The Palace Beautiful: A Story for Girls

  CHAPTER XIV.

  QUITE CONTRARY.

  "I have done it, my dear Joseph," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "I went to seethe children, and I wrote to that little proud princess Primrose. Itwill be really very nice if they all come here. We have such heaps andheaps of money, more than we know what to do with; money becomesuninteresting when you have so much. I think I have tried most of thepleasures that money can buy. I have heaps of dresses, and quantitiesof jewels, and my lovely country home, and my season in town, but whatI have never yet had, and what I have earnestly longed for, was adaughter. A boy, after all, has to go to school, and to fight his wayin the world--our boy is at school, and a very good place for him--buta 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 thefiction of Primrose being useful to you in your library, Joseph--youmust give her letters to write, and you must be very patient with herwhen she makes mistakes, for the dear child has not been educated,and will probably make the worst of secretaries. Never mind, you musttry to appear delighted, and to seem as if you never could have got onuntil Primrose Mainwaring came to help you.

  "Then the little ones--of course they are coming under the suppositionthat they are only to stay until I have found them berths in one ofthose horrid charity schools for the orphan daughters of militarymen--but I promise you those berths shall be hard to find. The threewill insensibly consider themselves our adopted children. Oh, what adelightful plan it is! and how picturesque I shall feel with my girls!Joseph, did you ever see a brighter or more bewitching little soulthan 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'sdaughters. I shall be very pleased indeed if they make your life anyhappier, Kate."

  Mrs. Ellsworthy stooped down and kissed her husband's brow--she wasall impatience for the morning to arrive, for surely early then wouldcome an answer to the letter she had written.

  But Mrs. Ellsworthy was doomed to disappointment. The next day broughtno answer from the Mainwaring girls. The good little lady bore hersuspense as best she could until noon, then she ordered her carriageand drove into the village.

  Jasmine herself opened the cottage door for her. Jasmine was lookingexcited, and there were red rings round her eyes as if she had beencrying, and yet at the same time those bright eyes of hers wereshining, and her lips were quivering between smiles and tears.

  "Oh, you have come!" she exclaimed; "Primrose is in the village--shehas gone to Mr. Danesfield about our money. Please come into thedrawing-room. We are rather upset, for we are beginning to pack, andHannah is washing out the anti-macassars and the white muslincurtains, for we think the muslin curtains will look so nice in ourcheap lodgings. We are very busy, awfully busy, but do come in and sitdown. Eyebright, here is Mrs. Ellsworthy. Mrs. Ellsworthy, isn'tEyebright a silly?--she is quite fretting because she won't see thoselast seeds of hers come up in the garden. Now, if she was asked toleave the Pink I would say nothing, but of course the Pink comes too."

  "Yes, dear, and Daisy shall have plenty of garden ground for freshseeds. Oh! my dear children," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy, "I shall beso delighted to welcome you all to Shortlands, only I think you mighthave replied to my letter."

  Mrs. Ellsworthy was by this time seated in a low arm-chair by thewindow, and Jasmine was standing before her, while Daisy sat demurelyon the floor, and folded up the anti-macassars.

  "We might have answered your letter?" repeated Jasmine. "Well now, doyou know, to be quite frank and open, your letter was a little bit ofa lecture. You did give it to darling old Primrose, and somehow orother you made Daisy cry. You spoke about a plan, and you said it wasa delightful plan, but--but before we read that part of your letterPrimrose thought of another plan of her own, and _it_ was soexquisite, so perfect, that we tore up your plan for fear we should betempted by it. We don't know your plan, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and we don'twant it, for we have made our own, and ours is--yes, ours is lovely!"

  Mrs. Ellsworthy had an expressive face, and while Jasmine was talkingit changed and grew anxious; her husband's words, "She is not ourJasmine yet," returned to her. Like many rich and pretty women, shewas unaccustomed to opposition, and when it came it but whetted herdesire, and made her also feel irritable.

  "It is rude to tear up the letters of kind friends," she said. "I madea 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 amnot angry. Daisy, come and give me a kiss; Jasmine, hold my hand. Nowshall I tell you the little plan which you would not read about lastnight?"

  "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. Ofcourse I will hold your hand--I love you, and so does Daisy, and sodoes--"

  "No, so does _not_ Primrose," answered Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose isthe opposing element--still I trust I may conquer her. Now, mychildren, may I tell the plan?"

  "Oh yes, do tell us," they both answered; but Jasmine added, "It willnot 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. Hehas scientific tastes, and writing in this way gives interest to hislife; but his eyes are not very strong, and he has for some time beenwishing for some nice girl to whom he can dictate his thoughts. Itseems to him, and to me too, that Primrose is just the sort of girl hewants, and if she will come and live with us at Shortlands, he willpay 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 canfind a school where, for your father's sake, your education may befinished."

  "You mean a school for the orphan daughters of army men," saidJasmine, "I know. Well, thank you very much, but I'm afraid your planwon't answer. Neither Daisy nor I would at all like to go to a schoolfor orphans. We don't fancy the idea of school, and dear mamma oncesaid 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 alwaysremain with you on a visit, for we are no relations of yours--younever heard of us at all until a few days ago, although we have livedhere most of our lives. Of course you don't mean to keep us always ona visit, so it would be very silly to begin a thing which could not goon. Then about Primrose--may I be quite honest with you aboutPrimrose?"

  "Oh yes, my dear."

  "Well now, she doesn't write well--not really--her hand moves soslowly, and I have seen some spelling mistakes now and then in herletters--I fly over the page myself, but then I only can read my ownwriting. I am greatly afraid that poor Mr. Ellsworthy would findPrimrose a bad secretary. No, no, no; ours is a much, much betterplan. You see, Mrs. Ellsworthy, you must not be angry with us--we loveyou very much--we are greatly obliged to you, but we have quite madeup our minds--we will not be separated. Ah! here comes Primrose.Primrose, darling, here is Mrs. Ellsworthy--she is just going tolisten to our plan--she has told us hers, and I have been explainingto her that it will not answer, for Daisy and I are determined not togo to school, and you know, Primrose, you are really stupid with yourpen."

  "How do you do, Mrs. Ellsworthy?" said Primrose--she came in lookingfagged and tired, and with a worried expression between her eyebrows."Mrs. Ellsworthy," she said, "I am most grateful to you for being sokind to us. I know you won't approve at all of our plan--you willagree with Mr. Danesfield, who said he thought we had taken leave ofour senses, but I think we have made up our minds, and as we have noguardian, there is no one to prevent us doing as we please."

  "Oh, Primrose, how sad you look!" said Jasmine. "Has Mr. Danesfieldbeen disagreeable to you? Well, I know our darling Mrs. Ellsworthywon't. Tell her our plan quickly. Primrose
, she says you don't loveher--tell her you do love her. Oh, she is sweet and dear andkind--tell her our plan--she won't throw cold water on what we wish todo--she won't think it wrong that we three girls should wish to keeptogether."

  "Our plan is this," said Primrose, "I have asked Mr. Danesfield togive us what money he has of ours, and then we three are going to sellour furniture here, and to give up the cottage, and say good-bye todear Hannah, and we are going to London. In London we shall learn. Iam going to have lessons in painting, and Jasmine shall study Englishcomposition, 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 nowin the bank, and when it is spent we shall be able to supportourselves. After all, it is a very simple plan, and the best thingabout it is that it will keep us together."

  When Primrose began to talk Mrs. Ellsworthy threw down her hands inher lap with a gesture of great impatience. Now she asked in a shortdry voice, "May I ask what money you have in the bank?"

  "Yes, certainly--we have two hundred pounds--a little of that must bespent in paying one or two small accounts, but then we shall have themoney as well from the sale of our furniture. Yes, I think we shallhave quite two hundred pounds to take to London."

  "And we are going to be very economical," interposed Jasmine. "We aregoing at first for a couple of nights to a boarding-house for ladiesonly. It is called Penelope Mansion, and is in a street off theEdgware Road--we have a friend, she is only a village girl, but wecall her our friend--her name is Poppy Jenkins, who has just gone toPenelope Mansion to help her aunt, who is the owner of theboarding-house. While we are there we will see the sights, for ofcourse that must be part of our education. We will go to WestminsterAbbey to be solemnized, and we will go to the Tower to perfect ourknowledge of the tragical part of English history, and we must takeDaisy to the Zoo, for she has always longed to see a lot of monkeysall together. I don't think we'll have any time for looking in at theshop windows, for we shall be very busy, and very, very earnest, butthese places we must see. I daresay Poppy and her aunt, and some ofthe nice ladies in the boarding-house, will go with us. When Poppy hasdusted up and put things straight in the morning, of course she'llhave lots and lots of time. Oh, it does seem such an easy, sensibleplan."

  "My poor, poor children!" exclaimed Mrs. Ellsworthy, "my poor,deluded, silly, obstinate children!" and then the good little womanburst into tears.