those awful telegrams in me which Miss Primrose said was the nervous +system. Why, I'm all upset from top to toe. I never had a good view of +him before, for I didn't pay no heed to nobody when my dear little +Miss Daisy was so ill; but I do say that the cut of the hand and the +turn of the head is as like--as like as two peas. Now I do wonder--no, +no, it can't be. Well, anyhow, my name ain't Hannah Martin if I don't +find out where he comes from, and who he really is. Well, well, +well--why this trembling won't leave me, and I don't dare go back into +the room. I suppose I have got a few telegraphs, and I mustn't never +laugh at poor little Miss Daisy again when she says she's nervous." + +Hannah sat and rested for about half an hour--then she drank off a +glass of cold water--then she washed her face and hands--then she said +aloud that the telegrams should not get the better of her, and then +she prepared as nice a little dinner as she could for Noel and the two +sisters. + +That evening, after Daisy was in bed, she came into the room where +Primrose was quietly reading. + +"You haven't never come across no one the least like that brother of +yours in the London streets, Miss Primrose?" she asked. "London's a +big place, and strange things happen there--yes, very, very strange +things." + +"Oh, Hannah, how you startle me!" said Primrose. "I come across my +poor little brother Arthur? How could I? Why, he must be dead for many +and many a year." + +"Not a bit of him," said Hannah; "I don't believe he's dead. He was a +fine, hearty, strong child, and nothing ever seemed to ail him. Oh, it +rises up before me now what a beautiful picture he made when he stood +in his little red velvet dress by your mamma's knee, and she so proud +of him! There's no mistake, but he was the very light of her eyes. She +took him up to London, and a nursemaid--not me, you may be quite +sure--took him out. She went into a big shop, and the child was by her +side. She kept him standing by her as she ordered some things across +the counter, and, I suppose, she turned her head for a minute, for +when she looked round again he was gone. From that day to this he was +never heard of, though everything you can think of was done. Oh, my +poor, poor mistress, what she did suffer!" + +"Hannah, how excited you look!" said Primrose. "Why, you are all +trembling. It is a terrible story, but as I say to Daisy about Mr. +Dove, don't let us think of it." + +"Right you are, honey," said Hannah; "what can't be cured, you know. +If you don't mind, Miss Primrose, I'll just sit down for a minute. I'm +not to say quite myself. Oh, it ain't nothing, dearie; just a bit of +the trembles, and to prove to old Hannah that she is getting on in +years. I nursed you all, darling--him, my beautiful boy, and you +three. Miss Primrose, dear, how old would you say that Mr. Noel was. +I didn't have a fair look at him until to-day, and he seems quite a +young sort of man." + +"Miss Egerton says that he is twenty-six, Hannah." + +"Twenty-six," answered Hannah; "don't interrupt me for a minute, dear. +I'm comparing dates--twenty-six--twenty-six. Law, goodness gracious +me! You haven't never noticed, Miss Primrose, that he have a kind of a +mole--long-shaped, and rather big, a little way up his left arm? Have +you, now, dearies?" + +"No, really, Hannah, I've never seen Mr. Noel's arm without his +coat-sleeve. How very queerly you are speaking, Hannah." + +"Not at all, dearie; it's only because I've got the trembles on me. +Well, love, and so you don't want to be under no compliments to that +Mrs. Ellsworthy, who never took no notice of your poor dear ma?" + +Primrose sighed. + +"I feel sore about it, Hannah," she said. "But I must try not to be +too proud. I will ask God to help me to do what is really right in the +matter." + +"That's it, honey, and maybe you won't have to do it after all. I +wonder, now, dear, if Mr. Noel is well off." + +"Really, Hannah, I think you have got Mr. Noel on the brain! Yes, I +have heard Miss Egerton say that he is a rich man. He was the adopted +son of a very wealthy person, who left him all his property." + +"Adopted, was he?" said Hannah. "On my word, these tremblings are +terrible! Miss Primrose, dear, I have come in to say that I may be +going a little journey in the morning. I'll be off by the first dawn, +so as to be back by night, and the shop needn't be opened at all +to-morrow. There's a nice cold roast fowl for you and Miss Daisy, and +a dish of strawberries which I gathered with my own hands not an hour +back, so you'll have no trouble with your dinner. You see that Miss +Daisy eats plenty of cream with her strawberries, dear, for cream's +fattening; and now good-night." + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + +A DISCOVERY. + + +Hannah Martin had never been much of a traveller. It was years since +she set her foot inside a railway carriage. She often boasted of her +abnormal lack of nerves, but she was also heard to say that accidents +by rail were fearful and common, and likely to happen at any moment. +She sighed for the old coaching days, and hated the thought of all +locomotives propelled by steam. Nevertheless, early in the morning of +the day following her interview with Primrose, Hannah, in her usual +neat print dress, was seen to enter the little railway station at +Rosebury, was observed to purchase for herself a third-class return +ticket, and after carefully selecting her carriage, to depart for +London. + +In the afternoon of that same day Hannah reached her destination, and +securing the first porter whose attention she could arrest, she placed +a bit of paper in his hand, and asked him to direct her to the address +written upon it. The man screwed up his eyes, stared at the paper, +and suggested that Hannah should place herself in a hansom, and direct +the driver to take her to Park Lane. Hannah had not an idea what a +hansom meant; she had never visited London since her early days. She +stared with horror at the proposed vehicle, and finally selecting the +creakiest and most uninviting of the four-wheelers, drove off to her +destination. + +Mrs. Ellsworthy was enjoying some very fragrant tea in her little +boudoir when a servant announced that a person of the name of Martin +had come up from the country in a four-wheeler, and would be glad to +see her as soon as possible. + +"What kind of person, Henry?" asked the little lady. "I am very tired +just now, and I must go out to dinner in less than two hours. A person +from the country in a four-wheeler? What can she want with me?" + +"She seems a respectable sort of body, ma'am," answered the footman, +"but nervous and shaky, and mortal afraid to step out of the cab; the +cabby and me we had both to lend her a hand in alighting, ma'am. She's +sitting now in a chair in the hall, and I can see she's upset with her +journey, but _respectable_; there's no word for the neatness of her +person, ma'am." + +"She is probably poor, and wants me to help her," replied Mrs. +Ellsworthy. "I hate seeing beggars, for I find it absolutely +impossible to say _no_ to them. Show her up, Henry, and give her a +hint that I'm going out to dinner, and can only spare her a very few +moments." + +Hannah could not certainly be accused when she entered Mrs. +Ellsworthy's room, of any want of nerves. Her hands were shaking, her +lips were tremulous, and her face, as she entered the room, became +perfectly white. + +"You'll excuse me, ma'am," she said. "I'm most sorry to trouble you, +but I'm that anxious, I scarce know what I'm doing. I undertook a +railway journey--which I don't think right--and I came here through +most crowded streets in a dreadful vehicle, for I just wanted to ask +you a single question, ma'am." + +"Sit down, my poor woman," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, who, the moment she +looked at Hannah, began to have a dim sort of idea that she had seen +her before, and also became full of pity for her. "Sit down. How you +tremble! I am sorry to see you are so nervous." + +"Nervous, ma'am!" echoed Hannah. "That I should hear that said of me! +No, ma'am, it ain't nervous I am, but I'm rather worried with the +tremblings during the last few hours. I've come to ask you a plain +question, ma'am, plain and direct. It's about the young man Mr. Noel. +Have he, ma'am, or have he not, a mole on his left arm? I'd like yes +or no, ma'am." + +"A mole on his left arm!" echoed Mrs. Ellsworthy. "My good woman, what +a very extraordinary question; you really quite startle me. Has Arthur +Noel a mole on his left arm? Yes, of course he has; I used to notice +it when he was a child. I suppose people don't outgrow moles, so he +probably has it still. Why, Mrs. Martin--I am told your name is +Martin--how very white you are. Would you--would you like a glass of +wine?" + +"Thank you, ma'am--no wine, thank you, ma'am. I'm a bit upset. Yes, +I'm a bit upset, for I believe Mr. Arthur Noel is my long-lost baby." + +The footman downstairs had given Mrs. Martin careful directions not to +occupy more than a moment or two of his mistress's valuable time; but +though he waited on the stairs and lingered about in the +entrance-hall, no bell summoned him to show out this remarkable +visitor. An hour passed away, an hour and a half, and still Mrs. +Martin remained in close conversation with Mrs. Ellsworthy. At the end +of the hour and a half Henry looked earnestly at the clock, sighed, +and felt that it was his duty to go into the room to let Mrs. +Ellsworthy know that she would be late for her dinner-party. He found +that good lady sitting by her writing-table with very flushed cheeks +and tearful eyes, and Hannah standing in quite a familiar attitude by +her side. + +"Give this note to Mr. Ellsworthy when he comes in, Henry, and order +the carriage to be brought round directly. I am not going to dine out +to-night. I will just go upstairs to change my bonnet. And Henry, take +Mrs. Martin down to the servants' hall, and give her some dinner. She +is coming out with me in the carriage, so be quick, please." + +As Mrs. Ellsworthy stood before her glass re-arranging her toilet her +maid saw her wiping some tears from her pretty eyes. + +"Oh, my bonny Arthur," she said under her breath. "Oh, what your poor, +poor mother must have suffered." + +When the carriage came to the door Mrs. Ellsworthy gave the coachman +Noel's address, and the two women drove there at once. They were +fortunate in finding the young man within. He too was engaged to dine +out that night, but he did not go. Hannah, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and he had +a long conference, which lasted until late in the evening, and when +Mr. Ellsworthy joined them he was told a very wonderful story. Hannah +returned to Devonshire on the following morning very well pleased with +her successful expedition. + +"If there had been any doubt," she said to herself, as she was being +whirled homewards in her third-class carriage, "if there had been any +doubt after the sight of that mole on his dear, blessed arm, why, the +little shirt which Mrs. Ellsworthy showed me, and which she took off +his back herself after them horses had all but killed him, would prove +that he's my own boy. Could I ever forget marking that shirt in +cross-stitch, and making such a bungle over the A, and thinking I'd +put Mainwaring in full, and then getting lazy, and only making the +mark A.M.? Well, I was served out for that piece of laziness, for my +boy might have been brought back to his mother but for it. Dear, dear! +Well, there's no mistaking my own A.M., and when I peered close with +my glasses on I could even see where I unpicked the A. and did it over +again. Dear, dear, shall I ever forgive myself for not doing the +surname in full--his poor, poor mother! Well, I mustn't think of +that--it's a merciful Providence that has led me to him now, and he's +as darling and elegant a young man as ever I clapped eyes on, and as +fond of the young ladies as can be even now. + +"'I always felt somehow as if they were my sisters,' he said to me. +Well, well, God be praised for his mercies." + + + + +CHAPTER LV. + +AN INVITATION FOR THE LADIES OF PENELOPE MANSION. + + +"There are limits to all things," said Mrs. Mortlock; "there's a time, +as the blessed Bible says, to sorrow, and a time to rejoice, and what +I say too is, that there is a time when a woman's patience may be +exhausted. Yes, Mrs. Dredge, you may look at me with as round eyes as +you please--I know they are round though I can't see them, but I will +say, if it's my last dying breath, that the moment for my 'continual +reader' to return has arrived. Miss Slowcum, no doubt you'll +corroborate what I say, ma'am." + +"It's hot weather for young bright flowers to shed their fragrance on +the London streets," replied Miss Slowcum; "it's the kind of weather +when flowers fade. I should imagine, Mrs. Mortlock, that your +'continual reader' was doing better for herself in the country." + +Mrs. Mortlock's face became very red. + +"Better for herself, is she?" she said, "and is that all the thanks I +get for keeping my post vacant, and living through days the weariness +of which none may know. If Miss Primrose Mainwaring is doing better +for herself in the country she is welcome to stay there. The post is a +good one, a light and an easy one, and I can get many another lass to +fill it." + +"I think, ma'am," said Mrs. Dredge, whose face had grown wonderfully +smooth and pleasant of late, "that the dear girls will all be in town +this week, and most likely Miss Primrose will come to pay you a visit. +Oh, they are nice girls, pretty, elegant girls, just the kind of girls +my good man would like to have been papa to. I can't help shivering, +even now when I think of that wicked man Dove, and what a state he put +dear little Daisy into." + +"If praises of the Mainwarings is to begin," answered Mrs. Mortlock in +her tartest voice, "what I say is, let me retire. It's all very well +for them as has right to talk well of the absent, but when one of the +absent ones is neglecting her duty the lady who has weak eyes feels +it. Miss Slowcum, ma'am, have you any objection to moving with me into +the drawing-room? I can lend you that pattern you admired so much for +tatting if you read me the latest gossip from the evening papers, +ma'am." + +Mrs. Mortlock rose from her chair, and, accompanied by Miss Slowcum, +left the room. Miss Slowcum took a ladylike interest in all kinds of +needlework, and the desire to possess the tatting pattern overcame +her great reluctance to read aloud to the very tart old lady. + +Mrs. Mortlock placed herself in the most comfortable arm-chair the +room afforded, and having secured her victim, began instantly to +tyrannize over her. + +"Now, Miss Slowcum, read up chirrupy and cheerful please. None of your +drawling, by way of genteel voice, for me--I like my gossip crisp. I +will say this of that dear girl Primrose Mainwaring, that she did her +gossip crisp." + +"You really are a very unaccountable person, Mrs. Mortlock," replied +Miss Slowcum. "You begin by abusing Primrose Mainwaring, and then you +praise her in the most absurd manner. I hope the refined reading of a +cultivated lady is not to be compared to the immature utterances of a +school-girl. If that is so, Mrs. Mortlock, even for the sake of the +tatting pattern, I cannot consent to waste my words on you." + +"Oh, my good creature," said Mrs. Mortlock, who by no means wished to +be left to solitude and herself, "you read in a very pretty style of +your own--obsolete it may be--h'm--I suppose we must expect +that--mature it certainly is; yes, my dear, quite mature. If I praise +Primrose Mainwaring, and a good girl she was when she was with +me--yes, a good, painstaking girl, thankful for her mercies--it's no +disparagement to you, Miss Slowcum. You're mellow, my dear, and you +can't help being mellow, and Primrose Mainwaring is crisp, and she +can't help being crisp. Oh, goodness gracious me! what sound is that +falls on my ear?" + +"An old friend's voice, I hope, Mrs. Mortlock," said a pleasant +girlish tone, and Primrose Mainwaring herself bent down over the old +lady and kissed her. + +Notwithstanding all her grumbling Mrs. Mortlock had taken an immense +fancy to Primrose. She returned her embrace warmly, and even took her +hand and squeezed it. + +"I'd like to see you, dear," she said, "but I'm getting blinder and +blinder. Have you come back to your continual reading, dear? I hope +so, for you do the gossip in a very chirruping style." + +While Mrs. Mortlock was speaking to Primrose Miss Slowcum had taken +Daisy in her arms, and covered her sweet little face with kisses, for +Miss Slowcum was not all sour and affected, and she had shed some +bitter tears in secret over the child's unaccountable disappearance. +Mrs. Dredge and Mrs. Flint had both surrounded Jasmine, who, in a +white summer frock, was looking extremely pretty, and was entertaining +them with some animated conversation. + +"Yes," said Primrose to Mrs. Mortlock, "I will come to read to you as +often as ever I can. I shall know my plans better after to-morrow. We +three girls returned to London a couple of days ago, and we received a +letter from our kind friend Mrs. Ellsworthy. You don't know her, +perhaps, but she is a very kind friend of ours. She is making some +plans for us, but we don't quite know what they are. She has written +us a letter, however, and it is on account of that letter that we have +all come to you to-night. She has invited us to come to her to-morrow, +and she wants all the friends who were kind to us, and who helped us +in every way during our year in London, to come in the evening to hear +what the plans are. Even if you can't see, Mrs. Mortlock, it will +amuse you to come, and I hope so much you will do so. I will try to +stay close to you myself when you do come, so you need not feel +lonely." + +"My dear, you are very kind," said Mrs. Mortlock, and the other ladies +also said the Mainwarings were kind, and they sent their dutiful +respects to Mrs. Ellsworthy and were pleased to accept. Accordingly, +Primrose gave them full directions with regard to the right address, +and the hour at which they were to be present; and finally the girls +left Mrs. Flint and her three lady boarders in a state of considerable +excitement and so deeply interested in what was about to occur that +they forgot to grumble at each other. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + +A PALACE BEAUTIFUL. + + +Hannah Martin had come up with her young ladies to London, and she +also was invited by Mrs. Ellsworthy to come to her house. The girls +all thought Hannah very much altered; they could not understand her +queer illusions, or her mysterious little nods, or in particular the +way she used to stare at Jasmine, and say under her breath, "Yes, yes, +as like as two peas. What a blind old woman I was not to see it when I +clapped eyes on him." + +"I cannot make out what Hannah is always muttering," Jasmine said to +her sisters. "Who is it I am so remarkably like. To judge from the way +Hannah frowns and shakes her head, and then smiles, the fact of this +accidental likeness seems to have a very disturbing effect upon her." + +"I know whom you are like, Jasmine," said little Daisy. "I've seen it +for a long time. You are the very image of my dear Prince. You have +got just the same colored eyes, and just the same curly hair, and +both your foreheads are broad and white. It's perfectly natural," +continued Daisy, "for you are both geniuses, and all geniuses must +have a look of each other." + +Hannah had old-fashioned ideas on many subjects. One of these was that +people could not remain too long in mourning. She liked very deep +black, and wished those who had lost relations to wear it for a long, +long time. The girls, therefore, were quite amazed when she suggested +that they should all go to Mrs. Ellsworthy in white. They began to +consider her quite an altered Hannah; but Jasmine took her advice, and +bought many yards of soft flowing muslin, which the old servant helped +her dear young ladies to make up. + +At last the day and hour arrived when, as Primrose said sorrowfully, +"Our fate is to be sealed and we are to bid 'Good-bye' to dear +independence." + +The girls, looking as sweet as girls could look, arrived at Mrs. +Ellsworthy's at a fairly early hour in the afternoon. The good little +lady received them with marked tenderness, but said, in an almost +confused manner, and by no means with her usual self-possession that a +slight change had been found necessary in the afternoon's programme, +and that the meeting of friends and acquaintances to hear their future +plans was not to take place at her house after all. + +"We are to go to another house not far from this," she said, "indeed, +only a stone's throw away. It is so close that we will walk it. Come, +Daisy, I see a number of questions in your eyes, but they shall all be +answered presently. Take my hand now, and let us lead the way. The +other house is very pretty, but it is smaller than mine." + +The other house was quite close to Mrs. Ellsworthy's luxurious +mansion. It was built more in the cottage shape, was much smaller, and +had a charming little garden and grounds round it. The hall door +opened into a porch, which was covered with roses, so that though the +house was really in London, the effect was quite that of the country. +Standing in the porch, and looking extremely pretty in its flickering +light and shade, stood Poppy Jenkins, in the neatest of handmaiden's +attire, and as the girls all came into the shade of the cool porch, +Noel himself, looking somewhat pale, and with a curious agitation in +his manner, came out to meet them. + +"This is my house," he said, "and Poppy is engaged as one of the +servants. I thought we might all meet here to discuss the new plans. +Poppy, will you take the young ladies to their room? I've had a room +prepared," he continued, blushing slightly, "for I thought Daisy might +like to rest a little." + +Poppy instantly tripped forward, and in quite a demure manner took +the girls up some broad stairs, and into a long, rather low-ceilinged +room on the first floor. There were three little white beds in the +room, and three toilet tables, and, in short, three sets of +everything. It was the prettiest, the brightest, the most lovely room +the girls had ever seen. It contained luxury, and neatness, and +comfort, and refinement, for beautiful pictures were placed on the +walls, and flowers peeped in at the windows, and the furniture was of +that sort which can best accommodate girls' pretty dresses and +knick-knacks. + +"What a room!" said Jasmine. "Why, it's just like a girls' room! Any +one would suppose Mr. Noel had sisters." + +Daisy began to skip about, and to poke her little fingers amongst the +curiosities and treasures which were scattered broadcast. Primrose +became silent, and walked over to one of the windows, and Poppy, +suddenly dropping her demure air, said in a voice of ecstasy-- + +"He's a lovely young man, and I'm engaged here permanent, and it's no +more Sarah Ann, nor Sarah Jane, but Poppy I'm to be from this time and +for ever. Oh, Miss Primrose, don't it make you real happy even to take +off your bonnet in a room like this?" + +"I do feel happy," said Primrose, in that slow voice of hers. "I feel +happy, and I can't tell why. I am just going to give up my +independence, and I ought to be miserable, but at the present moment I +have a peculiar sense of rejoicing." + +"And so have I," said Jasmine, "I could skip all day long; and as to +Eyebright, she looks fit to dance this very moment." + +"I'm happy because I'm with the Prince," said Daisy; "that's always +quite enough for me." + +Then the three sisters linked their arms round one another, and went +downstairs. + +In Noel's very lovely drawing-room many friends were assembled. Mr. +and Mrs. Ellsworthy, of course, were present; also Mr. Danesfield, +Miss Martineau, and Miss Egerton. Old Hannah stood in the background +and when the three pretty sisters came into the room they were +surrounded by eager and loving faces, and were most warmly welcomed. +Mrs. Ellsworthy, it is true, still appeared much agitated; she had an +intense longing to take Jasmine in her arms and cry over her, but she +had, of course, too much sense to do anything so unsuitable and silly. +The girls were asked to sit down, and Mr. Ellsworthy, who had been +elected spokesman, stood up, cleared his throat, and looked at his +wife. Twice he made an attempt at utterance; finally he said in a +voice which trembled--"My dear, I can't manage it--you had better do +it yourself." + +"I presume you are addressing me, Joseph," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. +"I--I--this is unexpected; but anything to get it over. My dear girls, +you have come here to-day to hear what we have arranged for you. We +felt you could not go on as you have been doing." + +"Impossible," here interrupted Mr. Danesfield. "They were the victims +of thieves and rogues. The thing could not have gone on a day longer." + +"So we made plans--very nice plans," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy. "It +never occurred to us that they would be knocked on the head, crushed, +obliterated. Oh, I am very happy, of course, but I could cry at having +my plans spoiled a second time." + +"I don't think they are really spoiled," said Primrose who had grown +very white, and now rose to her feet. "I know I was proud about +accepting help. I had such a longing to be independent. Perhaps I feel +sore about accepting help still, but I have made up my mind; for all +our sakes it is best. I submit--I give in--I am very grateful." + +"Perhaps, Primrose," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, whose bright eyes were now +full of tears, "I may convince you yet that you have no cause to feel +sore, and that proud heart of yours will not be pained. I believe the +help you need is coming to you three sisters in such a guise that you +cannot fail but to accept it gladly, and as your natural right." + +"It cannot quite be our natural right," said Primrose. "There are no +possible circumstances under which it can be quite natural for girls +to take money help from even the kindest friends who are not related +to them." + +"In this case there may even possibly be a relationship," proceeded +Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose, suppose that little brother who was lost +long ago--little Arthur your mother called him--suppose he came here +to-day, and said, 'I am grown up, and rich--I am the right person to +help my sisters,' you would feel no soreness of heart at accepting +help from your own brother, Primrose?" + +"My own brother," repeated Primrose in a wistful and longing voice; +"it is cruel to remind me of my brother. He was lost many, many years +ago; he has probably long been dead." + +"I should be the happiest girl in all the world if I could find my +brother," here interrupted Jasmine; "I often dream of him at night; he +must have been a darling little boy." + +"But if he were to come here twenty times," said Daisy, "I could never +love him better than I love the Prince." + +There was quite a little buzz of admiration through the room when +Daisy made this innocent little speech, and all eyes were turned on +Arthur Noel. Then there was a pause. Mr. Ellsworthy was again heard +to clear his throat, and no one seemed quite to know what to do next. +Suddenly Hannah Martin broke the spell-- + +"Goodness gracious me!" she said, "how long are the darling young +ladies to be kept in suspense? Miss Primrose, why, you have got a +brother, and there he stands. Mr. Arthur, come and kiss your sisters, +my dear. Oh, my darling, darling girls, it's perfectly, perfectly +true; he's the boy your mother broke her heart about long ago." + +The confusion and agitation which followed can scarcely be +described--the joy of the sisters can scarcely be painted. Daisy took +this wonderful and important discovery more coolly and calmly than the +others. + +"It doesn't make a bit of difference in my love to him," she said, +"for I always loved him as if he were my brother." + +"And now, Primrose," said Arthur, "you are mistress of this house, and +please remember that visitors are coming here presently, and that you +are to entertain them." + +"Are we always to live with you, Arthur?" asked Jasmine. "It seems +better than a dream. Oh, Arthur," she continued, not waiting for her +brother's reply, "don't you remember how we made friends the very +first moment we met? we must have always known, deep down in our +hearts, that we were brother and sister." + +"And this is to be our new Palace Beautiful," said Daisy, "and Poppy +is to live here too. Oh, Primrose, do you not feel almost too happy?" + +"I've given up my independence," said Primrose, "and yet I never felt +more happy or more thankful." + +The party that evening was a success. The astonishment of the good +ladies from Penelope Mansion when they heard the wonderful news passed +all bounds. Mrs. Dredge sat plump down on a chair, placed her fat +hands on her lap, and fairly cried. + +"Oh, if only my poor dear husband had lived to see this beautiful +day," she said. "Young man, I have liked you from the first; you're +the kind of young man whom my good husband would have rejoiced to be +papa to." + +Miss Slowcum sighed most deeply when she heard the news. "It's a +touching romance," she said, "quite worthy of the olden times. I could +imagine Mr. Noel--Mr. Mainwaring, I suppose we must call him now--as +belonging to the old knights of chivalry. Yes, I am a person of +discernment, and I long ago saw that the dear girls belonged to the +upper ten." + +"It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," said Mrs. Mortlock. "In +this case, ladies and gentlemen, I beg to reverse the familiar words, +for amid all your joy I have lost my 'continual reader.' She had her +faults--no, I'm not going to deny that being young she had her +faults--but she was ever good-natured, and she did her gossip +chirrupy." + +Of course the girls' future was now assured, for Arthur was a very +rich man. Miss Egerton, at his earnest request, came to live with +them, and they are now known to possess one of the happiest and +brightest homes in London--in short, they live in a "Palace +Beautiful." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Palace Beautiful, by L. 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